Chapter 1

We have all heard of or seen the pyramid that Maslow created that shows us how we must meet our needs to be fulfilled and happy. The pyramid graph shows us that we need to meet our basic needs before we can effectively meet our higher needs. Simply put, we need to have food, water, shelter etc., before we can accomplish higher needs such as love, respect, and self-actualization. I have been fortunate for most of my life and my needs have been met all the way to the top of the pyramid. Like most people in the world, I had taken that for granted. My life was turned upside down when the economy went through a major downturn and we suffered a series of expensive repairs to our home. The problem was made worse when my husband was laid off and he was unable to find comparable employment.

What happened within a few months was we went from enjoying life at the top of the pyramid, to worrying about the possibility of losing everything and not being able to meet even our basic needs. We were behind on our house payment, car payment and even the electric company was calling wanting their money.

I let fear take hold of my mind. I was worried that we would become homeless and that fear spurred me to apply for a different position at the company I worked for.

I have worked for the same company for nearly thirty years. I have been toying with the idea of applying for an office job for some time. It may have been my worry about our finances that tipped the scales toward applying for the job, but I finally decided that I wanted to, or maybe it was, needed to move up within the company.

I have worked in most positions within the factory, and I have always received positive reviews from my supervisors. I worked hard to earn those positive reviews, and I have never had to, or wanted to, flirt with any of my supervisors. After twenty-eight years of working for this company, I decided that I want to work in the office and be part of something more than putting part A into part B.

One reason I wanted to move into an office job is that the office position pays significantly more than the jobs I have held working on the factory floor. Part of my motivation to secure the higher paying job is because my husband, Jim, has been laid off due to the downturn in the economy.

The job I have my eye on is to be the personal assistant to the owner/manager. In that position, I hope I can make a positive difference for the company and for my coworkers. The position is usually given to an attractive young woman, but I hope my years of experience and knowledge of the company, will work in my favor. I have noticed, over the years, that several women have been given the job, as the owner’s personal assistant, but they did not last long. There are always rumors that the woman left because her husband thought [KK1.1]she was having an affair with someone at work or some other outrageous speculation. I am careful to ignore the rumor mill. My job is very important to me; if I were to lose my job, it would be devastating for my husband and me. The fact that the new position pays roughly twice as much as I have been earning, allows me to take a certain level of risk. When the opening was posted, I applied. I expected that their decision would be a quick yes or no, but instead, someone scheduled me for three separate interviews.

The first interview was in front of a panel of managers. The questions were typical interview questions. I had worked under each of the managers, so they knew my work ethic, and I easily moved to the second interview. The second interview was with the owner himself. He explained that he wanted to be sure that I would be a team player. I feel that he must be a family man because he asked a lot of questions to be sure that if we had to go out of town, it would not create problems for me at home. I appreciated his concern; I think he will be a great boss.

He asked a couple of questions that amounted to asking me if I was one of those whiney women who would go to HR if he were to say or do something inappropriate during a meeting or when he had been drinking. I had to chuckle because after years of working on the factory floor, I was the one who probably needed to watch her mouth. I assured him that I am a grown woman and I would handle any situation that came up, tactfully, without involving HR, or anyone else. The owner smiled when I said that. Seeing that I had the owner’s approval, I added that in the real world, things happen and they should just be ignored or forgiven. The owner smiled even bigger.

When he offered me the position, the first thing he told me was that if I accepted the job, I would have to stop calling him “Mr. Hicks” and call him Robert. He explained that he wanted our customers to believe that I was an equal partner in any negotiations. His theory was that there were usually two or more representatives from the company that we were courting, selling our services to; With me being part of the negotiations, it helped even the score. He wanted me to be respected as an equal and not thought of as his assistant or his secretary. He told me that he thought I was the person to do the job. Those comments were some of the highest praises I had ever received. I felt like I was walking on air.

I asked if I could return to my old job if this position did not work out. He shook his head, sadly, and told me that this was a one-way opportunity. He, Robert, explained that after working for him, I would be ridiculed and subjected to too many questions about what went on during the bidding process. He explained that I would be privileged to many dollar figures and personal information that might cause the other employees to feel that they should receive more pay or that he was in some way cheating them in the process. Robert defended his business practices by saying that he is currently paying significantly more than his competitors. Robert told me and I had to agree that most of the people who worked on the factory floor did not understand business well enough to be privileged to that kind of information. He explained that I would have to sign a non-compete agreement that contained clauses limiting what I could tell anyone about my job, including my husband. When I baulked at the thought of not being able to tell my husband what I was doing, he assured that the decision to limit what the husband was told, stemmed from the fact that they often knew and were friends with my former co-workers. If he tells a friend of his and that friend tells another friend, eventually, there is no confidential information left to give our company an advantage in the bidding process. However, he made it clear that I could tell my husband what we were doing, such as, we are trying to get “The Smith Corporations” business. He just did not want me to tell him or anyone else what prices and services we were offering to win the contract. Robert assured me that the only reason that I would be let go would be because I was not suitable for the job.

This scared me a little because I knew that if I was fired, I could not get a job that paid nearly as well as the one I had now. To ease my fears, Robert told me that as the final step in the interview process, we would be attending a mock business meeting with some of his friends. He joked that his friends were horrible customers, but they would give me a good idea of some of the situations that I would incur as part of my new job. If I was unable or unwilling to continue after the mock meeting, he would allow, this one time, for me to reclaim my previous position on the factory floor. My fears were real but the high praise he had given me caused me to accept the job. I promised to do my best.

After shaking my hand and reassuring me that I would do fine, he advised me that my final test of the application process would be the following night. The dinner was not with potential clients; it would just be the two of us and the two long-term friends that he had warned me about. They met for a monthly meal, at one of the nicer steak houses in our town. He wanted me to be dressed nicely, as if we were meeting actual clients. I would be expected to be part of the conversations, when it was appropriate, and in essence, be his arm candy for the evening.

The whole thing sounded a bit weird, but I knew that the biggest deals were made on the golf course or in a bar, after the main meetings, so I understood why he wanted to be sure that I could handle myself in a business conversation.

When I got home that night, I explained the opportunity to my husband, Jim, and told him that I had already accepted the job. He was less than impressed and suggested that the owner was more interested in how I would act as his date, rather than needing me to be part of the negotiations. Jim also suggested that the part of the negotiations that he probably had in mind for me was for me to subtly offer myself, to the client, as an incentive for them to sign the agreement. My husband’s attitude pissed me off. He was unemployed and I was stepping up to support our household, and all he could do is imply that I would be a low-priced escort.