Chapter 41: Business and Pleasure

November 24, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“It’s very good to see you, Bethany,” Al Barton said. “I’m sorry about your loss.”

“Thank you, Doctor Barton,” Bethany replied. “It’s good to see you as well!”

“And this must be Nicholas!” Doctor Barton said with a big smile.

Bethany handed Nicholas to Doctor Barton. Nicholas fussed a bit but calmed down quickly.

“Bethany, I’d like you to meet my wife Belinda and my children Fawn and Gerry. Everyone, this is Bethany. I’ve told you all about her.”

“Welcome!” Belinda said. “Come in. We have pumpkin or apple pie and ice cream. We also have coffee, tea, and drinks, if you wish.”

We followed her to the dining room, and she and Fawn went to the kitchen to bring out the ice cream, coffee pot, and teapot.

“Did anyone want anything to drink besides coffee or tea?” Doctor Barton asked.

We all declined, and then Belinda and Fawn served pie and ice cream to all while Doctor Barton poured either tea or coffee for everyone.

“Tell me about your practice, if you would,” Al said to Bethany.

For the next twenty minutes, we ate our pie and ice cream, and they carried on a conversation about Bethany’s practice, her life after Nick’s death, and her plans for the future. When we finished eating, Belinda produced a 35mm camera and took pictures of Bethany, Nicholas, and Al. When they’d finished with the pictures, we all had another cup of coffee or tea.

“I hear you’re going to sit on the Board of Steve’s company,” Bethany said.

Al nodded, “Yes. He’s very persuasive!”

Jessica, Kara, and Bethany all laughed.

“We know!” Kara giggled.

“He must be to have all those hot girls in the house with him!” Gerry sighed.

“Forget it, young man!” Belinda said firmly.

“Aww, Mom!” Gerry whined.

That caused everyone to laugh again. We finished our second cup, and then Al walked us to the door.

“Thanks for coming to visit me, Bethany,” he said.

“You’re welcome, Doctor Barton. Thanks for saving my life.”

He smiled, “All in a day’s work.”

We shook hands, and then Bethany, my wives, and I headed back to the house.

November 28, 1990, St. Charles, Illinois

“If Dave weren’t here, I’d be suspicious of you bringing all of us to a resort hotel,” Cindi laughed.

We all laughed with her, and I just shook my head when I saw Elyse smirk and mouth ‘they wish’!

Cindi, Dave, Julia, Elyse, Kimmy, and I were sitting in a small conference room at Pheasant Run in the western suburbs of Chicago. Kimmy was there as Elyse’s aide and to keep minutes. I trusted her to keep everything to herself, and Elyse was equally confident.

“Do we have an agenda, or are we going to spend the day giving Steve a hard time?” Dave asked.

“We have an agenda,” I said. “I purposefully kept it to myself until today because I didn’t want it discussed in advance.”

“You’re not usually cloak-and-dagger,” Julia said. “What’s going on?”

“I did an exit interview with Tim before he left, and he pointed out something of which we all should have been aware. He pointed out that there’s a perception of favoritism because I’m friends with some of the staff. He mentioned our relationships as well, though because we’re all senior management, nobody is really worried about us.”

“That’s total BS,” Elyse said fiercely. “I know everything — the paychecks, the bonuses, and the benefits. Yes, there is the issue of the team leads, but again, there was no favoritism in making Charlie a manager and Tasha a team lead.”

“What about Penny?” Dave asked.

“Other than sharing an office with Steve, she hasn’t received any special treatment,” Elyse protested.

“It’s all about perception,” I said. “And as we all know, perception is reality.”

“So what do we do?” Dave asked. “It’s not as if I’m even going to THINK about moving Tasha out of her position. It would be the height of stupidity. And I’m sure that Julia agrees about Charlie.”

“I do,” Julie confirmed. “I guess I just don’t see it.”

“Because it’s not real,” I said. “But that’s not the problem. Tim said that it was talked about, though nobody could point to any actual favoritism.”

“Then there isn’t a problem,” Cindi said.

“If the staff thinks there might be favoritism, then there is a problem,” I said. “Not with favoritism, but with what they think.”

“So how do we address that?” Dave asked. “If we make a big deal about it, it will only reinforce the suspicion that Steve IS playing favorites. Honestly, I think we just let it go. If someone raises a specific issue, then we deal with it. Until then, we keep doing what we’re doing.”

“Kimmy, you’re the office manager,” I said. “Have you heard anything like this?”

