|
Page two of three. Go to page three | go back to page one
When you have finished reading the story, do an activity that practises your comprehension. You can also do an activity that gives practice in writing a CV. Then you can do an activity which practises the stages of applying for a job. Finally, do some writing yourself.
You can also listen to this story:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC (part one)
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC (part two)
To download, right-click on the link above, choose 'Save target as', and select where you want to save the file. If you're a using a Mac, simply double-click on the link and use the on-screen window to select the file's destination.
If you want to listen on your PC, just left click and the file will play in your default player. For Mac users, click the link.
(See/print audio script) (pdf doc)
From: françoisemauriac@telecomnow.fr
To: robdean@telecom.org.uk
Sent: 02/02/00
Dear Rob,
I heard a rumour that there may be some big changes at Alpha.
Hope it’s nothing serious. Looking forward to seeing you next week,
Françoise
From: robwerther@alphatelecom.com
To: robdean@telecom.org.uk
Sent: 02/02/00
Rob,
I heard a worrying rumor that you’re not playing by the same rules that everybody in this company follows. I don’t want to find out it’s true.
Listen – we can talk. If there’s anything you want to talk about, call me. You have my private number,
Tom
From: BerndFriedmann@alphatelecom.de
To: robdean@alphatelecom.org.uk
Sent:03/03/00
Dear Rob,
Thanks for your message – it was interesting, and also a little bit worrying. I think there’s been some sort of a misunderstanding somewhere. I don’t think you should talk to anyone yet.
We’ll meet up at the conference in Paris, and we should be able to solve things there.
See you soon,
Bernd
From: SusumuYokota@yokota.jp
To: robdean@alphatelecom.org.uk
Sent:03/03/00
Dear Mr. Dean,
I regret to inform you that I will not be able to meet you at the forthcoming "Telecom Now!" conference in Paris as previously arranged.
My company has, however, made arrangements to see your Vice-President, Mr. Werther, directly.
Yours sincerely,
Susumu Yokota
I couldn’t make sense of all this. Once again, I had the feeling of being a pawn in somebody else’s game. What was this mysterious ‘rumour’ that everybody seemed to know about except me? Why was Werther angry with Rob? What was the ‘worrying’ message that Rob had sent to our colleague Bernd in Germany? And why had Susumu Yokota risked seeming impolite by cancelling a meeting at the last minute?
I found one of the answers almost as soon as I arrived in Paris. I got off the train at the Gare du Nord and jumped into a taxi which took me straight to my hotel. It was only 7 o’clock, and I still had an entire evening in Paris ahead of me. I could go out, I thought to myself, find a nice little restaurant somewhere in Montmartre, have a quiet meal and a glass of wine, take an evening stroll around Paris, but I didn’t feel like it. It seemed a pity to waste an opportunity, but I was very tired - and very intrigued by the mystery unfolding around me.
There was still the floppy disc in Rob’s file. I locked the door in the hotel room and switched on my laptop. I looked at the disc while the computer booted up. There was no label on it, and it looked like a perfectly ordinary three and a half inch disk. I put it into the computer, clicked on the icon and found that it contained two files, one called ‘resig.doc’ and the other ‘press.doc’. I opened the first file. It was the first draft of a letter.
Wednesday March 1st 2000
Alpha House,
London W1
Dear Tom,
Due to circumstances which have only recently come to my notice, I regret to inform you that I am handing in my resignation from the post of European Operations Manager for Alpha Telecommunications. My resignation will be effective as of now.
Quite frankly, and now I can speak frankly and openly, I think that the policies of this company have become intolerable. Decisions which affect everybody are being taken by a few ignorant and incompetent executives in the US without consulting important managers in Europe. This situation is not acceptable.
It has come to my notice – and I won’t say how – that Alpha Telecommunications is about to be sold off to one of our competitors. We have not been consulted, nothing has been explained to us, and we have not even been warned about this very important change.
The letter finished there. I don’t know if Rob had been interrupted while he was writing it, or if he simply hadn’t finished, but there was no more. I assumed that the letter had never been sent. I noticed that the letter was dated Wednesday March 1st, the day before Tom Werther had sent the threatening e-mail to Rob.
