I worked for about 20 yrs at Dounreay. I arrived there in 1972 just as they were building the new Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR). Prior to that the main focus of the site had been the Dounreay Fast reactor (DFR) - to those of you who have visited Dounreay it was the big white sphere. The DFR workforce had been a small, tight-knit group who enjoyed a very active and varied social life - a sort of big family. PFR generated ten times the power of DFR and was a much more "industrial" operation with a much larger workforce. The result was that its social life was much less "all for one and one for all". The then Head of PFR, Tony Broomfield, decided that this was not as it should be so he issued a written proclamation stating that we should all socialise together much more. This poem was written in response to that proclamation. The Station Manual was the operating instructions for PFR and the Shift Managers were tough cookies and certainly not of the "touchy feely" school! Tony's secretary was Alison McKay, a redheaded livewire everyone liked.

"My will is this, our Tony cries
"You awkward sods will socialise
And each of you will spend your life
Propounding love, suppressing strife
Embracing all your fellow men
(And maybe women, now and then)

"The Station Manuals been rewrit
To change the emphasis a bit
And now it deals with what love means
Instead of dirty great machines
And managers on every shift
Will demonstrate loves caring gift!"

"So now this empire that I rule
Will function like a Charm School
And you will dedicate your lives
(And even swap your loving wives)
To showing how loves open door
Can generate esprit-de-corp

Well Tony, we have had a vote
And hope the findings you will note
We've all perused our fellow men
And find we hav'nt got the yen
To cuddle to our hairy chest
The specimens that this place infest

However Tony, take your ease
For, rest assured, we'd like to please
And we suggest a compromise
On how we'd like to fraternise
You have the men you rate so high
And we'll have Alison Mackay!

      --------End------