Chapter 8: New People

Jan and I kept our ears tuned for any negative feedback about her promotion. We heard nothing. However, we did get some comments passed along by Lori. A couple of the older, veteran sales reps were grumbling about have to work for "some slave-driving, menopausal woman." Lori had tipped Jan and she in turn, came to me for advice.

"Nip it in the bud, Jan. Talk to them, tell them what you heard, ask them to confirm it, then tell them what you expect from them. Above all, don't let them undermine you with the other sales people. They have two choices, get on board, or leave. You might as well tell them straight out. Don't beat around the bush. I'll only intervene if you can't get a commitment from them. Okay?"

"Yes," she said, not looking very happy. It was her first management problem and I was curious about how she would handle it. When she left my office, I went to see Sue.

"Sounds like we have some dissention in the sales staff," I told her. "Jan's going to handle it, but we may be looking for one or two new sales reps in the near future."

"I'm not surprised, Gabe. There were bound to be a couple of guys who couldn't handle the new regime. I'm almost willing to bet who the two are," she said.

"Enlighten me."

"Foster and Mittenburg," she said. "They were pretty thick with Walter. It'll be interesting to see if I'm right. I wouldn't put it past Walter to stir up trouble, either. He's probably pissed that he couldn't make his suit stick."

I nodded. That made sense. I might have to call Rand Metzler again if this was going to be an ongoing problem.

It was two days later that Sue's prediction proved to be correct. Martin Foster and John Mittenburg were the two men who had been overheard casting disparaging remarks about Jan's appointment.

"How did it go?" I asked Jan when she came to see me.

"Not good, Boss. I think we should prepare an ad for the newspaper. We're going to need a couple of new sales ... persons."

"Okay, fill me in," I said, trying not to grin. This was serious to Jan and her first experience at having to exert her authority.

"They said I didn't have any sales experience and had no business being appointed sales manager. They said I would fail because I couldn't get the respect and support of the other salesmen. They made it pretty obvious their big complaint was that I was a woman, but they pretended it was about my lack of experience."

"And you replied?"

"I told them that based on their past performance, I didn't think it would be too hard to replace them. If they weren't happy, they were free to leave. That caught them cold. They tried to imply that I was firing them and I told them that I wasn't, but that wasn't beyond the realm of possibility.

"Then I got the big severance speech. They were long-serving, loyal employees and they expected to be treated as such. I reminded them that they have been overheard badmouthing me by another member of the management staff and they would have a hard time making a case for loyalty."

I allowed myself a small smile. I liked the way Jan had handled this.

"Any raised voices?" I asked.

"No, not by me. Some threats about legal action, but no one lost their temper. I don't know, Boss, but it almost sounds like Walter Trimble has been coaching them."

"Huh! That's exactly was Sue was wondering," I said. "Okay, so what's the bottom line?"

"I've told them they are on probation and that I would give them a written letter, a copy of which would be in their personnel file. I was putting them on notice that any further action that we construed as destructive to the relationship between the staff and management would result in dismissal. I hope I haven't overstepped my bounds."

I was shaking my head. "No, not at all. I'll get an opinion from Rand Metzler and make sure we're within our rights. I don't know Washington state labor laws, but I can't see you having crossed that line. I'll talk to Rand before you type the letter. Make sure it's clear and concise."

"Thanks," she said with a look of relief. "That was no fun."

"It's not supposed to be, Jan. This is the hard part of the job, dealing with difficult employees. I wondered if this might happen, and to get it out in the open this soon in your new career is probably a good thing."

She nodded. "Thanks again, Boss," she said, rising to leave.

"Just one more thing before you go," I said.

"What?"

"Please don't call me Boss."

She grinned and nodded agreement. I wondered how long that would last.

Rand Metzler was satisfied we had conformed to the state regulations and would have no problems as a result. He did suggest how the letter might be worded to make sure there was no ambiguity. I thanked him for his help and followed his suggestion with Jan drafting the letter and having it reviewed by him before having it printed and submitted to the two men.

In the meantime, I suggested a possible advertisement that we should be ready to run at a moment's notice. I had done this before and found that Black Gold's name was a good thing to display in the ad. We had a reputation and although it wasn't yet great in this region, it would let everyone know we were hiring. There were very few secrets in the coffee business and I was pretty sure our competitors had a good idea of what to expect from us. If all went according to plan, we were going to become a force to be reckoned with in the not-too-distant future.

