Saving the Company Ch. 05

"You can be sure of that," Judy put in. I smiled. Her first assistant vice president would probably be named in a month or so. There were two possibilities. She was leaning toward one, but wasn't ready to commit yet.

"Okay, so we've talked about promotions and career opportunities," I said with a smile. "Now let's talk about the current state of the company."

I spent the next half hour telling everyone our current status and the direction I planned to move us over the next couple of years. I took questions for another half hour. I normally didn't like to make the staff meetings long, but this one was too important to rush. I needed them to buy into my vision. That's always the first and most important step in leading. Give your employees a vision they buy into and can commit to.

I thought it went pretty well. The management team came back to my office to meet briefly afterward.

"That went well," Bradley said. He was at the meeting, but refused to have any part in it.

"Thank you," I smiled. "I tried to be as honest as I could."

"I was sold," Clark smiled. "I'm already trying o figure out who should be assistance vice president in my area."

"Take your time. You're still settling into the position," I sighed. "Besides, you've got new people I transferred from product development and customer service to get to know. One of them may be who you're looking for to fill the job." Clark nodded in agreement.

"Let's get together in a couple of hours. After we have a chance to meet with our people," I said. Everyone nodded and left. The next few hours flew by and they were all back in my office almost before I realized it.

"So, how are people reacting?" I asked.

"Good," Judy said.

"There is one concern that was brought to my attention," Clark said. "You know, we've all been so busy that we forgot the fact that we're not even sure if Joe and Bethany will still be here next week. Brad is due back on Monday and he may not rehire you both."

"Oh shit!" Helen put in. "I totally forgot about that possibility!"

"Don't worry about it," I said. "Brad already knows what's going on. He'll take Bethany and I back."

"He'd better," Bethany grinned. "Or Cherie will kill him!" Judy and Bradley exchanged a look. Judy shrugged and Bradley nodded.

"So, I guess you two figured it out," Judy grinned.

"Please!" I laughed. "I can't believe it took me as long as it did!"

"Over the weekend, right?" Bradley asked. I nodded and he laughed. "I knew it! You came in on Monday like a madman. You made so many changes I could hardly keep them straight!"

"How did your father take them?" I grinned, knowing that Bradley must have been on the phone with Brad.

"At first he was so crazy that I'm guessing that mother had to threaten him with divorce to keep him from cutting the vacation short!" Bradley laughed. "But eventually he calmed down and listened enough to see what you were doing. Some of the things you occasionally did after that set him off again, but he seems to like what you're doing in general."

"Of course, he doesn't know about the promotions," Bradley added. "I'm leaving that for you to tell him on Monday."

"You're going to lie to him?" Bethany asked in surprise.

"Of course not!" Bradley grinned. "I'm just not going to answer the phone. It will drive him mad!"

"Bradley's pushed back his return to school until the middle of next week so that he can be here to see how his father reacts," Judy smiled.

"Oh, and I suppose it has nothing to do with the fact that you're flying out in that direction for a sales call?" Bethany asked.

"It might," Judy said, laughing.

"Clark, do you ever get the feeling that you're missing something?" Helen asked pointedly.

"Not me," Clark answered with a grin. "I make sure to touch base with Sally at least once a day." This caused the whole group to laugh.

"You know, we are going to have to do something about the 'Queen' of the rumor mill eventually. She's good at what she does, but we can't have her spreading these crazy rumors," I sighed.

"Oh, I've already got that figured out," Bethany smiled. "She's going to be your new assistant."

"What?" I cried in surprise. "Are you crazy?"

"Actually, Sally is probably a good fit," Judy put in, still smiling.

"You're both insane!" I cried.

"Okay, I can see this is going to take a little convincing," Bethany frowned and then turned to Helen and asked, "Can you please go get Sally?" The redhead nodded and left.

"First of all, I do not need an assistant," I snapped. "And second of all, if I did, it wouldn't be Sally."

"Of course it will be," Bethany smiled. "A CEO's assistant needs two important skills out side of intelligence. First she needs to be extremely organized."

"And you can't argue that Sally isn't that," Clark put in, although he didn't look anymore convinced of Bethany choice for my assistant than I was.

"Fine, she's organized," I growled. "But..."