“No, but really, I don’t spend much time talking to anyone except you, Keri, Penny, Elyse, and Tasha.”

I had a problem in that I wanted to ask her about Keri, but doing that might reveal the confidence that Kimmy and I both kept and that Elyse shared with us.

“So what do you think?” Elyse asked.

“I don’t see it,” Kimmy said. “I don’t think Steve treats anyone differently based on friendship. And other than Penny and Jeri, he mostly talks with the other managers. He has to talk more with Jeri, Penny, and Zo because of his programming duties.”

“Honestly, I don’t see what we can do differently,” Cindi said. “Unless we’re going to have Steve simply stop talking to staff, which won’t work because he’s the CEO for several more years. Unless someone comes forward with a specific claim of favoritism, I say we just ignore this. It’s not like staff is leaving in droves or that there’s any complaining that I’m aware of. As far as I can tell, all my team members are happy.”

“Mine are as well,” Dave added. “Tim decided to leave because his fiancée pushed him to leave, not because he was unhappy. If we’d had a full-time programmer’s job available, I am sure he would have stayed.”

“I did have to press him to get him to tell me this, but I still think we need to be on our guard.”

“That’s always true in any company,” Elyse said. “In my management courses, they talked about the difficulties of keeping relationships ‘all business’ in small companies. Of course, we don’t really have one of the usual problems — nepotism.”

“I think that’s pretty obvious, given that Steve was the one who decided to move his sister out of the line of succession, at least for now. The fact that she’ll get some solid outside experience is a good thing.”

I chuckled, “So, no JFK quip about Bobby Kennedy?”

Elyse laughed, “’I see nothing wrong with giving Robert some legal experience as Attorney General before he goes out to practice law.’”

Everyone else laughed as well.

“That’s the quote I was going for,” I said. “I still have some concerns about the staff talking about things like this because it could easily generate ill will and might cause some dissension in the ranks. I think we need to keep an eye on it. But that’s enough on that topic for now. Next up is our strategic plan. I’d suggest we create a five-year plan, but that reminds me of «GOSPLAN»!”

More laughter.

“After all,” Elyse smirked, “we are not communists! Right, Don Stephen?”

More laughter.

I continued, “Let’s discuss the software packages, then consulting, and then our support offerings.”

That took us until lunch. After lunch, we talked about staff plans to support what we’d discussed before lunch.

“I won’t say ‘no’ to three more programmers,” Dave said. “Especially given I don’t get nearly as much of Steve’s time as I’d like.”

Elyse laughed, “Me neither!”

“Ahem,” Dave said with a grin. “I was talking about WORK, not play! Anyway, yes, three more programmers. I agree that hiring one right away because of Steve’s lack of availability is probably the right course. We’ll wait until May for the other two.”

We switched to talking about sales and support staff, and beyond Cindi’s plan to hire one new salesperson after the first of the year, she felt that by mid-year, we’d need another on-site support person.

“How about current staff? Any issues or concerns with anyone?” I asked. “Or anyone we think might be thinking of leaving?”

“Greg is getting restless,” Dave said. “It’s not that we don’t throw challenging things his way, but I think he’s looking for something different. Not as in he’s going to leave right away, but if he finds the right role, he just might.”

“How badly would that hurt our joint project with Dante?” I asked.

“At this point? It would be painful, but it wouldn’t cause major problems. It’s solid, well-documented code. You might even call it ‘elegant’,” he smiled. “DP is planning on releasing a new testing machine in the Spring, but we’ve done most of the work to update the programs to work with it.”

“Is there anything we can do to keep him?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” Dave said.

“Maybe talk with him and kind of feel him out for what he wants to do,” Julia said. “He’s been a good source of very creative technical solutions. And we really want him around when the time comes to convert all the databases.”

“Is it money?” Elyse asked.

“I don’t think so,” Dave said. “I mean, sure, more money is good, but Greg doesn’t seem to be driven by money. And he’s very well paid. He’s the outlier, but he’s in a special position. He’s the only one besides Steve with the title ‘Principal Software Engineer’. Steve agreed to that last Spring, and it made Greg very happy, but his real motivation is having challenging things to work on. I guess I don’t know what our next really challenging project will be after the SQL conversion.”

“That’s going to be tough, given that we don’t want to overextend ourselves,” I said. “We agreed this morning that we need to stay focused. That’s why we sold off the other software packages. All three areas are growing at a nice pace. Really, we’d need to find something like our deal with Dante or a consulting project that required serious technical skills.”

