Biography of Malcolm Archbald SMITH
[Ref. S.1]
| Employment in retirement |  |
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Funny events |
On 7 September 1998, Malcolm answered an advertisement in the local Avon Advertiser newspaper for the position of Admin Assistant at a local business. That business transpired to be Pioneer Shopfitting which was located on the Ebblake Industrial Estate at the opposite end of the village where Malcolm lived. He was called in to be interviewed by tha owner of the business on 22 September and suceeded in being appointed as Contracrts Co-Ordinator based on his previous experience in the building industry. The owner apologised for not being able to pay more than the £15,000 p.a. but Malcolm was quite satisfied with that.
Malcolm started work on probation on 12 October and spent the first few days being taken around various location where work was in progress. Back in the office he looked through the job files to get an understanding of procedure. After a short while, Malcolm was made one of the two Contracts Managers and, as such, became responsible for half of the fitting teams. His work comprised checking that sites were ready and that the materials had been ordered and would be delivered on time. He would then follow up after the job was done to make sure everything was satisfactory and arrange any follow up as necessary.
As it happened, not many jobs did go that well. Most of the fitters were inexperienced men recruited from the labour exchange as required. The owner of the business was a bit erratic and instructions often were given late or not at all and he would blame the men for anything that did go wrong. Consequently, not many men stayed for more than a few days which meant that there was little consistency in the work done. Malcolm himself got blamed for a couple of things although he was usually left alone as he was much older than the owner and therefore seemed to be respected.
On one occasion, Malcolm and the secretary hgad been asked to bind some documents but were having difficulty in making the machine work. The boss was most impatient saying that his 12 year old daughter could do better. Malcolm pointed out that was unlikely as the machine was broken. Another time, a manufacturer ranb Malcolm to query a measurement on a sketched diagram that the boss had submitted for a replacement shopfront. Malcolm knew that the boss was likely just to shout that nobody knew what they were doing so he told the manufacturer to accept what was written. As it happened, the dimension on the drawing was wrong and the shopfront did not fit when it was put in place. The boss did shout at Malcolm asking why he did not check it but went quiet when Malcolm told him that he presumed that he (the boss) knew what he was doing. Malcolm observed all these chaotic things going on around him and wrote some of them down.
There was a memorable job on railway station for which the company was quoting. It was a small job to construct a newsstand on a railway station east of London. There had to be a meeting on site prior to submitting the quotation and it transpired that fifteen people had to attend, each representing different interested bodies. Subsequently, a risk assessment had to be submitted which was something that was way out of the scope of Pioneer Shopfitting so they employed a specialist to carry out the work for them. It took a week and a thick document was produced, however, the contract was not won. Malcolm was able to produce risk assessment documents for future contracts using the first one as a guide.
Malcolm used some of his spare time to educate his colleagues in use of the computers. He created a template letter bearing the company logo also demonstrated use of the internet. When the boss and his wife went on holiday, it fell to Malcolm to run the office. This mainly involved dealing with mail and issuing invoices for payment.
Malcolm only lasted about six months in the job. It was far too chaotic and he was very under utilised. One day he just walked into his boss' office and told him that he would be leaving, to which the boss said that he was not surprised.
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