Page 98 - A Life - my Live - my path

Computerization of the cyclotron

said to me: "After consultation, and in view of the
seriousness of the facts, we have decided to take away your
responsibility for the cyclotron project. From now on, our
physicist will be in charge. You can continue to work on the
83
project under his authority. He will give you your tasks".
My boss timidly tried to intervene but was immediately
stopped. For my part, I was quite concise in what I had to
say, saying that I had no problem accepting the decision, but
that basically, nothing had been settled, because the
problems were still there and were going to get worse.
Two days after careful consideration, I told my boss that
I was going to call the big boss, because I wanted an
interview with him about the contents of my memo. He
replied: "You're going completely mad!"

I went back to my office and phoned the managing
director on his direct line. When he picked up, I said, "Hello,
this is Ovidio MONACO". In a calm voice, he replied: "At
last! I was wondering when you'd decide to call me". I asked
for an interview. He told me to come at once, as he had to
leave for lunch at noon. I took a copy of my note, some
stationery and set off for Building 1, some 500 meters away.
As I passed my boss's office, I told him I had an interview
with the big boss. He nearly fell off his chair!
In front of the managing director's office, on the
doorframe, was a doorbell with the usual 3 options: busy,
wait, come in. As soon as the bell rang, the 'wait' option
always came on; this was also the case today. After a few

83 Claude Pirard
86