I opened the other file on the disc, ‘press.doc’. It was a press release, a statement to TV, radio, magazine and newspaper journalists.
IMPORTANT NEWS FROM ALPHA TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Wednesday March 1st, 1pm
Alpha Telecommunications is facing a buyout from one of its main competitors. It is thought that the entire company will be sold within the next few days. The name of the buyer cannot yet be made public.
It is not yet known what effect this change will have on Alpha’s share prices.
Rob Dean, European Operations Manager for Alpha, will be resigning from his post as of today, as a protest against this decision.
There were a few very unusual things about this press release. The first was that I assumed that Rob had written it himself . This was not usually part of his job – we have a special press office to do jobs like this. The second unusual thing was that this did not really seem like a press release. Usually, press releases are pieces of publicity, carefully written to make the company look as good as possible. This press release was very different. It was more like a newspaper story – more impartial and cynical than the typical positive press release. The other unusual thing was that it had obviously never been ‘released’ – it was written last Wednesday, and none of this news had been made public. This was obviously the mysterious ‘rumour’ referred to in the e-mails I had read on the train: Alpha was going to be sold. Werther was trying to keep everything secret, and Rob Dean had found out the truth.
This didn’t explain everything though. There were some other simple questions: why was Werther trying to cover everything up? A takeover can sometimes be good for a company, it can make their shares become more valuable. I couldn’t understand why Werther was being so secretive. Added to this, there was the strange mystery surrounding Rob Dean. He seemed to have resigned, but then why had he also apparently disappeared? Why didn’t Werther tell me that Rob had resigned? Why did Rob leave that cryptic, mysterious message on my answerphone?
I was thinking about these things when my phone rang. It was Rob Dean.
"Don?"
"Rob! What the hell’s going on? What’s all this mystery? And where are you?"
"Good questions, Don! Listen, I’m here in Paris. There are some people I must see. I think I should talk to you as well. You seem to have ended up in the middle of this thing. They just wanted to put someone there who doesn’t know what’s going on – they chose you! I don’t want to talk on the phone, let’s meet."
"Just tell me where and when, and I’ll be there," I said.
"Can you make it in about an hour or so?"
"Sure. Where?"
"Somewhere fairly central. At the Pompidou Centre. Do you know it?"
"Yes – in the square in front of it?"
"No, that’s a bit too obvious. On the street just behind it. In an hour. See you there!"
The weather was cold for March, and I walked up and down to keep warm as I waited. It had been more than an hour now, and Rob still hadn’t shown up. I wondered where he was. I tried his number a few times, but only got the message "The number you have called is unobtainable at the moment. Please try again later" several times. After a while I noticed a woman on the other side of the street who also seemed to be waiting for someone. At first I tried to ignore her, but it was obvious that she was waiting for someone as well. She carried on looking at me for some time until eventually she crossed the road and came up to me.
"You’re waiting for Rob, aren’t you?"
"How did you know? Who are you?"
"My name’s Sue McGovern. I’m a financial journalist and an old friend of Rob’s. You must be his colleague who they sent to the conference."
"That’s right. Listen, where is Rob?"
"I don’t know. I got a call from him about an hour ago, telling me to meet him here. He said you’d be here too. I’m a bit worried about him to tell you the truth. There are some unpleasant people who work for your company."
"What do you mean?"
"Rob’s a key person in your organisation, and he has a lot of information. Those people in America don’t want him to go around telling everybody what he knows."
"That’s nonsense! OK, there are pretty unpleasant characters who work for Alpha, I know, but there’s nobody who’d threaten Rob with physical violence!"
Sue McGovern looked at me coldly and thought for a moment.
"It’s true what Rob said about you."
"What did Rob say about me?"
"He said you were naive."
I didn’t know if it was a compliment or an insult. I didn’t know what to say. Sue continued.
"Listen, I don’t think we should stay here. Somebody could have intercepted Rob’s calls. Let’s get out of here and go somewhere safer. Rob can always contact us later."
Go to page three
| 
