Even before I joined Dnata, Patrick Naef told me that Nigel Hopkins was “a really nice guy”. He continued to say this all the time I was in Dubai. I must say that I found this rather strange. I do not wish to be rude about senior people in large organisations, but it is not often that you hear such a compliment. I guess the phrase ‘a nice senior executive’ could be an oxymoron, as any job at that level does not provide too many opportunities to be seen as nice. In the past, I have worked quite closely with people who were not seen by staff in a positive light and I often found myself defending them, saying things along the lines of ‘he/she is quite nice underneath it all’. I even heard of someone once saying that I wasn’t quite as bad as I appeared to be! But I have never heard of anyone at such a senior level being described as just ‘nice’.
Certainly Nigel Hopkins comes over as a quiet guy, but personally I never really got to know him.. At first sight this could be a reflection of an arm’s length approach to managing his responsibilities for IT within the Emirates Group. However, he does hold a weekly one to one meeting with Patrick Naef and he also attended the weekly EG-IT Executive meeting once a month. At these meetings, I can not say that I was ever overwhelmed by any of his insights, but he certainly showed a huge interest in all the detail available. This is all very well, but as I am sure everyone appreciates, if one spends too much time examining every pixel, it is highly unlikely that one will ever see the actual picture.
When Patrick Naef dropped his bombshell that he had to remove me from my job and terminate my contract, he asserted that he had ‘the full support of Gary Chapman and Nigel Hopkins’. My instinct, given personal experiences of Patrick Naef’s track record in relaying things which subsequently turned out not to be true, was not to believe him. I immediately wondered how on earth would Nigel Hopkins agree to such action when he had never even had a one to one meeting with me on any topic, let alone on such a serious one. Call me old fashioned if you will but, as a manager, I would never entertain even the initiation of disciplinary action against someone reporting to one of my direct reports without a very open (and confidential) one to one meeting with the individual concerned. Words like ‘thoroughness’, ‘fair play’ and ‘justice’ all immediately spring to mind.
At that meeting, both Sophia Panayiotou and Malini Johnson were present and I was surprised that they did not correct Patrick Naef. But challenging Patrick Naef in private, let along public, was never good for anyone’s well being so I just assumed that the Group’s HR department would do the job they were paid to do and act accordingly after the meeting. Dream on, Tom!
When I was actually fired I heard the two most astonishing and inept statements from any manager at any level, let alone from an Executive Vice President of such a large company such as Dnata. They are so bizarre that, even as I write this, I have to refer back to my notes of that meeting to yet again confirm that Nigel Hopkins really uttered them. And they were Nigel’s only two contributions to the proceedings.
What Patrick Naef had said was actually true - Nigel Hopkins had indeed agreed to have my contract terminated. So at my termination meeting I challenged Nigel, asking him why he had felt able to make such a decision without even talking to me, let alone meeting with me. His response? “But you never came to see me either”. I sat there stunned. I learnt a lot in my career, but it never once occurred to me to occasionally poke my head around the door of my boss’s boss’s office and casually enquire “Er . . . you weren’t by any chance considering firing me were you?”.
At that meeting I then moved on to an even more substantial matter, the fact that my contract was being terminated without any part of formal company procedures being applied. To which Nigel Hopkins replied “Yes, but we are where we are”. I first thought that he was joking. Nigel carries an almost permanent smile and this can be deceptive at times, but surely no-one would ever make a joke out of firing someone? Here was the company’s Executive Vice President acknowledging that I was being unfairly dismissed and just brushing the matter aside. Maybe nerves got the better of him and he just blurted it out. He certainly did not look comfortable at the meeting, spending most of the time looking across towards Patrick Naef. Perhaps he was seeking guidance or support, I do not know, but it did not look as though he received any. Or was it just a coded message saying ‘Don’t forget that you are dealing with Dnata here, mate. We can do what we like, to who we like and when we like and there is nothing anyone can do about it. So, be a good boy and do what everyone else does - resign, shut up, clear off and take the money’?
From what I have seen, Nigel Hopkins’ role in my dismissal was one of simply rubber stamping Patrick Naef’s desire to dump me out of the organisation. Many people have for many years asked questions along the lines of ‘who is managing who in this relationship?’ and this incident is an example of why such questions are asked. Perhaps Nigel Hopkins feels he had good reason to act (or rather not act) in the way that he did. I just wish he had the decency to tell me what he thinks they were, rather than just telling me that “we are where we are”.
It may be that when Patrick Naef says that Nigel Hopkins is a really nice guy, what he actually means is ‘not only does he let me do what I want, he also does everything I tell him to do’.
