Xmas Party Time

I was actually officially employed by Grand Met in the UK, where my boss Peter W was based. However on a daily basis and to all intents and purposes, my boss was the Finance Director of Wienerwald GmbH, David D. David had kindly given me the OK to hold a Christmas bash for the team and their partners at a hotel about 60km southwest of Munich, in Schliersee. Back then it was part of the Arabella Group, I see now it is named The Karma, Bavaria!

While we held a business meeting during the afternoon, the partners spent their time in the pool and sauna. I see in my meeting notes the following line "If your not part of the solution, you are part of the problem". I wonder if that was one of David's or whether I had stolen it from one of the many management courses or business guru motivational talks which were commonplace in the company at that time.

In the evening then the dinner. Must have been good as I don't remember much but vaguely have a memory of people slowly disappearing to bed and David still being the "perfect" host and staying till the bitter end. In the Blip, David, his wife and myself - no this photo was taken earlier.

David was to officially become my boss on 2nd October 1990. 15 days later he sacked me! Well he came down to my office at 8:30 with the words "Well how are things going?" and then fairly quickly, "Grand Met are selling the business and that means the job is no longer required. We can look to see if Grand Met has something back in the UK or you can opt for redundancy". I took the second option but was for quite a few weeks very upset by the whole thing, it was the first time in my business life that I had been made redundant/sacked. David did his best to calm me and he was I am sure very involved in getting the best deal for me. One forgets such things in the heat of the moment, but naturally there were many people within the Group, particularly in the UK going through similar experiences. 

David had nothing to do with the decision and we have to this very day stayed in contact. He even "employed" me for a day about 15 years later when he was the CFO of a rather large Austrian oil business. His job in Germany also disappeared and he was moved to the groups Burger King operation in Miami and then had a stint at Walt Disney Corp in Europe. We even managed to meet up a couple of times in Munich for a beer. He gave me some of his furniture when he moved from Munich and I have it to this day - my children sleep in his children's beds when they come to stay. He has always had a standing offer to come and stay with him if I happen to be in the city he is living in..

Shame the business relationship was so short. I first met him at the Hilton in Munich on 7th  February 1989 to discuss the German job and I finished work at Christmas 1990. I was even invited to his leaving do at Wienerwald on 7th June 1991 (boy do I have loads of irrelevant information,)

  A very direct but diplomatic boss. He always made one feel important, gave 100% support in public and when he thought there may be other "considerations", he would gently term it as a suggestion. If you made a total fool of yourself, he would tell you, but always with a smile and in private. He took work seriously but always with a good dose of humour. He took off-work matters seriously too and then the humour took the upper hand. A Liverpudlian, he knew how to have a good time.

I enjoyed working for him. He has just retired and seems to be jetting around the world at the moment with his charming wife. I hope for the first time he will be too busy enjoying himself, to send a Christmas card. His was always, year after year, the very first one to arrive.

David, if you read this, wish you both and the growing family, a great Christmas and a fun New Year. And just maybe we may get together for a beer at the Hofbräuhaus!