How can I help, sir?

It wasn’t the best way to start a holiday. I felt mightily ashamed as I walked through Terminal 5 towards the gate. I’d been beastly. So guilty was I feeling that failing to get an upgrade at check-in now seemed trivial.

I’d been pacing around outside duty-free, hanging on the phone, waiting for the “armchair banking” service of the Co-operative Bank to pick up. I was trying to tell my bank that I was going to be overseas – you have to or they block your cards – and this was my last chance before I boarded.
 

Language does not simply reflect what is going on in organisational life: it also influences what people think and what they do

Linda Holbeche, director of the Holbeche Partnership and visiting professor of HRM/OD at Cass Business School