"And the second thing she needs," Bethany said, overriding me. "Is the ability to know the pulse of a company. She needs to be aware of what's going on so that she can keep the CEO informed. You have no idea how many times over the years I've had to sit Brad down and reconnect him with the people under him. Sometimes you high and mighty CEO types lose the forest for the trees."

I wanted to argue the point, but in this area, Bethany was actually more qualified than me. There was no arguing that she was an exceptional assistant. Better than I'd ever met before. If she said that these things were important, then they were. Yet, there were other things that had to be important as well.

"Maybe you're right," I said grudgingly. "But what about loyalty and not letting sensitive details about what I'm working on getting out?"

"If Sally wasn't the loyal type, I wouldn't have picked her," Bethany shrugged. "And she's too smart to spread rumors about those types of things you're worried about. In fact, I know for a fact that she frequently does her best to squelch rumors that shouldn't be spread or are simply untrue." I opened my mouth to argue some more, but Helen returned with Sally.

"Hello Sally," Bethany said, taking the lead.

"Hello," the woman replied.

"Tell me, how do you think the meeting went?" Bethany asked.

"Pretty good," Sally replied. "People like the vision Joe set out for them."

"Any problems we should know about?" Clark asked.

"It's too early to tell," Sally shrugged. "Although I'm betting you'll have some problem with Tim. More than one person mentioned his attitude after the meeting. In fact, I'm guessing he'll be in either this office or Bethany's as soon as he works up the nerve."

"He'd better hope he goes to Bethany," I said with a shake of my head. "First of all he reports to her now."

"And second of all, I don't have the time to deal with someone as inept as him. If he comes to me I'll probably fire him. We've got too many changes going on to let him screw things up!"

"Do me a favor Sally. Make sure he comes to me," Bethany sighed. "I'd like to give him a chance. He's been with the company a lot of years."

"It's your call, but I'd get rid of him," I shrugged. Bethany nodded. She had hoped to deal with Tim on Monday, but he obviously wasn't going to wait.

"In fact, after we leave here, let him know I want to see him," she told Sally.

"Sure," Sally answered.

"So what are the odds on who takes over product development?" Helen asked, deciding to help Bethany out.

"Well, again, it's pretty early," Sally laughed. "But right now it's about a thirty-three percent chance that we'll have to hire outside of the company, a thirty-three percent chance that Simon will get it and the final thirty-three percent is that someone else internal will get the job. Actually Helen, you're the next closest to Simon."

"I don't want the job!" Helen frowned.

"I know," Sally laughed. "And I think that's why you're not the favorite, but some people still think it's likely."

"Well, it's not!" Helen snapped. Sally just shrugged.

"And who is favored to take over Bethany's role as the CEO's assistant?" Judy asked. Sally frowned.

"That's actually a hard one to figure out," she said.

"What's the early money in the pool say?" Clark grinned.

"Well, I'm the favorite by quite a margin," she said. "But I think Bethany picking me in the pool has a lot to do with that."

"You took part in a pool?" I asked Bethany. She shrugged at first, but then answered.

"I'm always willing to bet on a sure thing," she grinned.

"But..." I began, but cut myself short. After all, Sally was right in front of me.

"It's okay," Sally shrugged. "I figured that you wouldn't want me. That's what makes this hard."

"It's not you," I said carefully. "I don't want an assistant at all."

"That's just silly," Sally said bluntly. "You'll need an assistant."

"Is there a pool and odds for that?" I asked, a little sarcastically.

"No," Sally snorted. "That's just common sense. But if you want odds, then I'd say that there is less than one percent change of you not having an assistant by month's end."

"Am I talking to a potential assistant or a bookie?" I grumbled. Sally laughed.

"I'm not a bookie," she answered between laughed. "I don't take a percentage."

"So, you just run the office pool for kicks?" I frowned.

"Sure," she said, slowly stopping her laughter. "That and moral. You'd be amazed how something as simple as a pool for when someone will have a baby affects people."

"Do you want the job?" I asked, surprising myself.

"I'm not sure," she answered, surprising me.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, for starters, I like running the company pools," she grinned. "If I take the job I'll have to hand it off to someone else."

"Who?" Helen asked, obviously curious.

"Probably Claire," Sally replied. I shook my head.

