F Is for Fiona

It's great stuff, this Euro-legislation. And when the lawyers start to get out of implementing it in the UK they nearly always lose.

The third visitor from on high had been a woman. An attractive woman. I know she saw me looking at her but I'm damn sure she didn't realise why.

"Mr Fletcher. Or can I call you Fred?"

"Sure, Ms Harrison, for the moment, anyway," I grinned.

She appreciated the humour in the situation and smiled slightly.

"Thanks, and I'm Emma. Now, Fred, I need to be sure about this. And you need to be totally sure. The company can support you, and indeed will do so, just as Safe-Save supported Ms Tucker in her situation. But I'm sure you appreciate, we have responsibilities, to our other employees, the directors and shareholders, the customers too, all twelve million of them. If there were to be any adverse publicity, our client base could suffer, the share price...."

"Er - excuse me. Emma, look, you've been very understanding and I do appreciate fully your comments. But you manage the publicity stuff and so on at Head Office. We do very little of that sort of thing here at the local level, even with a big store like mine. Now, what I'm going to be doing, and I do assure you I am determined about this, from Wednesday week, is totally legal in every respect. I certainly don't want bad publicity, you must realise that. I just want to get on with my own job, and to do it as well as I have up to now. I'd appreciate your help, not just yours personally, Emma, but Head Office too. I don't want any publicity at all, in fact though I realise it is inevitable, as it was with Jenny. Ms Tucker, that is."

After which Emma was much more agreeable. I really had done all the checking. There was at that stage absolutely nothing the company could do to prevent me, I was well within my rights. For the rest of the meeting, another hour or so after that, she was much more supportive.

"So, apart from your doctor, have you told anyone else? Any of your colleagues maybe?"