White Envelopes
You just don’t expect it to happen – in a recession – do you? Last Friday, my Imports Manager strode into my office, cheery as you like, clutching a nice, clean, sealed white envelope. “What’s that?” I asked, although I had my suspicions. In my office, only three things come in nice, clean, sealed white envelopes – CVs, redundancy notices, and resignation letters. He’s already employed, so it wasn’t a CV. I give out the redundancy notices, so it wasn’t one of those. “I’m resigning – it’s my formal letter,” he said, confirming that I’m not as daft as I look. By then he was looking a little sheepish. “I know I’m supposed to give you a couple of week’s notice”, he continued. It’s four, actually. “But I’d really like to go straight away, if it’s all the same to you.” All the same to me? Are you for real? I’m trying to run a business here and you want to walk right out the door. So long, and thanks for all the fish, and all that. The cheek of it!
Well, I’m afraid my pride took over a bit at that point. I did need him to stay, but if he didn’t want to be there, why should I pay him for a day more? He was off to another job, for sure and the less time he spent in my office after that point, the better. I was annoyed – angry even – but I kept a lid on it. “Fine,” I said. “I’m sorry to see you go, but you might as well just clear your desk and take the rest of the day off. We’ll send your papers on.” Even as I was saying it, I was thinking, this is a mistake. You need this guy! Nobody else can sort out the freighting paperwork. Nobody knows what to put where on those forms. Nobody knows how to input the data on to the system. I could already see shipments piling up in Customs, irate clients on the phone and me having to spend hours down at the airport sorting it out. But I’d said it, and he didn’t wait around long enough for me to change my mind.
But then I remembered. I was over in Miami the other week on the exhibition circuit and I’d traded business cards with a guy who handled customs paperwork for freighters and couriers. I’d filed the card in… where….? Ah. My pocket. Here it is – a bit crumpled. OK, so I hadn’t given it quite the courtesy it deserved, but I could still read it. Customs Clearance Limited, and they’re based close to Heathrow. This was sounding promising. I gave them a call and it turns out they can handle my importation and clearance paperwork just as if they were sat here in my office. They can even onward ship to my clients across Europe. That saves me a lot of time and trouble. It saves me eating humble pie with my dear departing Imports Manager too, and it even saves me the pain of hiring a replacement. All round, not a bad turn of events.
15th Mar 2010
