The golden oldie of the set (with six months’ experience) will be departing shortly so my new guys are going to have to turn themselves into a mean, lean fighting machine. Sales have slipped to lows we haven’t seen for many a long year.

My son is therefore under pain of death to do a decent job. The last time he was doing this job was just prior to his departure for short-term travel. To say his heart wasn’t in it would be the understatement of the century. This time round, he has a very specific schedule: working on a one-to-one basis with each of the new team; going through their different markets and customers; and endeavouring to encapsulate six years of knowledge into a day per person. This will be their fourth week now – and I really need to see what they are made of.  

Meanwhile, my own hands are full with a combination of a new guy starting in customer services administration plus design meetings with some of the cabinet-makers to discuss the practicalities of my ideas for next year’s designs. Quiet week ahead, then!

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