Way back last autumn, September I think, I was involved in writing a rather large and complicated bid at work. It was very challenging – on the edge of my technical field, with lots of political considerations, a complicated marking scheme, and tight deadlines for completion. Anyway, well before Christmas we first heard that we were the preferred bidder, and then got on contract. This week the Big Boss took the bid team out for dinner as a thank you. There were about a dozen of us, and we went to the Ask restaurant in the centre of Malvern. It’s just a pizza-and-pasta joint, part of a chain, but good of its kind. The food is reliable, and sometimes rather good.
I am working pretty hard at the moment, as it’s end-of-year-itis and I’ve so much project work ongoing, as well as writing yet another bid, that I’m doing a fair amount of overtime each week. In fact one of the projects that’s causing me the most stress at the moment is a task under this new contract. I didn’t really want to go out in the evening, as I was pretty tired and had a headache coming on. But I forced myself to go, and actually enjoyed myself much more than I was expecting to.
We all had to pre-order our meal a week in advance, as there were so many of us. That was quite difficult – trying to think ahead to what one might feel in the mood for eating the following week. I’m not normally that organised! In the end I ordered a tomato, rocket and mozzarella salad to start with, followed by a pizza fiorentina. I thought that would be enough, so I didn’t pre-order a pudding, and indeed I didn’t manage to finish the whole pizza. The waitress offered me a doggy bag to take the uneaten half home, so that was helpful. Everyone else though had ordered a pudding, so I succumbed to temptation and had a slice of almond and plum tart, which was actually the best part of the meal. And it wasn’t even mine! It had been preordered by one of our senior project managers, who had had to drop out of the dinner at the last moment, so I ate her pudding. It would have been a shame to waste it! In fact, my boss even took a photo of it (and my clean plate afterwards!) on his mobile to send to her and show her what she was missing! Funny how, even when I think I’m full, I manage to find room for dessert…….
All in all I thought it was very good of the Big Boss to invite us all out for dinner. He must eat out a great deal on business, and yet he gave up an evening to say thank you to us, and made sure that the whole team, from the technical specialists to the assistant project managers, were invited. We had to work hard together as a team to deliver the bid, and it was nice to be thanked as a team. It won’t have been a particularly expensive gesture for him, but we all appreciated it.
