“Where are you off to?” Katie asks as I step out of my office and head towards the lifts. It’s been a quiet Friday morning and, now we are mid-way through the afternoon, she’s clearly bored. She’s my unofficial number two in the department and always has a keen eye on the comings and goings of our small team, myself included. She’s also one of my best friends and perhaps the only person I was at school with that I still talk to regularly.

“Julie wants a word with me in HR,” I tell her. “I’ve just had a message to head upstairs right away.” Julie is my boss, the CTO of the Isle of Man business. I’ve no idea what she is doing in HR, but her wish is my command.

Katie manages a frown of confusion that clearly matches my own puzzled look. “I’ll catch any calls then,” she tells me with a smile. “Maybe you’re getting the sack and I’m being promoted.”

“Possibly to the first, but never to the second,” I call over my shoulder as I let the door close behind me and move into the central corridor of the building.

Ominously, Julie is waiting for me at the door to the HR manager’s office when I step out of the elevator on the fifth floor. I’m pretty sure that I’m not getting sacked, but this is a little out-of-the-blue.

“Come on in, Will,” she tells me with a grin. “And, don’t look so worried, this isn’t anything to worry about.”

Amanda, the head of human resources is behind her large desk and the chairs have been arranged in such a way that Julie is almost behind the desk with her. I really do feel like I’m about to be interrogated.

“Sit down, Will,” Amanda tells me, indicating the obvious chair for the victim. “This really isn’t anything bad, we just need to run something by you and it is a little urgent.”

“I’ll try and relax then,” I tell her, but can’t help fidgeting with the silver chain around my right wrist.

“I’m going to assume that you’re well aware of our expansion plans for the next few months,” Julie suggests to open. “We’ve discussed the possibility of having to train a few more people here in the coming quarter already.”

“Of course,” I agree. We have indeed discussed whether I can make room to have three or four trainees at any given time, rather than the more usual two. “Are we going ahead with those plans, then?”

“Not exactly,” Amanda tells me. “The expansion plan is already moving forward, but we can’t quite get the logistics of the IT training to work how we want and need.”

“The plan for a new office in Nairobi had been brought forward and expanded,” Julie adds. “We are now going to have a large enough presence there to cover the whole of the EAC. It has to be big enough to cover the whole of the Kiswahili-speaking world. It’s more than double what we originally planned to start with, but the demand is there.”

“I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of the EAC, you’ll have to help me out a bit,” I confess.

“It’s East Africa’s equivalent of the European Union, albeit a little less integrated,” Amanda fills in smoothly. “Basically that means Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda for us – the English-speaking ones where Kiswahili is the other main language.”

“So, we need to accommodate a few more trainees?” I ask.

“Not exactly,” Amanda tells me. “We need to get a team of about thirty staff ready to work in just twelve weeks. We can’t do that here.”

The twelve-week deadline is doable, but that would mean someone doing training full-time every day. It’d have to be someone who is totally familiar with our entire suite and good at teaching new recruits. I can’t even begin to think about where we might put them during such training, but that shouldn’t be my problem.

“So, I’m going to have to give up a member of staff to do this, then?” I ask.

“Well, honestly, we’re not sure if that would work, Will,” Amanda says. “The only way we can see to guarantee that we get the job done in the timeframe is if you do it. Katie can take over from you for a few weeks, can’t she?”

“She covers for me when I’m on holiday, but I’m not sure she can manage for a twelve-week stint.”

“But she can if you’re only a call away?” Julie asks.

“I guess. Won’t I just be in a different office or something, though?”

“No, not quite,” Amanda says with a smile. “We haven’t been able to get work permit clearance for the training of that many new staff, so it has been decided that we’ll do the training in Nairobi.”

“What?” is all I can manage to splutter.

“We want you to go to Nairobi for three months and train our support staff from scratch. We’ll put you up and get you whatever you need. We’ll also pay you very well for doing it,” Amanda says.

“I… When?” I manage eventually.

“Probably a week-on-Monday,” Julie suggests. “If you say yes, we need to sort out a working visa and some permits.”

“Do I have a choice, then?” I ask. I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a little trapped by the whole situation. If there’d been just a little more warning, then I might have been less abrasive, but right now I’m acting like a caged animal.

“You always have a choice, Will,” Amanda tells me with a somewhat stern look. “We will need to know by the end of the day on Monday. Being candid, however, we don’t know what we will do as an alternative.”