Alexandria — WHISTLE-BLOWING
Current news about a whistle-blower reminds me of my brief appearance in that role many years ago (BC — Before Computers) when I surprised myself, a Booz Allen consultant, and a Dun & Bradstreet vice-president.
Internecine warfare was apparently raging; one department was trying to install a job evaluation program, while another department was trying to sabotage it.
REPORTS DIFFER
It all ended up in the typewriter of a 19-year-old commuter from New Jersey, who observed that she was producing two sets of job evaluation descriptions which contradicted each other.
Charts with Booz Allen showed that all the filing clerks and the reporters needed much larger salaries if the company wanted to stem its alarming annual loss of personnel.
Charts with the personnel director (my boss) showed that Dun & Bradstreet was doing everything just right.
So I showed the charts to the Booz Allen man. Next thing I knew I was in the vice-president's office, and my boss was making dire predictions about my future career. Oddly enough, I was not fired--the vice-president outweighed the personnel director, I guess. But I was transferred to the treasurer's department in about thirty minutes.
NEW ARRIVAL
The big news on Park Road is the arrival of little Serianne Russell, weighing 7 and a half pounds. Grandparents from Vermont are rallying around.