With all the hoopla about the Royal wedding some time ago, I remember the time I brought 4 green sales reps to London for training.
They were young, filled with ideas and little enthusiasm for working long hours or long days. If I said they were green, they were.
We were traveling from San Francisco to London Heathrow with a 2-hour layover in New York; I recommended they take a sleeping pill as soon as the plane left La Guardia in NYC, to arrive in London rested and refreshed, ready to learn about English construction products. The company was generous enough to provide training, accommodations, meals and entertainment while they were learning a new product.
Of course, the new recruits were not about to listen to a seasoned traveler; after all I could have been their mother or an old aunt and they knew better, as young people tend to show.
We landed in London at 9 a.m. and I felt refreshed, rested and ready to go to the first pub in town to get a real fish-and-chips meal. The young recruits could not wait to get to McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Starbucks; here we were across the ocean to discover new regional dishes, taste the original English fare and ale and of course visit a real English pub as we learn English culture. They wanted nothing to do with the local fare, being young and already set in their ways.
Because the English speak in a different manner, they call it real English, I needed to translate some of the local jargon such as: where is the loo, meant asking for the bathroom; putting the luggage in the boot, we call it the trunk of the car, etc. The one catching my breath was when one of the directors, walking along side as we were being delivered to our hotel, said he would be glad to knock me up in the morning. After I realized what he meant, I said OK, I’ll be ready. To this date, every time I want to say to anyone I will call you later or knock at your door in the morning, I recall this director and the way he casually said it to me and once again I burst into laughter.
For entertainment, we were brought to a restaurant resembling King Arthur’s time. We sat in long benches, ate with our fingers and drank from old pewter tankards. A young woman from another company sitting next to me asked what position I held with the company; I answered I was the national sales manager in the U.S. To my surprise she did not believe it because this company did not hire woman managers anywhere in the world. I reassured her I was telling her the truth, but in anger she moved to another bench to continue her dinner.
After 10 days of meetings and discussions, we departed London for the U.S.
My young people were all talking about their plans for their futures, not as trained sales people, but as soon as they arrived in US soil, going to a real McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Starbucks because they were hungry and thirsty for American food. Seems to me they learned nothing on the trip.
So, can I knock you up in the morning?