The View Is Great From The Top

 THE VIEW IS GREAT FROM THE TOP

By Lee Friend

1st Draft – Incomplete

November 2005

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Matthew stepped out of the revolving door and into the

busy crowded street. Quickly moving aside, he lent

against a wall, keeping out of the way of busy

pedestrians rushing backwards and forwards like an

industrial chain. Gasping, he breathed in deeply and

exhaled, the polluted air of the city never felt so good.

Many times Matthew had walked outside of the office and

felt the air so suffocating like swallowing in thick tar,

but nothing could spoil this moment.

“That‟s it, I‟m not going back” thought Matthew. Matthew

turned his head and glanced back at the office. The

words Islington Investment Bank gleaming at him, he quick

retracted his eyes away. He delved his right hand inside

his jacket and into his pocket, pulling out a stick of

gum, he quickly unwrapped it, disregarding the wrapper

onto the street floor and put the gum into his mouth.

Chewing frantically the flavours of the mint surrounded

his mouth, the cool freshness felt good; a calming

sensation. A few feet away a couple of office staff were

puffing away, probably on their umpteen fag break. He

looked disgustingly at them. “How much more tar do they

have to shovel into their lungs!”

Matthew never smoked in his life. Early childhood

memories of his Uncle Bob, who smoked 80 fags a day, then

one day, had an asthma attack and died; that ordeal

frightened the hell out of him. Some incidents in life

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can embed permanently in your mind, and that was one of

them.

Suddenly Matthew noticed that his rucksack hanging on his

right shoulder was lighter that normal. Grabbing the

shoulder strap, he put down his rucksack on the floor and

unzipped the large front pocket. “Damn it” he cursed to

himself. “I‟ve left my Microsoft MCSE book back in the

office”. Thirty-five pounds that book had cost him, it

was his bible he used everyday in his work to help him

solve problems in his job. “Shall I go back and grab

it”, he thought. That idea quickly erased in his mind as

fast as it arrived.

“No chance. I‟m not going back inside that building ever

again”.

The hatred of working for the bank had grown strongly

inside Matthew over the past 5 months. A Trading Floor

Support Technician, Matthew was excited when he first

received a phone call from them asking him to attend an

interview. He had previously been working for a small

contracting company of twelve people based in Stepney

Green, a mile away from where he in London Dockland.

Reaching the age of thirty-three his twenty something

free style of life was becoming sour. His closest

friends had abandoned him, they were married, or had

long-term relationships.

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He begun to feel that a change was necessary in his life,

which he had to break out of his comfortable habits that

were weighing him down like a ball and chain wrapped

around his ankles.

Matthew had applied to many job advertisements in the

Daily newspapers most of which where out of his depth,

but he belief, that one day someone would be interested

in him, and his goals to succeed.

Sure enough, that opportunity he wanted finally came his

way. He was invited to attend an interview for Islington

Bank PLC. Now Islington Investment Bank was not exactly

a well-known worldwide investment back like the giants

Morgan Stanley, or HSBC, but it was gaining a name for

itself in the UK and Matthew saw that this was an

opportunity to break out of his currently role, and

change his life.

The first stage of the interview was the general chit

chat face to face meeting that most interview are. The

interviewees were a mix bunch; firstly, there was John

Forum, Senior technician. John came across as a pleasant

enough person, throwing most of the questions to Matthew.

Next, there was Tracey Bellingham, Assistant. Tracey was

the typical stereotyped blonde Assistant; Bubbly but

unfortunately dim; not knowing anything about the job

role other than what was in the specification that was

drawn up by John, Tracey would rather let John do most of

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the questioning. Lastly, there was Brian Yardley. Head

of IT and Finance. Now Brian looked the near spitting

image of Woody Allen crossed with the voice of John

Major. You can imagine. Matthew found it hard to not

burst into laughter every time Brian spoke, which luckily

wasn‟t often.

Well the questions came thick and fast; it was the

usually do they like you, do you like them affair. Where

are you from? What did you study? What is your

experience? Why do you feel you are suitable for this

role? Etc. Matthew answered each question confidently;

knowing that this job had to be his.

Sure enough a day later Matthew received a telephone call

from Tracey, asking him back for another interview.

Matthew was overjoyed! He felt his confidence could not

be broken.

The second interview was a technical test all related to

the Trading Floor Support Technicians job. All

technically based on the different operating systems and

servers that he would have to support and maintain,

Matthew left the second interview confident that he did

his best. A few hours later, Matthew received a phone

call from Tracey, offering him the job. “At last”,

thought Matthew, “I can leave this morbid job behind and

work for a bank”. I think though, if Matthew had a

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crystal ball, he might just would have thought again

before signing the contract.

The sound of thunder roared in the North London skies

above as rain begun to fall on Matthew and the pedestrian

walking backwards and forth.

“Typical bloody British weather”, thought Matthew.

