By Philip Lear
The office was in bad shape after we lost the General Aviation account. It was our biggest. People were walking around anxiously listening and waiting for any kind of indication of what might happen.
Gilroy’s bar, which was located across the street from the office, had become one of those spots where you could find things out. You could learn more there then practically anywhere else. Sometimes you learned more than you wanted to. At night, after work I would stop off there for a drink.
One night when I was having a drink with Steve Masters, a buddy of mine, a VP from the Marketing Department he asked me a question.
“Jack, I don't know if it's me or if the other people in the office are becoming weird,” he said. “They seem preoccupied. When you talk to them it’s like they’re not listening.”
“I don’t know. I just think that the whole place has gone paranoid since we lost the General account.”
“ They look right through you like you’re a ghost,” he continued. “Has anyone said anything to you?”
“Not a word. Nobody's said anything to me. But something’s going on. Things have just gone downhill.”
“It would be nice if they were more up front about it,” he said.
“Maybe they don’t even know what to do.”
Later that week Steve walked past my office on his way out. He was carrying a box with his personal stuff. I could see his picture of his dead daughter, Susan who had died skiing about five years ago. And there was his white coffee mug with “shit happens” emblazoned across it in big green letters. These were the remnants of his past ten years here.
I pointed to the mug and said, “Isn’t it the truth.”
“Goodbye Jack,” he said. “Working with you has been great.”
I hugged him and said, “Good luck, buddy. We’ll stay in touch.”
Seeing him walking down the hall gave me an eerie feeling. I sensed that I’d be next.
All of us on the 30th floor were fair game. That was the VP floor. High priced executives with nothing to do. We e-mailed our resumes and met with headhunters desperately trying to find other jobs. I networked like crazy trying to make a connection.
The rest of the day I would sit in my office with my door closed looking out the window daydreaming. Time seemed to pass at a snail's pace and sometimes even slower. I spent most of it daydreaming, looking at the clock on the shelf next to my desk. It was one of those Baccarat crystal ones I had gotten for being “Employee of the Year.” I reached over and dusted it off. I noticed that the second hand was slightly behind the one on my wristwatch.
On the ledge outside my window two pigeons were roosting. They were making cooing sounds. I guess that was their spot.
In the building directly across the street, in the office across from mine, life was totally different. I could see the people buzzing around, running, talking, gesturing and arguing. Mail carts and messengers were going up and down the aisles. Things seemed to be moving at a frenzied pace. Wouldn’t it be nice to be working in a place like that?
In my own office I had noticed other changes as well. My secretary, Norma who had worked for me for four years seemed sad. Norma who was about 45 was short and a few pounds overweight. But on her it looked good. She had a bouncy aura about her and a beautiful ass that was shaped like a bubble. When she walked, it seemed as though it was almost dancing. She had dark hair and big brown eyes.
From what she told me, her husband was never around and her two kids who were grown and out. I often wondered about him. Was he with some one else? Did he have someone on the side? I really didn’t know. She never complained.
Every so often she'd bake cookies and bring them in and serve them to me with a fresh cup of coffee. Biting into one reminded me of the cookies my mother used to make when I was a kid. They were soft, chewy buttery tollhouse cookies. I would also do little things for her to let her know I really cared. I’d give her a hug or bring her roses or take her out to lunch at Pontes, a pricey Italian place a few blocks south of Canal. Norma liked going there.
It was uncharacteristic of her to be sad. She was usually the one to cheer me up. But recently, on several occasions she looked teary eyed. I asked her if she wanted to talk about it but that made her cry even more. Finally one morning, I called her into my office.
“Norma I see you're really down. I just can't sit by and watch you like that. What is it? ”
When she started to cry, I went over to her and held her.
“Tell me all about it.”
She started to sob.
“I've heard through the grapevine that they're letting you go, Jack.”
I hugged her harder.
“I can't imagine working here without you. Working with you, being with you has meant so much to me.”
I gave her another hug and kissed her softly on the forehead. She looked up at me and gave me a little stroke on my arm.
I smiled at her and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.”
There were other signs that something was afoot. My lunch buddies, Ralph and Sid, fellow VPs had been acting strange. The good-natured kidding had stopped and was replaced by a kind of respectful bleakness. Having lunch with them was almost like attending my own wake.
