There are tasks which few IT directors like to do: sitting on the IT helpdesks (that resulted in a riot last time), making speeches at a partners’ conference (to an empty room next to a packed bar) or meeting prospective software suppliers (who avoid any references to pricing or technical
implementation and usually only rubbish the competition).
At the top of that list, however, is ‘restructuring’ or making people redundant. We’ve had to do it three times now in two years. It’s been a long week; everyone seems to have been unusually pleasant with me and I’m now driving to the train station on a Friday morning, looking forward to the last day before the weekend. They did seem rather too pleasant to me, though. So many people seemed to shake my hand and wish me goodnight yesterday. The flowers were a good touch too.
