Part 7 Farming -- Gavin has walkout and quit
Well we had a good dinner thanks to Nancy’s skills, she asked where is Gavin I do not know says Jim but will check on him. Jim gets up and goes to the room that Gavin was in, he checks everything and finds he must have left but who picked him up. He comes back to where the rest of our crew is located and asks Roger please check and make sure all trucks are here please, John please go and cancel all access to our computers and delete him from the electronic locks.
While John and Roger are doing, as requested Jim advised Ian that Gavin had quit. Oh says Ian hum! I have to think about that. Something for you Ian do you know of anyone who would be a suitable candidate as we are going to need two guys as the manager at Tara station wants to retire. Therefore, I will leave you here and please top your glass up I will back in a few minutes.
Ian is thinking I should find out what my old friend in Queensland is doing these days as he was working in a sugar mill on maintenance the other one is in the gas industry in Western Australia but don’t know what type of work he is doing.
Jim returns and Ian says there is a guy that was a mate of mine back in Canada who moved here about 8 years ago and was working on maintenance for a sugar mill, I do not know if he would be suitable.
Jim asks do you have his email address yes; then please find out more about him then get his phone number please. If you think, he may be suitable I will contact him.
John & Roger enter the room, Roger says all trucks are here and John says computer access has been taken away and the key tag is invalid. Thanks guys now I have told Ian about Gavin and I also asked Ian if he knows of a suitable person for an assistant manager job and looking after all maintenance on the station in the same way as you do Roger.
Now because Joe at Tara wants to retire, John is going to look after that station Roger will stay here as acting manager with you as his assistant manager. Now this could take up to six month but hopefully less, so Ian don’t be surprised if John drops at the most unexpected time however he will not be checking up on you he will here for brotherly love time. How ever if you have a problem both Roger and John are here to help you -- just ask.
Jim says now you have to go back to Canada and make your application for a five-year work permit and the long time visa, I will assist you with that as I have contacts in the right place. You also need to give your present employer the require time, so are you paid monthly yes, do you have anymore holiday time owing just one week.
Does your boss have Email then send him an Email advising him of your resignation effective 31st of the next month and ask him for the last week off in lieu of outstanding vacation.
Ian does as Jim advises and he gets a very prompt reply saying I therefore assume you have been offered a better job. Since you went away the farm has been sold and both of us are to be laid off in two months time, did you have some feeling about this so I am looking for a suitable job if you hear of anything please let me know. Ian shows Jim the reply so tell me about this man is he single or married with kids, yes is married and has a couple of kids.
He was very fair with me but he hardly got out on the farm due to the paperwork he had to do so did you make contact with your crew a few times but our general foreman had full contact, so what were you really doing dammed paperwork kept me very busy. Jim says that does not make sense because there is not that much paperwork for a manager especially the way we run things right John.
I have an idea my Canadian farm the man that took your place John is single and I have been getting good reports on him. If he was willing to move out here as manager, we could possibly fill his place with Ian’s old boss as assistant manager and get him trained in our way of working. Ian do you think it would work, well Bob would have to eat some humble pie and clear his mind out but I think he could it now he is loosing his job.
Jim says well that gives me lots of room for thoughts and I will need to go to my farm in BC to see how they are working out, then I could meet up with your old boss if he interested.
Ian try and make contact with your other friend in Queensland and find out his situation. Now these things all take time but Ian’s old boss is becoming the assistant manager at the BC operation to replace Pete. Pete is moving to Australia and will become Keith’s assistant manager.
Tony the millwright/welder will join up with Ian in three months time.
I have been watching Ian’s ways of working and he really has got stuck in and he says it’s the best thing that has happened and although Roger is the acting manager Ian is really doing both jobs under the watchful eyes of Roger.
One thing I see Ian doing is going bush and meeting up with different crews out in the bush and generally stays out all night, this has earned him a lot of respect from the crew and has quickly become a member of the family. During those times Roger makes sure he is around the office just in case something major comes up.
On one occasion prior to Tony joining the company, Jim flies in and I pick him up from the landing strip. The first thing he asks is where is Ian, Oh he went out yesterday to see how the crew is getting on and took his swag, he has done this a number of times and has got himself a good name with the crew. These last few weeks I have stepped back and Ian has been doing both jobs and Jim he will make a dammed good manager.
Very interesting comment, if you were in my shoes would you promote him now? That is a tough one, I think at first I would put Tony with John for say three months and make sure Ian here has a bit more training under his belt then promote him to manager.
Jim is very quiet you could almost see his brain churning around; finally he says I like your way of thinking however will John go along with this idea. I know some thing I would do that landing strip about half way to Tara I wonder what it’s surface is like because I’m thinking we could all meet up there one weekend so we are only three hours away. I can see your point but frankly don’t like the idea I would prefer that you either go to Tara or John comes this way.
John is planning on coming over on Friday afternoon anyway, great then the three of us can discuss your idea. I hear a Ute coming into the yard I said that sounds like Ian we go out onto the veranda and see Ian getting his gear out of the Ute, I call out Hi Ian how did it go -- real good. I did a checkup on the welding we did on the swinging arm, looks ok still no further signs of cracking -- Oh hi Jim didn’t see you there at first must go and get showered and changed OK will see you shortly.
Ian is soon back clean shorts his Hi-Vis shirt etc, Oh Jim I had an Email from my old boss Bob the new owners decided to shut things down earlier so he has gone over to your BC operation and says what a difference in the way of operating, that’s good thanks for the info. Well there was general farm talk including a cattle drive later in the year. Late Friday afternoon we heard my brother flying in and went out to meet him at the strip so it gave me a chance to prime him on the ideas afoot re staffing and hoping he will go along with it.
Johns comment, was look although we are not sleeping together all the time at least we see each other about every other weekend and if what you are saying is for the betterment of the entire operation then I’m happy. We hugged for a long time and then said I guess we should make our way home, we will just stop at the office and we are all eating at the big house and after dinner Jim, you, and I will go somewhere to talk about staffing.
Entering the office Jim and Ian are talking, Jim looks up and how are things going at Tara -- good thanks, the crews are happy, I learnt from Joe that he used to go bush and join up with them fairly frequently so I have carried on that tradition. It certainly helps getting to know everyone much better and to see for yourself any problems that may be running into. My tools and coveralls are always with me so at times I do some maintenance work that all helps in gaining respect of the crew because the word soon gets around.
Well Jim must go and get cleaned up and some laundry done we will see you at dinnertime John and Roger take off together, Jim calls out make sure you are there early please. Jim and Ian get back to talking so give me all the low down on Tony and why roughly three months. From what I understand that will be the end of the crushing season after which the plan is to close down the mill and scrap it. There has been very little money spent on it and only emergency maintenance then everyone is out of a job and providing the maintenance crew stick with it till the shut down of production there will be a heft bonus paid out something like $5000. Well that is a nice sum says Jim, Ian then says they all have the opportunity to have one week off if they are wanted for an interview in some other part of the country.
Jim gets a phone call from Tony who asks for the best way into the station and that he will be driving his Ute with his gear. Between them he is directed to the local town and will be meeting there. If it is late in the day take a motel room and phone us from there.
Well that is exactly what happens, Jim says ask the Motel how to find the airstrip and I will meet you there and then we will go for breakfast and the drive out to the station that is about 2½hours drive and I will ride with you.