18 We've got a real problem here, so your advice has been very welcome. I've decided that what you said is probably true. We've got too many people working in non-productive departments and not enough people in those departments where the workload is increasing. Your idea of offering transfers before we do anything like starting a recruitment campaign is, I think, a good one and I'm going to follow it up. 19 In December, we accepted a very large contract which we all knew would mean everyone having to do extra hours, whether here or at home, to fulfil it. I realise that your particular circumstances make this very difficult to deal with, but that's also true of many of your colleagues. I'm afraid I'm going to have to say that I can't do anything about it at the moment. If I did, everyone else would suffer. 20 I've been thinking about what you said about the hospitality committee. I completely agree with you that the arrangements they made for the annual conference last year were most inadequate and so, like you, I think it'd be a very bad idea to repeat them. However, I also think you should be very careful how you say this to the senior management. In my opinion, it's not worth risking your career over something as minor as this. 21 There are three flights that day, but two of them require an overnight stay at the airport and it's not company policy to fund that. So, we're left with the third one, the one that leaves at eight o'clock in the evening. If you agree, I'll ask for that one and we can travel down together. We can probably get a lot of work done on the train to the airport. 22 I know you think the company's making a mistake in refusing to allow staff to work flexibly in this way. I realise this kind of arrangement is common now, but I can't accept that the company should employ staff on full pay and then never see them. We've always said that a full staff being here in the office, punctually and regularly, is a really important part of what makes this company what it is, and I agree with that.

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