“At this point, all we can do is wait to see what kind of business Cindi’s team can drum up.”

“And Charlie’s,” Cindi added. “Don’t forget the referrals we get from consulting.”

“I won’t! Elyse, is there anything else?”

“Not that I can think of,” she said.

“Good. Then we’ll go to dinner, have a few drinks, and head home.”

November 30, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“Do you have any objections?” Charlie asked late on Friday afternoon.

“None at all. I like both of them. If Brad Kensington and Cathy Turner are the two you want, then fill out the paperwork for Elyse. I’ll sign the offer sheets as soon as they’re prepared.”

“Cool. Thanks!”

“What about the California person? Is your first choice still coming on Monday?”

“Yes. She’s flying in on Sunday night. She’ll be here first thing on Monday for her interviews.”

“Good. Anything else?”

“No, that’s it for today.”

“Actually, I want to ask you something,” I said.

“Sure. What?”

“Are you hearing anything from the staff about favoritism?”

“Favoritism? By who? You? That’s a laugh! You’re the fairest person I’ve ever met!”

“Tim told me, in his exit interview, that the staff was talking about it.”

“Seriously? Other than your special relationship with Penny, I just don’t see it. And I haven’t heard anything like that. I don’t think it’s an issue.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Have a great weekend. I’ll see you on Monday.”

She left, and I shut down my computer so that I could walk to the hospital to meet Jessica.

December 1, 1990, Chicago, Illinois

“Are we taking a vacation next Summer?” Kara asked at breakfast on Saturday morning.

“Are we talking just we three or with the kids?” I asked.

“I suppose that depends on where we go,” Kara said.

“If it were up to Tiger, it would be Sweden or Russia,” Jessica said.

“I would love to go to Russia again,” I said. “Or Sweden. But those are long trips and we’d need to be gone at least ten days or so to make it worthwhile. And you know if we go to Russia, Jesse will insist on coming with us!”

“I think the first thing we need to decide is if we’re taking the kids,” Jessica said. “And if we are, are we taking all of them.”

“Doesn’t it depend on where we go and what we do?” I asked.

“We could go around in circles all morning!” Kara giggled. “Part of the problem is that you’re likely to be six or seven months pregnant, Jess.”

“True,” Jessica said. “That more or less rules out going overseas next Summer unless you leave me home.”

“No way, Babe,” I said.

“The problem is, I might not feel like doing much of anything. With Albert, I was fine until the last month, but you never know.”

“Then we plan something close.”

“You and Jesse could go to Russia if you wanted,” Jessica said. “Maybe in the Spring. And we could do something as a family in June.”

“Without you and Kara?” I asked.

“The Adams men on the prowl in Moscow or Saint Petersburg?!” Jessica laughed. “No woman would be safe! But, seriously, I know you want to see your friends, and with the baby, and my Residency, and everything else, I’m not sure when we’d be able to go. What do you think, Kara?”

“I’ll leave it up to Steve,” Kara said. “I’d love to go to Sweden and Russia, but honestly, it would be better if the kids were older. Jesse was a special case when he was two, but I think other than Matthew, the kids are all too young to really appreciate it, and I’m not sure we want to be gone two weeks, or whatever, without them.”

“And our first Disney trip is at least five or six years away,” Jessica said.

“Forget Europe for the moment,” I said. “What do we want to do next June or July?”

“What about going to the UP?” Kara said. “Our last attempt lasted less than forty-eight hours. We could find a place big enough for the three of us and the kids. And we could ask Elyse to join us if she wanted to.”

“That’s fine with me,” I said. “We’d need to clear it with Jennifer and Josie to make sure they don’t have vacation plans at the same time.”

“If we agree, I’ll talk to them today,” Kara said. “And then we’ll decide on dates so Jess can make her vacation request. You’re back in the ER starting June 1st, right, Jess?”

“Yes. So it’s just a matter of letting Doctor Barton know and getting on the schedule.”

“OK. I’ll take care of everything else,” Kara said. “And I think Steve should talk to Vanya and see about a trip to Russia in the Spring.”

“Let me think about it,” I said. “Please don’t say anything to Jesse; you know that would force my hand.”

“Hmm...” Kara smirked.

“Kara, let it be, please,” I pleaded. “I need to think about it, talk to Vanya and Dima, and then clear it with Jennifer. If you shortcut it, it’ll only cause trouble if something doesn’t work out.”