sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

Manicure Meeting Update

So I'm dressed in my new media stylee suit get-up, and I'm outside their offices at 12:20 (ten minutes before the appointed time) when the MD calls me and says he's got a huge legal problem, was there till midnight last night, he knows it's unprofessional but he'll have to cancel. I say I'm outside his office. He says why don't I see his COO-type person, and I say cool. I am relaxed and concilliatory: underneath I am fuming at being pissed around.

I sit in reception for twenty minutes. It's messy, with piles of brochure-boxes in the corner, and a receptionist who keeps saying "what am I like?" to no-one in particular, and people running back and forth for "fag breaks". I overhear a woman discussing the competitive tender for a big print job with a colleague, mentioning printers names all over the place. After she's slagged one particular firm off, she turns to me, and says "you're not from Acme printing, are you?" I smile and say no, and then can't resist saying to her, "I should have said yes, shouldn't I?" "That would 'ave got me."

There's a sign over reception saying "Please be aware we do casual dress." It doesn't say anything about manicures. Despite the sign, most of the people I see are wearing cheap suit-type ensembles. Eventually the COO comes out; he's wearing jeans, a check short-sleeved shirt and what looks like his slippers. No apology on the wait, he ushers me into a huge meeting room, asks if he can get me a cup of water, and says "sorry about the clothes," he glances down, "usually I dress up for meetings, but I didn't know I was seeing you."

Now I think there's only one thing to do in such circumstances; brazen it out. Once you start apologising, it's all down hill. He only had fifteen minutes, as he was "squeezing me in" (and I am difficult to squeeze into most places), so we had a hi-speed data interchange. After I'd arranged the meeting on Wednesday, I'd realised I didn't know much about the company, so I called a few analysts, and eventually got one to talk to me, who gave me lots of information. More, as it turned out, than the COO. So he didn't know their huge burn-rate (so completely last century), or that the City is trying to sell of their shares fast. He did tell me how much he got his options at. Strangely.

Throughout the meeting, I couldn't help feeling, "thank the Lord I didn't take off my manicure for this." And at the end of the meeting he said; "that's the best twenty minute pitch I've ever seen" but I also think I might have scared him, too, so it's fifty-fifty whether I'd be called back. Jobs may be transient, but a manicure is forever.