Foster and Mittenburg made things easy for us. They quit, giving no notice, but demanding an update on their commissions. Jan submitted the help wanted advertisement to the two major news outlets in Seattle the same day, to run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Times still ran a print version, but the Post-Intelligencer was online only. By Wednesday of the following week, we had over two hundred replies.

"An embarrassment of riches," I laughed as Jan moaned about how she would ever sort through all the applications. Almost all of them had come via e-mail.

"First," I suggested, "look for experience. Second, look at the work record if it's included. Third, look for references. Go through all the replies and sort out the ones that catch your eye. You never know what you're going to find among all those applications."

She left my office shaking her head, wondering how long it would take just to sort through all the e-mails. It turned out, not too long at all. She was in my office the next morning.

"Look what I found," she said, passing me a couple of printouts of résumés from e-mails. She also passed me a hand-written application.

I looked over the three examples she provided and could immediately see what she saw. We had two experienced coffee sales applicants and both were female. The hand-written application was also from a female in Wenatchee. Some experience in the food service sales business, but not exclusively coffee.

"Women only, huh?" I kidded. "Okay, this is a good beginning. I would start by calling them and arranging interviews."

"What about this one from Wenatchee?"

"Talk to her. She might fit our longer-range plan. Try and get a sense of what kind of customers she dealt with and at what level. If her handwriting is any indication, she's mature and neat."

"How do you figure that?" Jan asked.

"Not many young people concentrate on handwriting any more. Her penmanship is excellent and her grammar is good. That tells me she's no kid."

Jan looked at me with surprise, shook her head, then left for her office. It's fun to have something to offer that people don't expect.

She arranged interviews with the two local candidates, both working for competitors. The woman in Wenatchee turned out to be mature, as I suspected, and had planned to come to Seattle to visit relatives. Jan made arrangements with her for a weekend meeting.

"I have a problem," Jan reported on Monday morning.

"Go ahead," I said, interested in what it might be.

"I interviewed all three candidates. I can't decide which one I won't hire."

"Uhhm ... that sounds like you mean all three are good," I suggested.

"Not just good ... they're very good. Experienced, good work ethic, very presentable."

"Okay, why don't you tell me about the two locals?"

"Diana Kilgore works for Cascade. She's been passed over for a better territory a couple of times. Apparently, she rejected the advances of her manager and he's making her pay for that. She gave me references that I thought were pretty sound. A couple of large hotel chains and two hospitals. I'll be checking them out today, but I'm thinking she wouldn't offer them unless she was confident."

"Probably," I agreed.

"Shanté Marshall works for Puget Sound. She's been there five years and doesn't see any growth. She's heard about us and thinks it might be an opportunity to get on with a more aggressive company. She thinks some of her customers will follow her."

"How old do you think these women are?" I asked.

"I'm guessing Diane is mid-thirties and Shanté is late twenties. Both are attractive women, properly dressed and professional looking. Shanté is African-American."

"Good. They're mature enough, but still young. That would be a good addition to the local staff. Tell me about the woman from Wenatchee."

"Rita Vantreight is older, maybe fifty. Energetic, a bit overweight, but lively with a good sense of humor. She's been working for a food service supplier who's sold out to Sysco. They have their own sales staff, so she's got a severance package to tide her over until she can find something."

"And you think she's our kind of person?" I asked.

"Yes. We got talking about strategies and what makes good companies good, and she and I are right with you on that. She has some ideas for developing customers. She's a self-starter, Gabe. I think she could make that valley area into something quite profitable for us."

"Okay. So, what's the problem?" I grinned.

"Uhhm, I thought I was only hiring two people," she answered uncertainly.

"Well, plans change," I said. "Were there any other candidates in the résumés that caught your eye?"

"A couple, but they had no experience at either sales or coffee. They were both recent graduates from community college. They sent pictures along with their file and I thought that was a good idea. They are both high achievement people, according to their college records."

"When Karen takes over for you in customer service, who will take her place?" I asked.

"I guess that will be up to Karen," she said.