Background: my little organisation is about to be offered a contract from the UN to undertake a project in A Not-Very-Nice Place for six months. The discussions around this project have been going on for a while but the actual contract has yet to emerge, even though the project is due to start in about two weeks.
The details of this project require three staff, full time, throughout. One of these positions is a role that both I and a former colleague, B, are trained for, and there aren’t many who have attended that training course. Given this, boss2 who is in charge of the project, has provisionally offered the first three months to B and the second half to me. We both, provisionally, accepted.
B currently makes his living as a consultant, taking a string of such contracts. As interesting as this project is, there will always be better ones out there, and he isn’t in a position to be able to pass up those opportunities. Quite apart from all other considerations, he is trying to shake off the shadow that numerous years here, under the influence of boss1, cast on him. [Boss1 is actively disliked by the decision-makers of our sector, and it appears this contamination spreads far...] B made it clear from the start that he will entertain other offers of work if they come through, right up until a contract is given to him.
B received a provisional offer of such an opportunity. He, dutifully, alerted boss2 that such an offer had been provisionally made. He included details of the various scenarios if the offer were to firm up and he was to take it, topmost of which was the most likely scenario that this new contract would be over prior to his expected involvement in our project.
Boss2 turns around and says ‘Well, I expect more loyalty than that’ and promptly indicates that B is very unlikely to be taken regardless of whether he takes the new contract or not. That's wonderful loyalty.
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