In The Hot Seat

Although I finished the temp assignment three weeks back, I’ve still been working for the company the first two days of the week to help them out. On Tuesday, the head of the department took me aside and said that he had arranged an interview with his direct superior at the end of the week.

Having already made it clear that he wanted me working for them, he was close to securing the funds to take me on full time. All very well for him, but I was getting the feeling that I was being forced into it.

When it comes to fait accomplis, I tend to resist. I like helping people out, certainly, but rankle at being manipulated. It was the thing the animation producer was great at and I would kick myself for falling for it every time.

After conducting an interview with the Actress yesterday, today I found myself on the receiving end. Unfortunately, instead of Central London, it was in one of their other offices in Hounslow. Oh, joy.

A blisteringly hot day - which certainly made a change from the previous days of the week - without air conditioning, the office there was blisteringly hot as well. It was only sitting down in the meeting room that I figured out why they couldn’t open the windows and let a little air in.

Five floors up, facing a large window across the room, I could see the lowered undercarriages and the bottom of the fuselages of airliners on their final approach for Heathrow. Closed windows and solid double-glazing that reduced the roar of their engines to a prolonged yawn was obviously better to work to rather than a constant throaty howl.

I had been assured that to get the job all I had to do was turn up. Luckily that wasn’t the case, but knowing that I was in a position where they wanted me much more than I wanted them, it allowed me to speak frankly to the area head manager.

In turn he explained that there were in fact other people to see for the role, which meant that he wasn’t one to simply put all his eggs in one basket. The manager’s admittance that he always takes his time reaching a decision when it comes to recruitment at least affords me some wiggle room.

On the way back home I treated myself to this.


If you haven’t seen it, I can heartily recommend it. Whit Stillman needs to make more films.