Chapter 56

My body clock refused to recognize the local time, so I was wide awake at three AM local time, six AM LA time. I decided to use the gym so I put some workout clothes on and went downstairs to the lower ground floor.

This area had changed too. There was a hall that led to a glass wall with glass doors that went outside. I’d look at that later. The new enlarged gym was full of equipment that would accommodate as many as six people simultaneously running, biking, or using any of the equipment. I did my stretches, before I began with the treadmill. I only ran for a half hour and then did my weightlifting regime. I went to our suite, showered, and then dressed in some Florida wear; that’s shorts, T-shirt, and sandals. I grabbed my laptop before going down to the big room that was now the ‘salon’ so that I could check e-mails.

Dan had written four e-mails with questions on procedures for some minor things. I replied to each so that he could answer questions for those who asked.

That he had to ask me simple office questions made me smile. I went on a hunt for coffee. There was a new single serve coffee maker on the counter next to the fancy Mr. Coffee they normally used. I found the single serve packets and a mug, and made some coffee.

I really liked the small office that had been built just for me. Hideki and Yuu had their own small offices for when they needed privacy. The large office was for Jules and Katie. My office was equipped with a PC with twin monitors, and a printer in a wall unit to the side. The other side had windows from which I could see the front entrance with the beautiful shrubbery.

I shut my laptop down and turned the big desktop computer on. I was connected to the company’s website with just a few keystrokes. I checked e-mail again and there was nothing new, but the answers I sent had already been read.

I used the house phone that was a multi-line thing with enough buttons to think you were on a spaceship. I called the LA office using the direct line to Kelly. “Hey, Kelly, how’s it going this first morning of my absence?”

“We’re okay, but the news of what the company has done to you has filtered down to us and to all your former region offices. I’ve spoken to them all, and I mean all your Managers, and they are all angry. Home office Accounting sent a memo of the proposed changes in commissions, and that has really sent the populace into a tailspin. You need to call Taz, because he said that he already has his letter of resignation prepared. He says there is no way he can supervise five offices. He said he was nervous over just doing Seattle and Portland, but thought that he could do it with your help, but not five without your help.”

“The Foxworth girls may abandon ship. They don’t want anything to do with the proposed contract changes and saw no reason to work toward less money in the future. I’m sort of with them, Brad. Your new Assistant said that he had a better offer and left after turning his resignation in this morning.”

“And the one I’m surprised at is that Don sent his resignation in last night, and Jim has called the home office to talk to Dan, but Dan isn’t answering. He told me that he’s ready to send his resignation of Regional duties in now. Dorothy is acting like this is going to become a major problem in the company, especially in your former regions.”

“This is another good reason to be away from there, Kelly. You and all the Assistants have a five year agreement, so you are safe salary and commission wise for that period of time. Granted that it may not be as good as it’s been, but it’ll be a hell of lot more than you can earn anywhere else. Try to keep the morale in the office up and try to enjoy being boss.”

My cell phone was ringing, so I told Kelly that I would talk to her later.

“This is Johnson.”

“Who said that you could take your vacation time now, Brad? There are far too many things happening for you to be out of the office.”

“Dan, my contract states that I can take my vacation as emergency leave with a twenty-four notice. I gave notice for the need of emergency leave to reduce stress and made sure my office, region, and local projects were in good order. Good people were left in charge, and I’m available as you can see. It may be eleven AM in Indy but it is five AM in Hawaii.”

Dan said, “You need to call Taz to ask him to stay. He’s sent a letter of resignation in. Your man, Don, has sent his resignation and I have an e-mail from Jim that I haven’t opened. You must have turned all these people against the company.”

“Listen to me, Dan. I haven’t spoken directly to any of the men you just spoke of. I would never intentionally denigrate the company or you. That’s not my style. I may have to go into a corner and lick my wounds, but I’m not vindictive. You’ve made me a simple Regional Manager of the LA area with additional responsibilities of Las Vegas and San Diego. I will continue to work toward the construction of the condominium projects and the North LA office, but I may be short of people. Your accounting staff sent a memo out explaining the new commission structure, and that has immediately lost us both some Assistants. Your announcement of that was a little premature.”

