A different perspective - Sue

You have an experience of seeing your life from an outside perspective, and as a result you see something familiar in a completely new light.

It was warm and snugly under the duvet just like being cocooned in a bed of feathers. Freddy floated around the sea of sleep bobbing up and down over the dream waves. The alarm screeched and the clock rattled around on the timber bed side table but Freddy’s arm was on automatic pilot and soon it was quiet again. It was much more inspiring to stay asleep, to doze and dream.

Mr Frederick Smythe was managing director of a large pharmaceutical company. He had 12 people reporting directly to him and another 1000 people cascaded down from the chain of command. He ran the place like a sergeant in the army, outwardly a man in control and in command but inwardly he was a bundle of nerves and uncertainties. He said he loved his autocratic management style, the way everyone pretty much leapt to attention when he came into the room, how everyone transcribed his every word as he issued directives and commands, how every project came in on time. But and there was a very large BUT in his world. He took regular visits to the doctors for various forms of stress, and he’d even had several panic attacks last year. He never smiled, he never saw any of his staff smile. Fun was a rude word and laughter non-existent. However much he knew he was the cause of all this inward pain he kept justifying it. He loved his opulent lifestyle, his mansion in the country and his penthouse in the city. He loved that he could call up a restaurant and just mention his name and the waiter would stand to attention, move the person sitting at His table and accommodate his booking, no his demand.

The waves subsided and the cool turquoise water was like a mirror, a sea of glass. Freddy aimlessly drifted in and out of the little beaches and bays. His dream continued with barely a change of pace. He was down in the Secretarial Pool where a team of six women typed up all the Company’s reports. The head girl, Gail was sitting casually at her desk and Freddy was sitting next to her, helping her with a particularly difficult and technical report. He was contributing, translating, smiling and laughing. Even his hair looked different, it seemed longer and amazingly enough just a little unruly. He definitely looked relaxed and as he turned his head this way and that, Freddy even thought he looked younger. The dream drifted on, as if in slow motion. Freddy stood and talked to the girls

“Hi I’m Frederick, but please call me Freddy in future. I’m trying a new style of management, one which includes you, includes your opinions, your ideas. I want us to work together, to be a team. I must say first though, that I feel a bit frightened of you all. I have no idea what this is going to be like. I barely know what to say next”

“How about a cocktail party? A getting to know you?” said Sue sitting in the front row.

“Or we could have a BBQ at the weekend. Maybe we could all come to that fantastic penthouse we’ve heard about” said another. Ideas for the start of a co-operative working environment spun around the room. Freddy kept smiling and his eyes danced with the excitement of a party for all.

Freddy rolled over and woke up to the sun streaming through the open curtains. He leapt out of bed feeling refreshed and alert, showered and dressed in record time and was out of the door in a flurry. He had on his pink business shirt, which had never been opened, and floral tie, which he’d kept for a fancy dress party he’d never had the guts to attend. He almost ran the 5 blocks to the office.

“Gail? Oh, hello. This is Frederick, the managing director. May I come down to your office for a meeting”

“Of of of course, Mr Smythe. We will all be ready and waiting”. And Gail’s work life changed for ever.