by Rachel Bruce
As part of Nelson Croom's 10th anniversary celebrations we are been looking back at how things have changed.
It’s pretty easy to guess the original line up of Nelson Croom; the clue is in the name. So….
In the beginning…there was Alan and David.
During November in the first year of the business, Tony and I became the next permanent members of staff. We both began on the same day, and were given the tricky team-building task of making our own desks (difficult for me; easy for Tony) and a free reign to order whatever stationery we liked (I think we were both pretty excited by this actually – who doesn’t like new stationery?). The first year was challenging; a lot of learning about what we believed in, what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it.
Things were going well, so Katy and Hamish were soon to join, both known to Nelson Croom from previous companies. Then along came Angela to the development team as an online learning developer.
As the company grew, Nicola, Jacqui and Victoria all joined, and most latterly Crispin. Up to this point, no-one had left. However Victoria very recently decided to end this slightly strange reputation of “people are hired, but no-one ever leaves” by moving onto pastures new.
And that’s the folk of Nelson Croom to date!
With Nelson Croom being a small company, I’m quite interested in the following statistics that have accumulated over the last ten years:
- 7 births (4 girls, 3 boys)
- 5 weddings
- 2 purchases of horses
However, these numbers don’t seem very meaningful (generally numbers don’t to me, who needs logic?) and instead I wanted to try and blog something more qualitative on how the people have changed over the past ten years. I asked a few Nelson Croom folk to let me know what had changed for them and I learnt the following:
David has apparently “become more charming, youthful and even-tempered with every day.” I never doubted this for a moment, despite ear-wigging several phone conversations which would contradict this.
Alan now “has two children, has moved three times and has lost five stone in weight.” True to form Alan likes to be logical and stick to the numbers. Although Alan did go on to say that he is now “more mellow and interested in other people's ideas rather than just in whether they are right or wrong.” But that apparently they are “normally wrong”. He’s pretty difficult to win an argument against, as many of us have found. I have had many heated discussions with Alan over the years. And this is a small thing, but I will never forgive Alan for calling me “acquiescent”, having been forced to concede on several occasions. I don’t like this description of myself. Mainly because he is, of course, right.
Angela’s hair has “changed quite dramatically in length and colour.” I can vouch for this, and thank goodness, because it was a striking fashion statement to turn up to an interview here eight years ago with matching jumper and short bob. Angela has also become a published poet since working at Nelson Croom, and now does a four day week so she can spend one day working on her poetry to achieve a "good work-poetry balance”.
Nicola has undoubtedly bought a sense of style into the office, with her love of fashion and clothes. Working at Nelson Croom has had a big impact on Nicola’s life as she says, “If I hadn't met David I probably wouldn't have ended up buying a horse!”
Nobody can sum things up better and more accurately than Tony, and as usual, he didn’t fail this time when he said of the last ten years “so much has changed that I don’t know where to begin”. Being acquiescent, I couldn’t agree more.
The last ten years have been a big journey personally and professionally for all of us. Nelson Croom has grown as a business – we have all learnt a lot about how to get what we do right, and we’ve grown and developed a solid and highly skilled team. Along the way, we’ve cemented warm and respectful relationships with each other that make N307 a highly desirable place to be.
by Alan Nelson