The phone was slammed down.

I finished my coffee and went for another cup.

I returned to my office hearing my cell phone ringing again.

“Johnson.”

It was Dan again. “Look, Brad, I was probably hasty in making the changes I made without discussion first.”

“Ya think?”

“I need your help to keep all these projects going. How can I get your help to straighten this out?”

“I don’t know, Dan. You’ve given the entire company a shock. I haven’t personally spoken to anyone, but I’m sure that if you ask Dorothy, she’ll tell you that she’s heard from almost every Regional and most of the Office Managers. It’s too late to retract all your changes without losing face. You can’t write a general apology to the entire company. That would make you look really bad. Let me think on this and get back to you. If you come up with any good ideas, put them in an e-mail so that I can include them in my reference material.”

“I don’t have time to let you think about it, Brad. I need help right this second. This is the stuff you’re so good at. Come up with the solution and tell me what to do, Brad.”

“I can’t this time, Dan. I have to consider all the areas in progress and the people affected. I’ll try to come up with a solution. Meanwhile, call every office in my former regions and tell them that you spoke hastily when you should have had some discussion about any changes. Ask and beg them to be patient and the situation will be resolved.”

“At the same time, if you change your mind about selling the areas I e-mailed you about, Dan, that offer is still on the table. Except for Texas, that would resolve most of your problem.”

“The company can’t do that, Brad. Your area represents over sixty percent of our revenue right now.”

“How much are those offices worth if they all drop to about twenty-five percent of what they are doing now? That’s what’s going to happen without some fast talking. Get on the phone and settle all your people down.”

“I’ll talk to you later, Dan, I have some things to take care of.”

I didn’t have anything pending, but we weren’t getting anywhere fast. I knew what he wanted. He thought that I would intercede with all his managers and get them to keep the faith in the company. I didn’t have the heart to do that yet. I had lost faith in the company.

My cell rang again and I didn’t recognize the number. “This is Brad Johnson.”

“More like, Asshole Johnson if you ask me,” a female voice exclaimed.

“Pardon me, but I don’t know who is calling.”

“This is Rose, who is Taz Stribling’s significant other in Reno. What have you done to my man? Last week he was bouncing off the wall so proud that he was progressing and he’s ready to commit suicide today. He had me read his letter of resignation to make sure it was the right wording. Sheila is so upset that she can’t talk about anything and Dad isn’t answering calls. What the fuck have you done?”

“I’ll call Taz, Rose, but you need to know that I didn’t do anything. Dan became angry over some criticism and went off on me and the areas I worked. He made a bunch of rash decisions that may wreck the company, but none of it was my decision. I’ll call Taz. You help him write a resignation to his post as Assistant Regional Manager meanwhile. Also check his contract to see how much time he has left of his Office Manager contract. I didn’t have him sign a new agreement because the company doesn’t have one for an Assistant Regional Manager. I had legal working on that.”

Rose said, “Here, talk to Taz now, he’s with me.”

“Hey, Taz.”

“Hey, Brad, what’s happening?”

“I probably shouldn’t discuss what’s happened, so I’ll tell you what I told Rose. Check the date of your last contract renewal and then write your resignation as an Assistant Regional Manager. Get into your office and make your office the best. You can still answer questions for those other folks, but that’s up to you. Just try to settle yourself and all your staff down. I have a feeling the company will go through a shakeup, and then come out of this stronger than ever.”

Taz said, “I’ll do it exactly that way. I sure hope the company stays good. I love my job and thought that I’d love learning to grow a little. Can I call you if I need you?”

“Sure, but we should limit contact as it may be seen as me trying to influence you. Now go back to work.”

We hung up and I knew that I probably needed to call each of the offices I was leaving behind. I couldn’t do that as it would be going beyond what I should do, and there wasn’t a lot I should do right then.

Kelly had sent me an e-mail asking if I was still serious about creating the condominium office in the old building or should that be put on hold. I wrote back that we were still in business and we should continue with our plan.

