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A CAVALIER DIRECTOR

     I was happy working at the telephone company - but frankly I wasn’t a “Bell Head”.   Many of the 96 staff in media relations and public relations on my floor took a month to do simple jobs; three people produced a newsletter; two people produced the bill insert (by the way none of these people actually did the work, they hired freelance graphic artists and writer to fill their publications.  And we had a ton of informational products including a monthly newspaper that even had want and selling ads.  Frankly, I could have done all of their jobs in a couple of weeks.  But I soon realized that the phone company had a lot of non-wire stringers who did minimal work.  Why because if the company didn’t spend all of it’s money the government allowed it to make it would have to be returned to the rate-payers.

An  incident that stands out as an example of the cultural climate at the headquarters is a shoot I was assigned to do with the president of Bell of Pennsylvania.  It was a simple short message about giving till it hurts to the United Way.  When I arrived at his office on the top floor the boss was surrounded by PR people who were nervously explaining what he had to do and how to do it.  I took over.  The prez seemed relieved that that his contingent of “advisors” quieted.  We had a relaxing chat, joked a bit about whether he would like his tie straightened which he thanked me for noticing.  We did the piece in on take and I exited as his fawning staff showed him with compliments.

Later that day my boss called me into his office and asked what happened with the president?  I said nothing special.  He said, “One of the assistant VP’s called him and said that the TV director had a very cavalier attitude that wasn’t appropriate when dealing with officers”!  I replied, “First the president and I were the only ones in the room who knew what we were doing.  Second part of my job is to get a good performance from the speaker - I was relaxing him after his lackeys had bombarded him with suggestions”.   Austin sat silently then started to laugh and then said, “Cal you are indeed a breath of fresh air for our stodgy old company.”  I replied, “Times are a changing that for sure - And I was very right.  The rigid ancient phone company hierarchy was quickly disappearing.

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