This November had been a particularly milder month than

usual. The trees still had most of their leaves on the

branches, and the daytime temperature had rarely dropped

below 18 degree. Even the local „Mr Softy‟ ice cream van

had not yet packed up for the year; it was still driving

around the area, playing „Whistle while you work‟ on the

speakers, serving kids with their daily dose of ninety-

nine pence vanilla and flake cones. The summer of 2000

seemed to have lasted a whole year. This was also a

memorable summer at work.

The projects he was working on were not exactly going to

plan. John Forum, the technician who interview Matthew

the year before had already left the company. This had

left Matthew handling John‟s project as well as his own

which was causing Matthews own project to be put left

behind. What was worst was the fact that there was no

plan to replace John. Brian was also not being

understanding to the situation. Controlling the budgets

for the department, the majority of the money was being

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spent on the web team and there new Microsoft servers and

licences. The pressures were becoming unbearable for

Matthew.

Then one day Matthew mentioned to Brian about the work

pressures.

“Why do you think we pay you such a good wage”, said

Brian. Like it was coming out of his pocket thought

Matthew. “Brian, I‟m getting behind on my work due to

the extra work I‟ve been landed with since John left”.

Brian smirked at Matthew, if looks could kill I‟d be dead

by now though Matthew.

“Matthew, as a support technician I expect you to run on

one hundred percent pure adrenaline. We have a

reputation in our department in being the best, and I am

not going to give in to concessions just because you feel

you cannot handle it. I expect you to think on your toe,

complete all your tasks and finish those projects on

time, do I make myself clear”.

Matthew couldn‟t believe what he was hearing. Before

Matthew could reply, Brian spoke. “Okay time up, I‟ve

another meeting to attend to. I will see you on the

trading floor later on”. And with that Brian got up and

walked out. Matthew just sat there. He knew Brian could

be brutal. He treated John in a poor manner too. No

wonder why John left thought Matthew. This was going to

be the beginning of the end, with that Matthew got up and

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walked to the lift. About to press the up button to take

him to the 4th floor trading room, he hesitated. I think

I will grab a coffee at Pret A Manger, so moved his

finger to the down button. Over the next few months

Matthew would spend increasing more time outside taking

longer breaks. He would also experience a lot more run

ins with Brian before finally walking out and not turning

back. If Brian only walked out earlier, he might have

kept his sanity.

The rain was beginning to get heavier. Looking into his

rucksack, he realised that he did not bring his umbrella

with him to work today. “There is no point hanging

around here getting wet any longer than I have to”

thought Matthew. Matthew looked around, had one fleeting

glanced at Islington Investment bank. “So long” he

muttered under his breath, he turned around and begun

walking towards Old street underground station.

Matthew looked out of the damped Docklands train window

at Limehouse basement as the train headed east towards

the Isle of Dogs. The rain was still pouring down, but

Matthew was feeling better the further away he got from

Islington. Matthew had lived in the east of London most

his life in the popular area of Bethnal Green. The east

end part of London was his patch; this was the place that

he was comfortable in the most, the place where his

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family was from, and the place that he did not want to

leave. He even went the University of East London to

study Computing, even though he had opportunities at

other University at Leeds and Liverpool. He did have

ideas during his late teens to expand his horizons and

move to another part of the country, London was the place

for him. His family though had other ideas. By the time

Matthew was twenty-five the last of his family, his

parents, had moved out to the leafy suburbs of

Chelmsford. His Mother was a true cockney. Born nearby

Bow, her family all came from the Bethnal Green area.

She worked in the local Percy Ingles bakery at Roman road

all her life; those were the day where a job for life

meant a job for life. Everyday his mum use to bring home

a fresh loaf of poppy seed bread, plus the odd few iced

and jam doughnut for him and his father. His Father came

from Stamford Hill, North London. He worked on the route

master buses as a bus conductor. A talkative character

his father knew most of his customers who travelled on

the bus route eight into Central London. Now at the

grand old age of sixty-five Matthew‟s father had enough

of London. It was time to leaving the bustling life of

London and move out to somewhere quiet and peaceful.

“Quiet and peaceful”, thought Matthew as he stared at

Canary Wharf in the distance. That was what made Matthew

move to the Docklands. It was close to the city, but

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surrounded by the River Thames, it felt special to

Matthew, very unlike other parts of London; there was the

nice open space of Mudchute Park and it animal centre,

walkways stretched around the docklands, and Greenwich

Market situated around the corner. It was perfect bliss.

Getting the job in the bank helped pay for the rent -

something which he could not afford with his previous job

at the consultancy – and have quite a bit of money left

over. It didn‟t become to apparent to Matthew that

walking out of the bank meant he would soon be struggling

to pay the rent. All he could think was that it he

finally done it, no turning back now.

The Docklands train pulled in at Canary Wharf station.

The grand glass oval shaped ceiling hanged above, with

the dark cloudy sky and rain.