"Back to your reasons why you're not sure you want the job," I said pointedly. Sally smiled.

"It's a lot of responsibility," she said, but her tone didn't make it seem like she was really worried about that.

"Bull," I said succinctly. Instead of being offended, Sally laughed.

"Okay, I guess the truth is that I'm still not sure if we complement each other," she answered.

"You do," Bethany said.

"What you mean to say is that we should," Sally said. "But sometimes should and do aren't the same."

I looked at Sally carefully. She really wasn't what I expected as an assistant, but I suddenly realized that she was qualified for the job. She was impressing me during the conversation and she already had Bethany's, not to mention the other managers' approval.

"How about a trial period?" I found myself asking. "You'll take the job for two months and afterward, if we both agree, you'll be promoted. If not, you go back to your old job with no hard feelings."

"A month should be long enough," Sally replied. "We'll probably both figure it out quickly enough."

"Deal," I said, surprising myself. "You'll start on Monday."

"I'll start today," she replied. "I'll need this weekend to get organized. Just let me go back to my desk and get someone to fill in and I'll be back. I'll want to meet with you and Bethany when it's convenient." I watched Sally leave and then turned to the others with a raised eyebrow.

"This should be fun to watch," Judy grinned.

"I'm regretting my decision already," I groaned.

"Enjoy the feeling while it lasts," Bethany put in. "I'm willing to bet she'll be indispensable to you within a week!"

***

Bethany grinned as she made her way back to her office. Sally was going to work out well. Joe would be happy once he got used to her. Bethany barely sat in her chair when Tim walked in. He didn't bother to knock. Bethany took a deep breath. This wasn't going to be fun, but it was part of the new job.

"What can I do for you Tim?" she asked calmly.

"I want to be an assistant vice president," he said without preamble.

"Okay, I'll take it under advisement," Bethany said, hoping to push off a confrontation. She figured it was impossible based on Tim's body language. He was leaning aggressively over her desk.

"You'll need to do more than that!" Tim snapped.

"Pardon?" Bethany said, feeling a sharp spike of anger. She promised herself that would not loose her temper the first day as a vice president. She could handle Tim without going there.

"Karl is gone and so is Sara-Jane!" he continued. "You're nothing more than a gloried secretary! You need me! I'm the only thing holding this department together!"

"Tim," Bethany said carefully. "I know it's been a couple of difficult weeks for you, so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked angrily.

"I'm going to give you a chance to leave now and I'll forget what you just said. If you do, I'll set up a meeting for Monday morning and we can discuss your roll in the future of the company."

"You don't seem to understand," Tim said with a roll of his eyes. He was treating her as if Bethany was stupid. It bothered her, but Bethany was confident enough in her intelligence not to let it drive her to do or say something stupid. Tim didn't seem to be able to do the same. "Either you promote me or I leave you with that psycho Helen to handle the department by yourselves!"

"If that's what you think is best," Bethany said smiling sweetly.

"I'm not kidding!" he growled.

"I'm aware of that," Bethany sighed.

"You won't last a month without me to keep things going!" Tim snapped. Bethany took a moment to look at Tim carefully. She was amazed to see that he really thought what he was saying was true. Here she was trying to find a way of saving his job for him and he was threatening her! She started to get angry, but instead found herself fighting against laughing.

"Is everything okay in here?" Sally asked from the doorway. Tim's voice was pretty loud.

"Yes, we're fine," Bethany replied. "Do me a favor and close the door on the way out."

"Sure," Sally said, but then she looked at Tim pointedly and added to Bethany, "Just call me if you need me to do anything, like call security."

"We'll be fine," I smiled. Sally nodded and left, but not without giving Tim one more meaningful look. Tim calmed slightly.

"Tim, this glorified secretary is now in charge of the area," Bethany began in a no nonsense tone of voice. "And since you think you've had enough time to judge me as a boss, then I think it only fair that I give you my initial opinion of you and your work habits."

"You are a solid analyst and a reasonable good system designer. If you left we'd miss you," she continued, confusing Tim by her kind words. That confusion only lasted until Bethany next words. "However, you are a poor manager and rather inept at setting priorities. I doubt you'll ever develop into a manager of any sort, much less an assistant vice president. Although, I'm certain willing to consider it in the future if you find a way of changing my opinion."

