It hated progress and it had dominated the market for decades precisely to stop this sort of thing happening. Mobility changed the playing field, and this new technology was something VastTel was uncomfortable with. It was a long way from the old plug-in-the-wall-style phones of the past. They came in funky designs, with all sorts of nifty features and plug-in devices. Mobile phones did, of course, add a touch of glamour to the telecommunications industry. Although they could be using all phones less, simply because they were running out of things to talk about. In English, that meant people were spending less money calling on their home phone and more money on their mobile. 'The one significant trend,' he bellowed, uncomfortably loud, 'is the decline in fixed line revenues.' On that warm April morning, an hour and a half after Sydney Musson had received his extraordinarily large phone bill, the VastTel board was well into its monthly meeting and Zorblestein had presented his financial summary. That was something everyone tried to avoid at all cost, particularly over lunch. Zorblestein's rapidly inflating salary had gone unnoticed by others at VastTel because no one had sought to check his figures, primarily because that would involve sitting down and spending time with him. In Zorblestein's case, that hadn't happened whatever resources in his brain that would have been allocated to listening, had clearly been redeployed to making his voice louder, and nothing else. Often the absence of one sense, like hearing, increases the efficiency of another, like the sense of smell. It could normally be resolved with a substantial lunch, during which he would abuse the wait staff and ignore disapproving glances from fellow diners, who wondered how he seemed to be so blissfully unaware that he was regularly, and loudly, passing wind. And he did sometimes question the ethics of an income that enabled him to buy a South Pacific hotel when he went on holiday, rather than just book a room for a week or two, but this moral dilemma never lasted more than a few minutes.
Zorblestein was aware that something was not quite right. The difference was enormous, particularly towards the end of the month. For example, his $160 per hour salary was multiplied by 241,010 on the 24th October 2010, instead of by seven and a half. He wasn't deliberately and surreptitiously adding incremental amounts to his salary line there was an accidental error in a formula that inflated his take-home pay by multiplying his hourly rate by the date, rather than the number of hours in a day. Zorblestein's enormous salary, listed in the government's top 20 contributors to gross domestic product, was possible because he kept the spreadsheet of what everyone in the company was paid. Occasionally in meetings a board member might raise a question, which would be met with a stony silence, but generally the board was so keen for Zorblestein to leave the room they rarely asked anything, and so his deafness went unnoticed. It was a big company, with a vast customer base and Zorblestein was paid, like all CFOs, a vulgar amount of money to keep the books up to date and report periodically to the board.
He was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for VastTel. He wasn't even aware of deafness as a concept.įortunately for Zorblestein he was employed in an occupation where he wasn't required to listen to anyone. The truth is, Zorblestein was so concerned with what he had to say that it never occurred to him to listen to anyone else and, hence, he never realised he couldn't hear. This fact had gone unnoticed by everyone, himself included, for many years.
The reason was partially, but not entirely, because he was deaf. This was certainly the case with Zorblestein, who made a habit of never listening to anyone. And, of course, those who talk loudly rarely pay as much attention to listening. And let's be honest, they do talk louder than anyone else - even Americans. Ian Zorblestein was an obese, white South African with a particularly loud voice, even for a South African. You can also buy the entire book by clicking here. A new chapter will be published here as part of his blog each week on Tuesday. ZDNet Australia is proud to bring you a serialised version of Phil Dobbie's novel The Incumbent.