Progress sorting Xitan issues with Geoff Lynch and then frustration with the casual commitment of Comart Directors as the company’s losses in one month offset a year’s progress and inventory soars by £100K

On time to the office and to finish clearing the payroll information. Geoff  Lynch arrives early to go through a host of reviews and personnel discussions and a large rise agreed for Jane Dards, Xitan’s number two but policies held intact on yearly reviews for the probationary employees who have now become permanent employees. The mail to clear, and then to obtain a brief on Granite Chips Ltd of Aberdeen.

Still no guarantee secured on the account from MOM Offshore due to Derek W.’s oversight. David F. naively expecting me to agree the wording of a guarantee by us of their obligations. I intervene as usual and sort out a reasonable outcome and despair yet again that my instructions are being ignored. A quick sandwich lunch and then afterwards to return phone calls and prepare the agenda for next week’s review meetings. By 4pm, the majority of the company’s board reports to hand, and the difficult process of copying and collating the information for distribution in sets to the Directors. The accounts show a horrific month with the company’s losses offsetting the entire year’s profit gains in one month. Additionally stocks are up by nearly £100K by bad inventory forecasting and planning. Upset today to hear that John is not coming to the company’s Christmas Dinner Dance and also Derek W. was planning to be away on Monday when badly needed at the office. I am increasingly of the mind that if I am to turn round the company’s fortunes I have to dispel the casual attitude in these things. In the alternative, I shall try as least hard and set the company on an easier course. News tonight of the businessman, Don Tidy, being rescued by a combined police/army operation in The Republic of Ireland. A soldier and young policeman were shot dead as three terrorists, one wounded, were detained. Also of a government defeat as they unsuccessfully opposed a private members bill by a Labour MP in the Commons to remove the Solicitor’s monopoly on house conveyancing.