Word: owen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...noon, Owen leaves the upstairs canteen that is used by company officers−a large, spare uninviting room with curtainless windows, bare walls and a small central cluster of tables flanked by molded plastic chairs. He heads downstairs to the lower canteen, a far livelier place, where he is to have his picture taken while handing out first-aid certificates to a group of apprentices. The photographer poses Owen this way and that, trying to make him look comfortable among the long wooden benches packed with men who are loudly joking their way through hearty 500 meals. A few workers...
...awkward and pained formality is not regarded as personal inadequacy, but as the inevitable consequence of the distance that has grown between workers and management. Owen averages a "complete walk-around" of the plant once a month, and says that he knows some 400 or 500 of his 3,000 employees. Most of his time is spent within his narrow, paneled suite, its subdued interior of light grays and white comfortably sealed off from the din outside. Owen works so intently and noiselessly that his secretary sometimes checks through the open door to see whether he is there...
...Both Owen and Peach link−and sometimes identify−the fate of Rubery Owen with the fate of Britain. Both, in their distinctly separate ways, share a sense of loss about the nation as well as the company...
...Owen: Britain is like a ship without a rudder. In the past ten years we have had no leadership at all. Trudeau, Giscard, Schmidt all put our leaders into a cocked hat. The majority of people are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. There is the feeling that they will be looked after, come what...
...Owen: I cannot accept socialism, but I'm not very happy with the Conservative Party. It doesn't have any clearly discernible policy other than wanting to put the clock back 20 years. It just doesn't seem very realistic...