This is not flying

Presiding over the decline and fall of the brainchild can be quite a strain. Especially at this time of year: the time of glittering industry dinners, major conferences, awards and the main trade show. Never mind the mists and mellow fruitfulness, autumn in my sector is all about new launches, announcements of exciting collaborations and big contract wins, dressing up and showing off.

Smiling slyly and channelling my Type-A, rutting-stag, Inner Alpha-Male (indispendable for these occasions), I report that business is "great", "busy", that we're "stacked out with projects". I lament the absence, even in a recession, of smart people to fill the posts for which I'm currently recruiting. I ask my competitors whether they'd be prepared to accept sub-contract work, if we get too busy to handle it all.

I give and receive business cards like a ten year old collecting First Division players for his Panini album. I flirt, I sparkle, I dress to the nines. I go to as many events as I can shoehorn into my schedule, and I get up on stage to talk about topics like Look Good, Earn More, Managing Work Life Balance in a Successful Career and Do What You Love, Love What You Do. I figure that no-one will give work to a company that looks like it's going down the pan.

This is not flying - this is falling with style.