In my late thirties I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to work at the Nelson Mail in New Zealand for a year. Little did I know at the time that this experience would turn out to be the highlight of my working career, I've had some fantastic work experiences since then but nothing comes close to my time in the wonderful city of Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand..
The Nelson Mail project involved taking the newspaper from typewriters to digital full page color output involving major changes to their editorial, advertising and production department. The plan was for a "big bang" go live that also involved moving to a new building.
I had been involved in the very first sales contact with the Nelson Mail and worked on preparation for six month through to the point where they had been live for another six months. Our team consisted of an advertising expert who stayed for six months and two other specialist who arrived for a few weeks to help out when needed.
Back in those days the company was making a decent profit and could invest in their employees, one example of this was sending Jens, who was a recent hire, from Denmark to New Zealand just to get some experience of working on a project. Jens had just graduated from university and couldn't add anything to our team but it was a wonderful opportunity for him to be "down under" for a month.
In a moment of true inspiration I decided to give him the responsibility of the paginating the classified advertising section of the newspaper, we had some great functionality that automated the placement of the classifieds in the pages. I invested a Saturday teaching Jens what to do, we also spent 30 minutes for the next 5 days when we practiced paginating the newspapers classified section. This part of the project didn't need great skills but being able to have someone responsible allowed me to concentrate on other issues.
Jens was booked into a small hotel and like many small towns there was some kind of connection to a member of the newspaper staff.
20 years ago even a local newspaper had several pages of classified advertising and was a major part of the newspapers income. There was an interesting classification where local escorts advertised their services, I'd been told that the demand for escorts was increased by the multitude of Russian freighters constantly arriving in the local port.
I loved working with the people at the newspaper, they all had an English sense of humor and the working environment was a home away from home. One of the rituals was morning tea when we'd take a 10 minute break to enjoy a cup of tea and a bun halfway through the morning. Depending on who was available morning tea was often the comedic highlight of the day.
One morning I walked into the tea room to find the guys laughing out loud way before LOL was invented, I asked what the joke was and they told me I needed to get a grip of my team. Then one of them told me the story of the day!
I was informed that the receptionist of the hotel where Jens was staying was the sister of a wife of someone who worked at the newspaper. It turns out that the previous evening Jens had picked up the phone and dialed a number. After a few seconds a person answers the phone and Jens hears "Can I help you?". Now like most Danes Jens can speak almost perfect English but some words and phrases can be confusing. Jens says "Yes, I'd like some service please", he then hears "Certainly sir, what would you like", Jens then says "I'd like a blonde with big tits" only to hear the hotel receptionist say "this is the hotel reception, please dial 1 for an outside line".
It was bad enough that Jens was staying another 7 days and he'd have to walk past that receptionist every morning but unknown to him the entire staff of newspaper was laughing behind his back at his need for sexual relief and not knowing to dial 1 for an outside line!
That's my reality,
Jobsonian
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