A view from the bottom:

‘Staff’ Meeting

I missed Kofi Annan’s Staff Address today. Shame, because I was excited about the prospect! From rose-tainted spectacles I thought this was a special opportunity for the little guy in the organisation – that’s me – to come directly into contact with that soft-spoken, enigmatic figure who I often refer to – not without admiration – as ‘my boss’. Without all the middle-men.

Indeed, so excited was I that I arrived fifteen minutes early. Where should I sit? The Hall was virtually empty, my distance vision is restricted and my camera was tucked by my side. Noticing no reserved seats in the front row, I asked the uniformed security guard at the door, ‘Can we sit wherever we would like?’. ‘Anywhere, Madam’. Wow! From my front-row seat, I adjusted my camera lens. Slowly the letters ‘Secretary-General’ came into focus.

Five more minutes to go! A non-uniformed man I had never seen before entered into my focus to ask me a ‘favour’. No introductions. Could we move seats, please, no explanation. Well actually, no. We like our seats, thank you very much. Excellent view of Kofi Annan, used up our lunch breaks to arrive early and anyway, was it an appropriate request five minutes before the meeting? All he wanted was for us to move across one seat. Oh, in that case, no problem, I move one seat across wondering who my neighbour will be…

One minute to go! Another unknown man is looming in front of me. He does- n’t introduce himself but is also here to ask me a ‘favour’. His asking of ‘favours’ is more menacing, it turns out. Could I move seats? No explanation. Well, actually, I had already moved seats. None of these seats were reserved, I had him know. And, anyway, didn’t he find it a bit rich to arrive at 11.59 and ask me his ‘favour’? Sorry, no I wasn’t moving again. I had come to see my boss, all the seats within my range of vision had now been filled and this was a Staff Meeting, we were all equal, right?

Wrong! He would write a memo about this ‘incident’. I thought to myself – what would he write about? That his colleagues hadn’t done their job? That they forgot to reserve seats? That I declined to do him a favour? Who was this guy anyway? But then he told me who he was. Yes, that changed things. Who knows, next he’ll be telling people that the first row was a ‘security zone’ and I had refused his ‘order’ to move and was endangering ‘security’. I left the room in disgust. Perhaps next year I’ll try again at another ‘Staff’ Meeting …