This article provides a case study of administering a school, showing how talk is central to the achievement of control. Analysis of extracts of a transcript of talk by and with the principal shows school administrators trying to direct and control the deployment of personnel in conformity with their wills and intents. A principal and his two immediate subordinates do this with their words in their talk with one another, in the corridor, the principal's office, and in the staff room. The analysis shows that not only do administrators spend much of their time talking and that this talk accomplishes administration, but that talk is used to do the work of tightening and
loosening
administrative control.