Marketing Behind the Scenes #15

After I’d been substitute teaching for about eight months — all the while working in the word processing centre in the student union building at the university typing papers — the manager went on maternity leave. She had an assistant manager who was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Nice girl, but a follower. In addition, this typing place had two other full-time unionized employees, and a few part-timers like me.

Yes, really. A small office with an organizational chart. You see it all the time.  Lots of chiefs. Everyone’s in charge.

I applied to be the acting manager while Mrs. Disorganized was on maternity leave. I was perhaps not the likely choice, as I was a part-timer.

Still, I was quite convinced that the assistant manager wasn’t up to the job, and I managed to convince the general manager of the student union the same.

I was given the job. It was for 4 months.

You can imagine how happy the assistant manager was, and how thrilled she was to now be taking orders from me.

How old was I? Twenty-four. Distinctly unqualified at least on paper. I had a Bachelor of Arts in English, and a Bachelor of Education.

The office had been losing money for awhile, but since it was run by the student union, and considered to be a ’service’ for students, they let the money thing slide for a long time. But the year before I took over (1990-1991), they’d run a huge deficit of $35,000 in just one year.

Once I became the manager, I changed two key things…

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~ All best, Shelley