In 1986, my experience of the working world was that, providing one had a positive, flexible approach, then one could walk straight out of one job and into another, and so it proved when I waved goodbye to my dictatorial, dinosaur boss and moved on to pastures new.
Within 10 days of leaving the crusty old tyrant I secured a role as Warehouse Assistant for a telecommunications company in Cheetham Hill. This period of employment was to prove life changing for me. This company were a slightly bigger version of CBE Ltd (my first employer) so my previous experience with them helped me settle into this role fairly quickly. I got on exceptionally well with most of my new colleagues and became good friends with some of them.
For the first year or so my job was mainly to pick and pack orders for despatch, book all goods in and generally maintain the smooth running of the warehouse. By 1988 the number of employees had doubled and as a result my role became more diverse. Eventually I was upgraded from warehouse work and together with an easy going, good-humoured girl called Julie, now dealt with all after sales work. This involved dealing with returned goods, testing, replacing and, if possible, repairing them, dealing with customer complaints and so on.
At this time most work was hand written, however, we did have one computer to share in the warehouse/service section which, in hindsight, now seems comical. Only Julie really knew how to use it. In those days it was considered really uncool to know anything about computers and, for a mullet-headed rocker like me, even professing an interest was a good way to lose all credibility. Julie and I worked really well together and became good friends. There was a lot of socialising outside work with many of my colleagues at this time as most of us were in our 20s and liked a drink and a good time. his social scene also included Brendan Casey, Steve Speed., Lee Fortune, Jayne Essex, Jimmy Drummond, Annette (Netty) Sandiford and many others. Happy days.
Around February 1988 an office junior was taken on called Lisa. She was 16. I didn't have much contact with her as she worked in a different part of the building but I did used to see her when she was brewing up in an adjacent kitchen to the service section. I normally heard her before seeing her as she was very vocal and could be very cheeky. I was a bit lippy myself so when she was mouthing off about something or other I used to make fun of her which she didn't appreciate. On one occasion this resulted in her slapping me full across the face. This wasn't witnessed by anyone else so I let it go and put it down to a "personality clash" and decided to keep out of her way. I was 20 years old now and wasn't prepared to be "dissed" by a 16 year old !
A few months after the slapping incident Julie said to me one day "I've think you've got an admirer". At first she wouldn't tell me who it was or how she knew. This carried on for a few days and was making me feel very uncomfortable. I started to believe half the female workforce fancied me! Eventually, Julie confessed that Lisa had approached her to ask questions about me including asking if I was single (which I was) and she said it was obvious Lisa had her eye on me. I laughed at this outrageous turn of events as I thought Lisa hated me !
My approach to Lisa now softened and we started talking again. Nothing else of note occurred until Monday 20th June 1988 when I played in a works 5-a-side football match against one of our main telecommunications competitors. Many of our colleagues came to support us including Lisa. I had a decent game and was top scorer helping us to win the match. Afterwards, Lisa pestered me for a lift home and the rest is history. We went straight from not even being friendly to each other to girlfriend and boyfriend. I was wary about this though as I had always said I wouldn't date someone from work and I could foresee problems.
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