Weird | Workplace | Project Management | Mistakes
Weird Workplace Stories 17: The Project That Nearly Broke Me
This is part of a series about my old workplace. I spent 20 years there, after leaving college in the 80s.
Over the years, I noticed my boss often trusted new people more than existing staff. And I was about to experience a prime example of that.
It was the summer of 1997, and I’d been employed by John for 11 years.
With about eight people working in an outbuilding at the back of his house, it did not look particularly impressive to visitors. But somehow, we got an order from a large foreign company.
They wanted us to adapt one of our existing printers to their specification, so they could sell it under their own name.
The reality was that we’d have to design a completely new printer — but John couldn’t mention that if he wanted to get the order.
OU Degree
Even before the project started, it had been a stressful year for me. I was working full-time and using my evenings and weekends to do a degree with the Open University.
