Employees at a certain organisation are impatiently waiting to see if their retiring boss will return as a consultant, as rumoured.
Based on what they are hearing, an office has been identified at the organisation’s headquarters and will be prepared for his eventual return in that advisory capacity.
The suggestion is that his heir apparent, whom he clearly favours, seems happy with this arrangement.
It has been suggested that if, or rather, when this individual has been elevated to the top post that the move would be officially announced to facilitate the veteran boss.
From what Cou Cou is hearing, most employees would not readily object to having the former boss around, given his wealth of knowledge.
Some others, though, feel the old ways of doing business by that entity must go and they can only disappear when a bold new direction under fresh dynamic leadership is given.
Insiders are saying this is why another individual has been pushed to the fore as an alternative to the retiring boss’ favourite.
They say this person is very independent and innovative in their thoughts and would more than likely bring about the different approach they feel the organisation needs.
Own-way man
A situation akin to near chaos is fast approaching breakpoint in a particular ministry.
Reliable sources told Cou Cou that some of the top technical officers are frustrated dealing with the most senior official there as he repeatedly second guesses them and sometimes ignores their expert advice.
And what makes it worse is that this top man has the ear and confidence of the minister, so it makes no sense complaining for him.
The officials feel so aggrieved, we were told, that they are contemplating taking their grievance to the Personnel and Administration Department.
From what was related to Cou Cou, this top man has a reputation of running things his way. This attitude comes from his decades of working in that ministry at a senior level in some of its most critical departments. He therefore thinks he knows it all and has seen it all.
However, those technocrats now in the system feel he needs to listen more to technical advice as theirs is a dynamic, ever evolving area, and a solution in a file to a problem of a decade ago, for example, cannot be just dusted off, tweaked and used without appropriate up-to-date research and analysis of the problem.
It’s left to be seen whether the present crisis facing that ministry would prove the straw that breaks the spirit of these technocrats and makes them officially complain for this man. Or, whether he would pull back and listen to the new scientific approach and advise the minister accordingly.
Two’s a crowd
Since “two smart rats can’t live in the same hole”, it was just a matter of time before the two maguffies running things at a certain place in St Michael started gnawing at each other’s throats.
The problem is that they are at the same level, are openly allied to the ruling party, like calling the shots in whatever project they are associated with, and are after the single vacancy at the top. So a clash at some point had to happen.
According to eyewitnesses, the two aspirants, who are more known for their absence from work than anything else, clashed over a matter of disrespect shown to a senior staff member.
Our insider told us that one of the aspirants disrespected the head of a department at the entity over a matter. When the other one heard about it, that person immediately telegraphed it to the small-sized big boss as per usual.
Since then the two aspirants have not been on the best terms.
Staffers are closely watching how this situation is resolved and wondering how vicious it might become since these two have sharp tongues which they like to use.
