PART II: Lo and Behold, Ted got back on track right away. As far as I could tell, his private life was no longer interfering with his work. Yay! What a relief. I would have been very reluctant to terminate Ted’s employment on the basis of the hours he kept. I am a night owl myself, and not a natural early riser.
As I mentioned in an earlier installment, members of my group rarely traveled with another employee. We’d finish an installation and move on to another. With e-mail not yet being an option, further contact with customers was limited to the phone and, later, an occasional fax. We’d jump between airlines, depending on the destination, making it difficult to accumulate redeemable frequent flyer miles.
This contrasted with the consultants who followed us, who would return to a site again and again. They were able to build relationships with customers while collecting frequent flyer miles they were allowed to keep, rather than turning over to the company.
Ted went on a site visit to do software installation in Canada. I made many trips to Canada myself, and two years ago I wrote about one of them. (A passport wasn’t yet needed to cross the Canadian border.)
On one of my business trips to England, a group of consultants I was supposed to meet at the Logan international terminal turned out to be one woman. She was a gorgeous, very smart and capable professional, with an engaging personality. Although I assure you nothing happened, I have rarely enjoyed the casual company of a woman as much as I did with her that week.
When Ted left for Canada, I didn’t know that he was traveling with a woman who was a consultant in another group. Based on my week in England, along with that alleged pass a woman made at another woman, I might have been understanding (retroactively) if Ted’s resulting trouble was what you’re thinking. I promise you it came from an entirely different direction.