Wednesday 1st April

Life has changed in the 47 years I have been working.  Time was when a secretary (remember them) would type out a memo and deliver it.  Into the in-tray it would go.  You might give it a cursory glance – if it was important it might be looked at that day, but more often than not you could ignore it for a few days.  Nobody expected instantaneous answers and wouldn’t have got them anyway.  Everyone had patience; for years I was involved in calculating the weekly costs in a chain of Restaurants.  Nobody expected this information until the Friday following the week-end.  Now with e-mail I have to produce a “flash” profit and loss on a Monday.  All through the wonder of e-mail.

Also for some ridiculous reason I am the only person who seems capable of transferring money or paying suppliers for my current set of Restaurants.  Payroll waits for no man, and the staff have to be paid, and of course I agree.  So, even though this is officially my holiday (hahaha) I have to send the money (by wonderful e-mail) from France to the payroll company.  It has to be done on a certain day, and I cannot send it until I know the amount.  So I have to keep checking my e-mails to see if there is a figure ready yet.  This is not only frustrating but time-consuming and stressful.  I should be sitting in the garden with a glass of chilled rose (mind you it is raining here, but you get my drift), instead I keep looking at my watch and my phone to see if I can send the blessed thing.

By the way the French Government are currently passing a law forbidding any company from even asking for an employee’s phone or e-mail address.  Which is exactly as it should be.