The remainder of 1988 and into 1989 saw my work becoming less pleasurable. I felt I had become marginalized as there had been an influx of new employees which changed the dynamics. This resulted in Julie and I no longer working together and our once tight knit social circle had now evaporated.
During 1989 my relationship with Connie (I didn't refer to her as Lisa at this time as this is her middle name. Connie is her first name which I preferred) had become more serious and did start to negatively impact on us working in the same building. Indeed, we had one blazing row in front of several startled colleagues one fateful Friday afternoon. In July 1989 Connie left the company and I followed in October of the same year. I had found another job with yet another telecommunications company and gave just 2 days notice. I had never been given any kind of contract during my 3 years there and had only 1 pay increase since I started in 1986. I ended up leaving under something of a cloud as I felt badly treated after I had played a significant role in the development of the company. The first 2 years of my time there, however, were among the happiest of my working life and meeting my future wife there, of course, changed the direction of my life.
In October 1989 I started at a new place of employment in Hyde. Prior to leaving my previous company I was invited to an interview at this company. The interview was conducted by a panel of 3 women. They seemed very keen to call on my previous experience and wanted to place the successful candidate in a newly formed department consisting of almost entirely women. I was unconcerned by this and the interview proved successful so I was offered the job. I was very happy as the salary was significantly better than my previous employment and the company's financial turnover was larger.
After only a couple of days in this job, however, I was already feeling very uncomfortable. It was apparent they hadn't formulated a plan of exactly what they wanted me to do and the existing female employees in the department appeared very hostile to my presence. I did the best I could in the first few months in an atmosphere of back biting, malicious gossip and whispering. This was, of course, pre-mobile phone days and on one occasion Connie phoned the office and asked to be put through to me. It was an important call that couldn't wait. My colleague told her under no circumstances could I take any calls whilst at work so she wasn't put through. I wasn't even aware of this until I got home as she wasn't even allowed to leave a message. I was furious.
In December 1989 the manager, who had appointed me, was made redundant amid rumours that the company were in financial trouble. I was now left up the proverbial creek without a paddle with no one in authority prepared to make use of me and at the mercy of the "she-wolves" I now worked with. These colleagues had developed even more of a siege mentality since the boss was sacked and it was clear they didn't want me there as they gripped on to their own jobs. I stuck it out until February 1990 then decided to call a meeting with a manager from another department to explain my position and find out exactly where I stood. I was told they were indeed in deep financial strife so I felt I had no future there and decided to put myself out of 4 months of misery. This manager accepted my resignation without really making any effort to persuade me to stay but, of course, he hadn't hired me so owed me no loyalty. Sadly I have no happy memories at all of my time here and my experience of working in a predominantly female office in 1989 had been a truly miserable one. I later learned that within 12 months of my leaving this company they went into liquidation with the loss of most jobs there.
Within 10 days of departing Hyde I was back working in Cheetham Hill again. This time I had approached the main competitor of the company where I had met Connie and, after a successful interview, was offered a role working on the trade counter. This was a controversial move and left many of my erstwhile colleagues at my previous employer in Cheetham Hill thoroughly bemused. The maverick in me loved this and I looked forward to turning the tables on my previous employer. This would prove to be my longest consecutive period of employment with the same employer, which spanned over a decade, and would see me turn from a boy into a man.
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