Rtn Jenny Black: A diverse working life - Part 2

Today’s talk was given by member Jenny Black. This is her summary of what she said.

I was very sad to leave the school where I had been working, but excited to see what the future held. I was offered an interview as PA to the Managing Director of Frederick J French Ltd, a well known local construction company. I was offered the job and accepted it. At that time the company turnover was about £10m and they mainly worked for health authorities, the police, local councils, churches, all the Marconi companies and a few private clients. The MD was Jack Smale, who was a member of the Rotary Club of Chelmsford and the first Rotarian I had ever met. He was very easy to work for, but I couldn’t understand what my predecessor had done all day as I was extremely bored. Jack retired a few months later and the next managing director, Ken, was a completely different character.

Ken decided he didn’t need a PA, but that he did need someone to replace a young trainee surveyor who had been responsible for buying all the construction materials but was now coming to the end of his work experience with the company. He asked me to take on the buying and when I pointed out my lack of experience he said “You’ll learn” - which I did. It was a steep learning curve. The first project I bought materials for was what is now the Iceland shop and adjoining offices opposite Tesco’s on Springfield Road. This was a much more interesting job; I was no longer bored and spent quite a lot of time out of the office visiting our sites to liaise with our site managers and see buildings under construction.

After a year or so, the office manager left after a major row with the managing director. I was asked to take over running the finance department and managing the back office staff. Although I had learnt some basic book-keeping, this was another job I didn’t know too much about but I was supported by our accountant (another Rotarian, from Brentwood this time) and someone from the accounting software company. Construction accounts are not straightforward as there are complications with retentions, determining self-employment and managing subcontractor taxation. Another steep learning curve, but one I enjoyed. I was still doing the materials buying in addition to the office management at that point.

Early in 1992 (about 3 years after joining the company) the directors asked me to become the Company Secretary. I discovered that although there was no obligation for private companies to have a qualified Company Secretary there were exams you could take to qualify. I agreed to take the role on condition that the company paid for me to take the qualifying courses and exams, which they agreed to do. I became responsible for all the financial and legal aspects of the company as well as IT, HR, insurance, pensions etc. and also took part in decisions about tenders and contracts. I had to relinquish most of the materials buying and some of the accounts work whilst still overseeing those roles.

Working hours were very long and I had to be in the office by 7 am, rarely leaving before 6 pm and we often needed to work in the evenings and at weekends too, but I was less busy in the middle of the day so I decided I had time to join Rotary and, later, to become a school governor at a local primary school.

In May 1993 I was offered a directorship, which I accepted. The company also paid the fees for me to take a Master’s degree in Business Administration, which I found extremely hard work whilst still working full time.

Eventually I became the chairman and majority shareholder. A long way from being a PA!None of this seemed very interesting material for a talk, so I hope I enlivened it by giving some anecdotes about the difficulties of women in the construction industry, dealing with various HR matters and the dreadful occasion on which one of our site managers accidentally burnt down a school.