And George, my eager Assistant Vice President had been asking me funny questions about where I kept certain high level files- files about things like compensation and individual employee objectives that would normally be none of his business.
I wanted to find out what he knew so I said, “George, do you want me to show you what you'll need to know?”
“I didn't know you knew,” he said.
“There are no secrets in this outfit. How long have you known?”
“Mr. Green spoke to me last week.”
“That's when I found out,” I said. “I want you to succeed. So I'm going to tell you everything you need to know. Anything that I miss Norma can fill you in on. ”
But what could you do when the shoe dropped? Could you fight a really big outfit? Not really. They had every angle covered. So you took the hit. You got your severance and vacation pay and that was the end. For me it would be the end after 15 years with the company. The best thing to do was to be big about it. At least that way you went out in style.
However, I knew where some of the bodies were buried and if I used my information as leverage I might be able to get some additional severance. But I hated the idea of having to do it. The people at this company had been like family. We worked, fought and sometimes even slept together. And no matter how bad your family was there was always the feeling of belonging and it made the idea of betraying them unthinkable.
Yet here I was at 60 and after two divorces practically penniless. I’d probably end up working in a Wal-Mart or Home Depot.
Sitting there in my office in a comfortable chair for a moment, things seemed safe. As the afternoon sun shown in the window, I became drowsy and thought back to better times in my life.
I found myself back in my hometown walking down Webster Avenue, the street I grew up on. My house was there in front me, one of those big old Victorians with the wraparound porches. There was a glider on the front porch with the soft cushions. I sat down and gently rocked back and forth. As I sat there I felt a warm breeze blowing across my face. When I was a kid I used to spend hours sitting gliding back and forth, doing nothing, thinking nothing.
I opened the front door and went, into the center hall. It was just as I remembered from my childhood with the big oak staircase and the brass umbrella stand in the corner next to the door. The smell of newly baked cookies filled the air and drew me to the kitchen.
I opened the kitchen door and there was my mom in her flowery apron taking a batch of newly baked cookies from the oven. My dad was sitting at the white porcelain table reading the paper. His glasses were balanced on his nose. They both looked young.
" Hi Sonny, " she said. " We haven't seen you in a long time. ”
" Hi Mom, hi dad. Those cookies sure smell good. "
" You always liked my cookies. " She said as she smiled and handed me one.
I was jarred out of my dream by the phone. It was Norma. She sounded apprehensive.
" Tom Green wants to see you in his office. Good luck Jack. " She said.
I put on my jacket, slicked back my hair and went up to the 40th floor thinking, 'should I fight back? Would I loose my cool or my nerve? Would he throw me out?'
The CFO was a large imposing man sitting behind his desk rolling a cigar between his fingers.
"Jack, have a seat.”
He didn’t waste any time.
“I wish I was seeing you under better circumstances. I wish things were better for all of us.”
“We all do Tom,” I said.
“Business has been rotten since we lost the General account. That really killed us. I was hoping sales would pick up after the first quarter, but they haven’t. You've done a good job for us and been a team player for many years, but with this current loss of the big account I'm going to have to let you go. Because you've been here for fifteen years I'm going to give you fifteen weeks of severance.”
He came around his desk, patted me on the back and said, “And I'm going to miss you personally.”
Fifteen weeks of severance, I thought. Three months of severance is all I get after busting my hump for the company for all these years after going to the mat with our adversaries hundreds of times. I've saved this company millions and this is how they want to end it. To dump me like I was a mailroom clerk. My blood was boiling.
“This was such a great company,” I said calmly. " Do you remember some of those things we did over the years? Some of those deals we cooked up. “
“Yea we had some good times here. In our heyday we were really going strong.”
“Do you remember that time when we setup those partnerships on the Isle of Mann? I’ll never forget that.”
I could see his expression darken.
“You remember that holding corporation we established in the Canary Islands and those trading accounts in the Grand Caymans?”
“What are you getting at?”
“You think you can throw me out with a few weeks pay? Guess again.”
“Don't go there, Jack.”
I could see him stiffen.
“You wouldn't want the SEC or the Stockholders to know about your illegal trading. All those unreported offshore transactions. Those side deals. It would be quite a messy situation. Other corporate officers would be implicated. There would be lots of bad publicity and the stock price would plummet.”
I could feel myself getting stronger as I went along.
“Jack, I don't like this,” Green said.
