The Biography of Elvira Ruocco  (by Elvira Ruocco)  Chapter 7

It does not suit me

After a few days from my moving from Portello to Arese, I began to repent of the taken decision. In that office there was not much to do and that few was shared out to everybody. I realized soon that I worked too fast while the others took it easy and let their work last till evening. I could not manage it, either by disposition and by attitude, hence I looked for something to do to fill up my day. In that office nobody used to file. I noticed several cartons and some boxes stacked on a table full of flimsy-copies of invoices of different colours. I got hold some folders in the stationery office and started to file them. A fellow employee said me to forget about them, because that duty was up to the clerk, I replied her that the clerk was never there, always going the round of floors to withdraw and deliver mail, that it was a task that nobody liked but nevertheless somebody had to do, for me it was not a problem and neither for the clerk if I did it instead of him…
After some time, they begun to take digs at me when I was leaving the office at 5 pm: “Lucky you!”, “Well… I’ve got half a mind to ask to leave at 5 pm myself too…”, “In an office, everybody should have the same working hours”, “What do you get down to do when you arrive at 8 am?”. For a while I answered, I pointed out to them how that heap of invoices had reduced, then I begun to lose patience up to choosing to isolate myself form the group and spend the break somewhere else. Until one day I could not stand it any more and asked, with the permission of my boss, for a talk with the Personnel Management. During the talk, I pointed out that the job assigned to me was far less rewarding than the one I had carried out at the Servicing School, that I felt to be able to give much more to the company, both for the acquired experience and for the knowledge of languages which was unused in that office. My request was taken into consideration, even if I was warned that it would not have been within a short space of time.
One morning I noticed a unusual turmoil and heard one of the fellow employees saying that our boss, Eng. Parmeggiani, was about to deliver the 3^rd to 4^th level change letters. With the corner of the eyes I followed the coming and going from his office, being sure that I would not have been called since I had put myself upon attendance. Indeed, the boss handed in the letter to me too, not only, but also he expressed his appreciation for the job I was doing and he seemed to me sincerely sorry for my decision to change Management.
I had left Portello on February 8, 1974, two weeks after the leaving of Giuseppe Luraghi, who had been shoddily defenestrated for the Alfa top. He had been replaced by Ermanno Guani, president of the naval shipbuilding industry and president of the Rome Golf Club, one of the most exclusive clubs in Europe. His wife, Maria Denis, had been a movie star in the period of the white telephones. He lasted short, he left Alfa in the month of September of same year and was substituted by Gaetano Cortesi.

Getting back to myself, I was ready to go back to square one.

MS. RUOCCO WITH DR. ENRICO SALA (AT HER RIGHT) AND DR. ITALO ROSA IN HER ARESE OFFICE, 2003 . DR. SALA (ALSO CITED IN CH.6) WAS CHIEF SALES MANAGER, THUS HEAD OF ENG. PARMEGGIANI, WHEREAS DR. ROSA WAS CHIEF PERSONNEL MANAGER WHEN MS. RUOCCO WERE HIRED.