Menoonable; Reminiscence

Over on MY TAKE bloggy this month, I took up the challenge that Sandra the Mad Snapper set - well, not her actual challenge, but an adapted one of my own - about photographing ordinary objects. My POOproject. Earlier this week, the image below appeared...

A few commenters remarked that they had looked up the company (now absorbed into a larger organisation, as often happens). One guessed that it was a past employer of mine.

I had mentioned B&K when narrating my earlier history in the guise of an analyst programmer. This photo of two lasting mementoes triggers this post telling you more about that. It was a heady time - that is to say, it was the only time I was ever 'head hunted' by an agency. They had been approached by B&K to fill the post of head of their IT department, who had skills in hexadecimal language for Nixdorf machines. It was a dying art even by the early 1990s. I was one of only two folk in Sydney to meet the criteria. The other was the one who had vacated that offered position. I had recently severed my contract with Siemens Nixdorf due to the glass ceiling effect, not to mention misogynistic and paternalistic behaviours in the almost entirely male staff towards the four women in the office. If I didn't take up the post, B&K would be forced into a total system upgrade at significant expense.

It was the time I had started my medical studies, so could not commit full-time. I also did not have my own transport, and B&K's office was in a part of the city which would have entailed more than two hours each way on public transport. No worries, mate. The company laid on taxi vouchers for all journeys for the six months I was with them. They paid the salary I asked them for without quibble. When I discovered that there needed to be some undoing of previous work to get the system doing what was wanted of it, there was no doubting or questioning, just "what can we do to help you in the fix?" The Norwegian CEO was one of the best examples of positive management I ever experienced. 

In case you haven't already searched it, Bruel and Kjaer was a specialist engineering firm focused on precision measuring instruments, seismology, medical... You need precise assessments; these are the goods for you! The Sydney (and only Australian) office was focused on the sales and service of said instruments. 

The computer system not only had to work on logistics (my speciality) and general administrative tasks but also keep live tracking of deployed instruments to ensure optimum service standards. This involved some learning of the engineering side, which I relished. 

When the system was running to standard, I wrote the manual and trained a junior for its maintenance. (I was 'on call' for two years following in case of any major failure - I was called up only once in that time.) My contract with B&K was drawing to a close just before the end of November 1992 - but they insisted that I attend their Christmas party that year. All 25 staff were there, and it was held at one of Sydney's most prestigious waterside restaurants. Again taxi was provided, and the company gifted all the employees with goodies baskets to take home.

There were fancy cheeses, crackers, chocolates, individual Christmas cakes, a single-size Bolinger bottle each... then personal items for everyone, which for me was the brass coaster and mini Swiss penknife on a keyring.

There are not many things about which I can get sentimental, but even as I recall this time for you here, I well up a little. You see, I had spent three years in a state of stress; first, I had emigrated on a working visa, but it took till mid-1992 to get the final acceptance and obtain citizenship (i.e. I can sympathise with refugees, for at any time, I could have been deported); second, I had been through no less than four jobs prior to B&K, all on short-term contracts due to that visa uncertainty, and all of them had been challenging due to highly unpleasant management experiences. To have thought I had left the computing life behind me as I transitioned to health instead, this final contract was surely a gift to ensure I had a positive thing to look back upon for that chapter. A company that truly valued and trusted its employees to do the work they were engaged for, that actively sought to assist and keep those employees upskilling and focused on their task, and in which even disagreements were dealt with at adult levels with no rancour and proper resolutions found.

The coaster is in constant use, and the wee knife has proven its worth on many occasions. I treasure them as the triggers to the memories of six incredible months.