“Tom, it's not easy for me either. I don't like having to put it to you this way and I certainly wouldn't want to tell anyone else either. I don't like even bringing these things up. But fifteen weeks of severance! That's an insult. It would be a lot better for both of us if you paid me $500,000. This would be a small price to pay to know your secrets would be safe. Do you know how much money you'd lose if the stock plunged?”
He looked like a wounded animal as he sat there in his chair. For a minute he starred at me not saying a word.
"I have account numbers, transaction dates everything," I added.
He continued to stare at me. I was stunned by what I had said. I didn't know I had the balls to do it. Was he going to have me escorted out or arrested? I held my breath.
Then, after this long pause he calmly said, "Jack, let me think about it and get back to you."
I was still in shock when I left his office.
I came back and waited. Norma came in she was wearing a red skirt with a white silk blouse with an Indian vest and long brass earrings. With her dark hair the outfit made her look like a Gypsy.
“He offered me 15 weeks of severance,” I said.
“Can you imagine,” she said. “They have no soul.”
“I made Green a counteroffer and he's considering it. Hopefully I’ll should be hearing from him soon.”
The rest of the week passed and there was no call. I figured he must have been going over it with the CEO. Then another week passed and not a word, not an indication. There I was in my office waiting it out. I guess they wanted me to sweat. They wanted to soften me up. Maybe they were trying to get some dirt on me so they could force me out.
The following week I was in my office when I got the call to go up to Bill White's office. White was the CEO. When I got up to his office there was Tom Green, Bill White, and John Gray, the Corporate Counsel. He was the hatchet man.
“Jack, please sit down.” White said.
I gave them each a nod and sat.
Then Gray started, “Do you know what the penalty for embezzlement is?”
“Embezzlement, what embezzlement? I've never taken a paper clip.”
“That's what you say, but we have records, correspondence and sworn affidavits showing otherwise. As the corporate counsel I've advised my client to file criminal charges against you. If you think you're bad off now just wait. Whatever little money you have will be spent on lawyers trying to keep you out of jail. When we're finished with you you'll spend the rest of your life in a shelter.”
I stood my ground.
“Is this why you asked me up here? If what you say was true, which it isn't, all you had to do was call the police. You wouldn't be doing this unless you wanted to shut me up. I had some misgivings about going to the SEC because you guys are part of my corporate family. What a fool I was to think you were family. If you'd been decent about the severance I would have left quietly. I’ve saved this company millions of dollars and. have worked here for 15 years. What's more, if this is what you're going to do then there's no incentive for me not going to the SEC or to the Justice Department or to the media. And believe me there's many, many other things I could tell them.”
“Now both of you calm down. Nobody ever wins a war. Maybe we can settle this,” White interjected. “Jack, what would you consider to be fair severance?”
“I would have said $500,000 five minutes ago, but now after all these threats, I'm not sure. I might need even more money for lawyers.”
"Give us a few minutes. Wait in my outer office," White said.
I paced back and forth for some time. Occasionally I thought I heard shouting coming from inside the office, but it was hard to make out what they were saying.
After 30 minutes of waiting I was pissed and I was at my wit’s end. Not only were they trying to screw me but now that they were keeping me waiting. I was about to knock when the door opened.
“Jack,” White said, “I'm sorry for what happened in here before. We've discussed the severance package and have decided that considering your contributions to the company over the last fifteen years it is light and we're prepared to offer you $400,000 severance. That's the equivalent of three years of your salary. I don't think you'll find many companies anywhere that will offer you that kind of a package.”
He put the check down on the table in front of me and I stood there silently. I was shocked. I waited. Now it was their turn to sweat a little. Maybe I could hold out for more. Maybe I shouldn’t take it. But this might be their limit. Going to the SEC would be a messy thing for me as well as for them and I would end up with nothing. I also didn't want to spend the rest of my life fighting the company and testifying. They would certainly try to smear me and I would have to hire a lawyer and that would be expensive.
“I'll take it,” I said.
“Here's the check and a non-disclosure agreement. Sign here,” Gray said eagerly.
On the way back down to my office I thought about it. I didn’t want it come to this. It wasn’t my style. But my back was to the wall. And being a patsy would have been worse. There’s nothing worse than feeling that you’ve been had. As I headed down stairs it felt good to have the check in my pocket. Sometimes you just do what you have to when things get ugly.