The offices were in the City of London, surrounded by historic sights and easy to reach by public transport. Core hours were from 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday, with an hour for lunch. In addition to this, there was an unwritten expectation that unpaid overtime would be worked if necessary, and that the staff within each department would attend regular and frequent social events together once or twice a week. This usually meant going to a pub with colleagues and then on for a curry together, usually on a Wednesday or Friday .
evening, organised on a semi-informal basis, as well as the official barbecues, theatre outings, Christmas parties, etc., organised by the management. .
At first, he had enjoyed working there. It felt good to be employed by a reputable organisation, he enjoyed the prospect of growing and developing in his chosen career, and as he took, and passed, the various accountancy examinations, his sense of belonging steadily developed. The work was not particularly exciting for people in the lower levels of the company. According to popularly-held belief, at the top of the organisation, the partners brought in the business, took all of the key decisions, and made sure that there was a clear and detailed set of rules and guidelines to ensure that the company functioned in a sound and predictable way. The senior bosses had all the fun, as well as earning extremely large sums of money. The assurance of a well-run and high quality service had been at the heart of the company's reputation for many years, and there were plenty of systems in place to ensure that nothing would disrupt this well-ordered and highly-organized company. Eventually, after three years of combined experience and study, Robert had sat, and passed, his final examination and he became a fully-qualified member of the professional staff. Now he had an opportunity to show what he was really capable of doing.
