Page 177 - James Caan - The Real Deal

16 · Life in the Office

I was there on time. Sometimes these school events would cut into
my working day, but I would just get in the car and leave Sam in
charge.
Jemma and Hanah both went to school in Hampstead, which
was on my way to work, so I sometimes took them there in the
morning. I loved our car journeys and always tried to make them
fun. When they were little I used to get them to give me the names
of a country starting with the letter A and go through the alphabet.
Or capital cities, or vegetables, or fashion designers. When they
got a bit older we’d play a game with number plates. If a car’s
registration was A815 TNH, I’d ask them to multiply eighty-one
by five. They became good at doing large sums and they really
enjoyed it. If it was ever possible for me to work from home, I
would try to pick them up from school, too. They were such good
company that I wanted to spend as much time as I could with
them.
Although most of the staff enjoyed working at Alexander Mann,
not everyone coped with our boisterous, noisy office where
practical jokes were a matter of course, and some people found
our sales environment intimidating. One of the jokes was that
people called me Jesus, for no other reason than my initials are JC,
but sometimes new recruits would – naturally enough – think that
just too weird. Some people struggled to fit in, and when one
person finds it difficult to cope it becomes hard for the people
sitting near them not to be affected, so I would have to have a chat
with them. With no meeting rooms or private offices, these delicate
discussions took place in full view of the rest of the team.
‘I see you’ve been here nearly six months now and you’ve not
made a placement. Why do you think that is?’
‘Well, it’s taken me time to find my feet, and I’ve come close a
few times. I don’t think my first placement is far away.’
‘Our top billers are placing eight people a month. Do you think
you could place eight people a month one day?’

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