"That's your opinion!" Tim said, but he didn't sound as confident as he had before. "I'll just have to talk to someone else!" He suddenly realized that glorified secretary or not, she held his career in her hands. She needed him, but she obviously didn't realize it, and crazy or not, if she fired him, he was out of a job.

"Actually, it's pretty much the opinion of the entire management team," Bethany said serious. "However, mine is the only one that matters in this case. Whether you like it or not, I'm your new boss. Accept it or move on. If it were up to Joe, you'd already be out the door."

"I'll think about it," Tim said obviously warring within himself.

"Good," Bethany replied. "You're done for the day. Go home and try and figure out what you want. Come back on Monday and let me know."

Tim started to open his mouth, but something in Bethany's expression must have warned him. He stood and made his way toward the door.

"Tim, one more thing," Bethany said as he reached for the knob. "If you do come back I expect you to apologize to Helen and I for your unprofessional words and behavior."

Tim left without a word and only slammed the door enough to rattle the hinges, not rip the door off of them, but it was a close thing. Helen knocked and entered a few moments later.

"Sally says that Tim made an ass out of himself," she began without preamble.

"I expect we'd better start planning on losing him," Bethany sighed. "I gave him a choice, but I doubt he'll last very long even if he comes back on Monday. He seems to have a problem working for a glorified secretary."

"He didn't say that?" Helen asked in amazement.

"That wasn't really half bad. He called you 'psycho' Helen," Bethany grinned. Helen looked at her only long enough to realize she was telling the truth and then burst out laughing.

"I hope he does come back!" she laughed. "I have a couple of project he'll just love!" Helen continued to laugh as she added, "Better yet! Maybe we should transfer him to product development? He'll love all of the bug work they have planned for the next couple of months."

"It wouldn't really be a punishment for Tim. He's so delusional that he'd only end up convincing himself that he was transferred to be groomed for the vice president job there," Bethany replied, joining Helen in her laughter. They were interrupted by the phone. Bethany picked it up and answered.

"Hello," she said, not bothering to give her name since it was an internal call. She listened for a moment before nodding and saying, "Okay, I'll be right there."

"What's up?" Helen asked as Bethany hung up.

"Nothing really," Bethany shrugged. "Sally found someone to cover the phones. She wants to meet with Joe and me now."

"Well then," Helen grinned. "You'd better hop to it! You don't want to keep Sally waiting." Bethany rolled her eyes.

"I'll see you in a little while," Bethany said. "We need to figure out how to handle the possibility of losing Tim. We may need to have someone else shifted into the area. Either that or hire someone new."

"I'll think about it while you're gone," Helen replied, and then changed the subject. "By the way, did Judy talked to you about going out for drinks tonight?"

"Not yet," Bethany frowned.

"She will," Helen replied. "She is trying to get us ladies to go out for a celebratory drink for our promotions."

"That's not very fair to poor Clark," Bethany said.

"She asked him first," Helen replied. "But you know Clark. One of his kids has some sport or another they're playing. Besides, I think he'd rather celebrate with his wife."

"What about Judy? I would think she'll wants to celebrate with Bradley," Bethany asked.

"She probably will later, but she wants to go out for drinks first," Helen shrugged. "You should probably invite Sally while your meeting with Joe and her. She got promoted as well."

Bethany nodded and made her way to Joe's office. Sally was already there. They had started without her. Good! She joined in and an hour later they were still talking when Judy popped her head in.

"Let's go ladies," she grinned. "I'm buying the first round!"

"Where are you going?" Joe asked with a frown.

"For a celebratory drink," Judy said. "Sorry Joe, ladies only. Besides, it's for only those of us who received promotions today. You never did mention any change in your own position."

"Hey that's true!" Sally laughed.

"You do realize that in theory at least, you work for Clark?" Bethany asked with a grin. "After all, a vice president of Implementation is a higher ranking title than Director of Implementation. He's an officer of the company. You're not."

"Have your fun now ladies," Joe smiled. "But next week Brad returns and you'd better hope he decides to promote me as well, otherwise your promotions might be short lived. In fact, as director of implementations, I didn't have the authority to give you those promotions in the first place!"