| abstract | - Mr Edward Pollard was the short-term personnel manager seconded to the Weatherfield Mark Brittain Warehouse in the weeks before its opening with the specific task of recruiting a workforce ready for the first day. Among the people taken on was Elsie Howard who was offered the position of supervisor in the checking department on the grand salary of £30 per week. Elsie handed over references and received her letter of confirmation, making husband Alan happy as the money would alleviate their precarious financial position. Elsie was therefore dumbstruck when she was summoned to Mr Pollard's office with a request that she obtain a reference from her former employer Miami Modes. Elsie guessed correctly that someone had told Pollard about her court case for theft in November 1969 and her subsequent resignation from the store, even though she wasn't found guilty at the trial. When she confirmed these events to Pollard, he rescinded the job offer. Elsie subsequently found out that Hilda Ogden had been the one who had told half a story to Pollard in spite for Elsie's refusal to get her a job at the warehouse. When Alan found out what had happened, he went to see Pollard but the latter's brusque manner annoyed Alan who told him that he was incompetent. Pollard had done his homework though and told Alan that he wasn't going to be lectured to by a bankrupt and told his secretary Susie Proctor to escort Alan from his office. Maggie Clegg and Annie Walker, annoyed at Hilda's actions went back later to the warehouse to plead Elsie's case. Pollard had returned to the London office and his successor, Dennis Maxwell, proved far more amenable and Elsie got her job back. By 1974, Pollard was back at the warehouse as its permanent personnel manager. In July, Ken Barlow left his teaching job at Bessie Street School to enter the world of big business as Sir Julius Berlin's Northern Executive Administrative Assistant. Treading unfamiliar waters in an undefined role, Ken relied on Pollard for help getting settled. Pollard showed Ken the ropes but was candid in his view that in his view he was not needed at the warehouse. He was quickly proved wrong when the workers, fighting to get their union recognised, called a strike, and it was Ken who dealt with the crisis by getting militant shop steward Peggy Barton's resignation in exchange for the girls getting their union. Unlike Pollard's stiff management style in which he always kept a distance from the workers, Ken had tried a more personable approach, mixing with the girls during lunch breaks, which had made them more receptive to his suggestions. In November, Pollard decided to fire his secretary Gail Potter for skiving but Ken convinced him to train her instead. Pollard and Ken clashed again when Pollard, after seeing Ken and Peggy (now working for the union) drinking together, advised him to stop seeing her as Sir Julius wouldn't approve. Ken took the view that his professional and private lives were separate, but when she was called to the warehouse on a union matter and backed the management's position, Peggy found Ivy Tilsley's accusations of siding with her boyfriend difficult to cope with and broke it off with Ken. Pollard then tried to get Ken the sack by telling Marcus Berlin about him and Peggy, but with Ken in the Berlins' good books after solving a staffing problem at the warehouse, Marcus and Sir Julius demanded Pollard's resignation instead. The character was credited as "M.J. Pollard" in "TV Times" for his 1971 appearances. On-screen he was credited on screen as "Mr Pollard" in Episodes 1074 and 1075 and "Edward Pollard" subsequently.
|
