Goodmans Hotel

'No, I've heard nothing. You may not have thought so this morning, but setting up the new software has kept me extremely busy. Outside the information technology unit I've not talked to anyone much for the past few months.'

'You should always make time for gossip. Let me bring you up to date. After the merger the support staff were reorganised very quickly, but the accountants themselves carried on much as before, keeping the same clients they had been dealing with over the years. The plan in that report of yours, remember, was that they should reallocate their work according to a new classification of business sectors, and a few months ago they all went off to a hotel in the country to battle over who should take over what.'

'I remember churning out masses of statistics for them. All that's been worked out now, hasn't it, the reorganisation is under way?'

'Yes, but Peter has a problem. There was a scramble for the sectors with the most prestigious clients. Peter's success in steering through the merger must have gone to his head. Rather than join the fray he set out to take over the firm's seat on the Institute of Accountants' General Committee. For as long as anyone can remember that privilege has been shared by the three most senior partners, each taking a year in turn. Why he thought they could be induced to make him the Committee member I can't imagine. He couldn't have picked on anything more likely to make him unpopular. You could probably steal the clothes off the old codgers' backs more easily than deprive them of their stuffy meetings at the Institute. You'd stand a better chance of persuading them to give up their pensions.'

'Peter must be aware of that, surely.'

'You would think so, but somehow he has convinced himself that he is so valuable to the firm they ought to give him whatever he wants. Caroline thinks he's been led on to some extent by people who are out to get him. As well as infuriating the three current partners who take turns on the Committee, all those who were waiting in the queue for the current triumvirate to retire are also upset. Some accused Peter to his face of trying to ruin their chances.'

'So what is going to happen at this afternoon's meeting?'

'While he has been wasting all his energy demanding the impossible, all the main industry sectors have been allocated to other partners. There are two jobs left. One is dealing with an assortment of small clients; the other is to go on loan to the firm we have links with in New York for one to two years. Guess who everyone thinks would benefit from a couple of years' experience in the States?'