A Career in Construction - Part 16

It was worse than I remembered. I knew that at the end of 1980 Brian Gregory was promoted above me to Divisional Quantity Surveyor, but I had not remembered that my title of Regional Surveyor was abolished. I was effectively demoted back to Area QS with a reduced grading from A4 to B. Very unusually, I kept a note of this upheaval in my records. What now seems a pretty garbled and angry note to myself, at least I had it there in black and white.

"Although Mr (Brian) Warren's memo says "no alteration" (to roles and responsibilities?), there will be no doubt that others will not understand. I cannot allow this to stand on my record which (involves) (a) title and (b) grading from A4 to B. Therefore I ask that my special case be taken into consideration and another title be established. My grade is now equal to that of Project Surveyors who are directly responsible to me. Ask for an interview to discuss".

In hindsight, I believe that all Divisions were appointing Divisional Quantity Surveyors and obviously our Divisional Manager, Brian Warren, would promote his friend to the new role. It was just that my position (as joint Regional Surveyor) was so unusual. Perhaps Brian Warren would have also been happy to see me go. But Tony Whale and Mike Stafford were very supportive and my notes are then back to normal and things went on just as they were. I cannot remember Brian Gregory taking any interest in my contracts.

The Office Block at White City Industrial Park took off in early 1981 and I also became involved with a new contract at Alexandra Palace. Actually a prefabricated structure called Alexandra Pavilion.

It was not long until we were in for yet another shock. Brian Warren resigned and was gone almost immediately. I'm not sure if he was struggling to head up operations or whether he found a better job. Tony Whale was promoted to Divisional Manager, so here was boss number five. Brian Gregory remained as Divisional QS but Tony had a way of putting pressure on people and by the end of June, Brian had resigned. This seemed to co-incide with an invitation to dinner at Tony's house in Beaconsfield. Also there was Mike Ellis and it seemed that there was a promising future for this gang of three.

So someone had to take over Brian's position, and that just happened to be me. This meant I jumped a couple of grades when I became the Divisional QS. I also inherited all of Brian's own contracts. I well remember visiting the refurbishment of some offices on Baker Street that were nearing completion, and the disaster that was the apartments complex at Nine Elms. So although I was pleased with my new role, there were lots of problems to deal with. My first day in the job and I was doing staff appraisals all day, followed the next day by a meeting with the Chief QS, John Richards, who wanted to meet me and see a couple of contracts. During the same week, we signed the contract for what was to be the infamous Holiday Inn Hotel, Croydon. And the following week I was at head office for my first of many Divisional Surveyors Meetings. At 36 I was quite young, but well and truly established, in a role I had always wanted. Whether I could succeed in it, only time would tell.