Dad came into the office, and said, “You’re up early. I heard you go downstairs and then come back for a bit. I figured you were still on LA time, so I didn’t worry about you. I know that you’ve had a big shock, but you know how to handle that. Just say goodbye if it’s really bad. Your wife is some kind of crazy person about working the various markets. Katie is becoming as knowledgeable. The two together are very formidable.”

“That they are, Dad. The offices are becoming unraveled because they’re feeling abandoned and don’t have someone to look after them. I babied all my offices and worked with them to succeed on their own. They did, but they all needed a pat on the back and some encouragement. I can’t do that now, and to think that I almost had my regions smoothed out to coast like I did in Florida.”

My phone rang again. It was Dorothy who said she was calling for Forest Harding. That sounded rather stiff. “This is Brad Johnson.”

“This is Forest. First, I want to thank you for hosting us so often in your LA home. I understand that you’re trying to get some relief in Hawaii. I’m sure that you’ve suffered some shock. My call is more personal than for the company. Please call Sheila to calm her. I didn’t want to talk to her or Rose, but I’ve spoken to both of them. My youngest is nearly hysterical thinking that her career is going to be a complete bust. I think you could settle her down. Text me if you need to talk to me, and I’ll immediately return your call. Remember that I’m Mooney’s legal counsel and must put them first.”

“Not a problem, Forest. Neither you nor Ken can choose a side to be on. I think it’s too late to repair some of the damage, but most of the people have contracts that will go on for nearly five years. Sheila’s is good for at least four more. I’ll call her to settle her down.”

I called Sheila as soon as I hung up, and we had the same conversation I had with Taz. She understood that some things would change, but she would still be in consideration for the San Jose office. I explained that the office opening was going to be put off by at least a month, so that would give the Office Manager time to gather staff. Most of the inner workings were actually planned and should continue and go as planned regardless of who the Manager is.

My ladies came into my office where I had my laptop still open but not turned on, and had the desktop on with both monitors working. I told them that I had almost continuously been on the phone so far this morning. Katie said, “Come to breakfast. We have a welcome home breakfast prepared for us.”

I left my cell phone on the desk and went to the big table with my ladies. We enjoyed a traditional breakfast of bacon and eggs with some good biscuits and pineapple marmalade. While we were eating, Jules asked Dad, “Did you receive the set of golf clubs I had the pro at Hillcrest send? It’s supposed to be the exact set Brad’s been playing with. Katie and I want him out on the golf course as much as possible. Brad has been pushing so hard that he ran over his boss, and the boss is pushing back. The man overreacted and may now have caused some irreparable damage to a lot of offices. Brad will probably spend the day trying to put the Office Managers at ease.”

I told the girls, “I need to give Dan a hint on how to get out of this jam without losing face over it. I’m not even sure that there is a way now. He would be the guilty guy if he was to tell the offices that a couple of major problems surfaced that could have been prevented if the home office had paid better attention, or if he admitted that he dumped more on me without telling me what stage they were in, but he isn’t going to bite the bullet and admit that.”

“That’s what I’ll do and see what action he takes.” I went to my office and logged into the e-mail server.

I had to think about the e-mail for a while before sending it. There was no way to soften this, so I put the mouse icon over ‘Send’ and clicked.

Sitting there worrying about this wasn’t helping my mood, so I found the girls and asked what they wanted to do today. Jules said, “Katie wants to get some sun, and I might enjoy that too, but I’ll be fighting getting darker while Katie is trying to get darker. Why don’t you let the guys see if they can get you a tee time for a quick nine or eighteen holes? That will relax you, or it should at least.”

I picked my phone up to put in my pocket when it began ringing. It was Ken, the partner who never has much to say. “They just hauled Dan out of the office on a gurney. I don’t think he had a heart attack, but he couldn’t breathe right and was almost passed out. I’m sitting at his desk reading your e-mail to him which must have triggered the problem he’s having. Since he’s incapacitated, I’m going to compose an e-mail and get it out to all the offices. I’ll do a personal e-mail to the Managers so that they know this is sincere. Write the e-mail you said you would do as soon as you get mine. I know that you’re in Hawaii trying to get your nerves back in order too.”