A Difficult Man to Work With

The author, a hospital microbiologist, returns with his wife and young son to Tyneside, after five years overseas, to get a job that would allow them to buy a house and settle down. Vacancies prove hard to come by and he suffers harrowing unemployment for many months. When at last he is offered a post at one of the North of England's most famous hospitals, he is jubilant. However, he soon finds that the technology used is antiquated and that relations between medical and non-medical staff are little better than feudal. He is resented for his overseas experience, rebuffed for trying to introduce modern methods, and finally becomes persona non grata because of his unwillingness to conform to being treated like a skivvy. No system for dealing with industrial complaints exists in the Hospital service and his situation becomes impossible. With no chance of getting a job elsewhere, he embarks on a course that eventually brings him some distinction but costs him his job, his career and his health.