The Staircase of Dragon Jerico
Chapter Twenty-Two
ERIN WAS IN THE OFFICE fifteen minutes earlier than usual. The previous week, she and Carver had set up her office in the space that Jerico had graciously relinquished. They’d spent the time reviewing all the reports and status of projects for the company. While Cloudhaven was the focus of their energy, it was by no means the only project going on in the company. The residential construction group had recently begun building a new neighborhood on the west side of Jerico City and the real estate division was reporting an uptick in home sales consistent with expectations for spring. The one item Erin was unhappy with was the status of the foreclosed Mackenzie project in St. Louis.
Before she started on her regular morning routine, she sat at her computer and sent several messages and meeting requests. Rather than starting with her COO or General Counsel, Erin began with the PR department. Her new position needed an announcement with some fanfare. Then she would meet with the Director of Human Resources and get the new position paperwork taken care of. She’d already sent the personnel request to have Carver named as Chief Architect.
When she had those few items taken care of, she moved to the kitchen to make coffee. She could hear Carver moving upstairs in his bedroom and bathroom.
Preston came downstairs and headed for the kitchen.
“Will you join me for breakfast?” he asked.
“Oh! Is that allowed?” she laughed. “I’d love to have a cup of coffee with you.”
“Hardly enough to start your day as CEO of this prestigious company. Let me fix you something hot,” he said.
“Thank you, Jerry. I’ll just print out the schedule for the day.”
They sat to eat a light breakfast and talked about the agenda for the day. He fully agreed with her assessment of what was important. She scheduled an executive staff meeting for Thursday, with location to be announced. The PR person would be in the office at nine o’clock. Before that, the elevator chimed and Preston’s laundry arrived from the weekend. Erin jumped up to get it and put it away.
“I don’t think the CEO should have to put away my laundry,” he sighed. “Maybe I should learn to put my own clothes away. It’s rather pretentious of me to have an assistant do menial tasks, don’t you think?”
“I took them on as part of my job,” Erin said. “I never felt demeaned by doing what was my job to do. I suppose we might need another assistant, though. Let’s see how the day plays out and decide later if we need to do more work ourselves or to have someone else pick up some for us. HR might have something planned already. Technically, the workload in the room remains the same. We still have the Chairman and the CEO. I’m not sure it requires another pair of hands.”
“You might be surprised. You know, I have simply ignored a lot of the job. I don’t respond to a lot of messages and you pick that up. I don’t go out to social or public events, which the CEO might normally be expected to attend. I’ve left that to the President. I can’t really blame the other execs for rebelling. I ignored a lot of what people consider the normal tasks of the chief executive.”
The elevator chimed and Erin greeted a person from the marketing department assigned to interview her for a press release, while a second person carted in a camera and began figuring out where she should pose the new executive.
It took longer than Erin had allowed, Preston sitting behind his computer monitors the entire time. He never said a word. After the meeting and interview, she had time to check the new messages, one of which was the company-wide announcement from the PR person. Erin followed it up with her own company-wide greeting.
At ten-thirty, she left the sanctity and sanity of the penthouse office and went to the second floor to visit Human Resources.
“Erin! My God! You didn’t waste any time clawing your way to the top,” Ellen said when Erin appeared in her office.
“I started at the top when you sent me to be Mr. Carver’s assistant,” Erin said. She didn’t much like Ellen’s casual way with her. They weren’t friends. “Mr. Carver established a culture that treats executives with a degree of formality. You can refer to me as Miss Scott or Ms. Scott. I’ll expect the same treatment for Mr. Duval, Mr. Masters, Ms. Dirksen, and Mr. Carver.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ellen said. Who does this upstart think she is? “I suppose we should get your paperwork taken care of. It should only take a few minutes to adjust your employment record with the new salary and benefit schedule. Then there is the matter of stock options.”
“Has Mr. Carver’s new position as Chief Architect been finalized? And I will need to hire a new assistant who can serve both the Chairman and the CEO. I do not have enough hands to juggle the work put on my desk this morning.”
“We have an office and assistant prepared for you on the fifth floor,” Ellen said. “I assumed you would be moving to that location.”
“We’ll hold that option open. For now, I’ll be occupying Mr. Jerico’s space in the penthouse. Let’s schedule IT to make whatever changes they need to in phone directory and computer connections this afternoon. Keep in mind the level of tasks you asked me to perform when I started here. That will also be the starting level for our new assistant.”
“Yes, ma’am. Will there be anything else this morning?”
“No. I’ll stop on the fifth floor and interview the assistant there to determine if he or she will be suitable for the penthouse position.”
Erin finished signing her forms and left Ellen’s office as the HR person stared after her. Ellen immediately called Shannon.
“Hi. Are you the admin for the new CEO?” Erin asked when she approached the woman sitting at the fifth floor desk.
“Yes, ma’am. May I help you? Mr. Duval isn’t in at the moment.”
“I see. I’m Ms. Scott. I am the new CEO. I’ll meet with Mr. Duval later. Please give me a tour of this part of the office and show me to mine.”
“Oh! Okay! I was… I mean last week… Mr. Duval said he was going to be the new CEO. He told me if I… I mean…”
“If you what? Uh… Miss Anders?” Erin read off the desk plate.
“Please, ma’am. I really need this job. Don’t make me say things that will lose it for me.”
“Miss Anders, I don’t intend to lose your job for you. I will tell you that if you are being sexually harassed by Mr. Duval or by any other member of our staff, that person will be dealt with immediately and harshly. Let’s step into the conference room here and have a little chat.”
Cheryl Anders was in her mid-twenties. She’d gone to community college to get an associate degree in office administration. She wasn’t stupid by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn’t completely clear if Duval had pressured her or if she had simply made herself available, though Erin doubted that.
When she heard the job responsibilities as assistant to the new CEO and Chief Architect, she thought they were a bit strange, but not difficult and certainly not exploiting her—sexually or even intellectually. Erin explained how the job could be expanded beyond the mindless, but that the basics were firm. Cheryl seemed excited, especially when told she would be taken to the penthouse for her job.
“This is a lot better than pretending to be attracted to Mr. Duval,” Cheryl confided when she’d been introduced to the office upstairs.
“You’ll probably do a fair amount of running up and down, as we seldom bring people up here. The first thing I’d like you to do is arrange my meeting with the four officers of the corporation on Thursday. We need a location, coffee, and rolls. And general meeting supplies, of course. I’ve scheduled it to start at nine. In the past, Mr. Carver held very few meetings, so I really don’t know what facilities are available. I’ll be sending a slide deck to you to polish. You’re good with that?”
“Yes, ma’am. Can you show me any tricks to resetting the cubes? I’ve never worked one before.”
If that was the biggest problem she had adjusting, Erin was sure she would work just fine.
When people heard the news that they had a new CEO, eyebrows went up. Most employees just assumed that since Royce Duval was President, he was also the CEO. No one thought of Preston as holding an office at all.
Erin hoped the transition would be quiet and was content to let Duval continue to be the public face of the company as long as he could do so in a supportive and positive way.
By the time of her meeting with the execs on Thursday, Erin was already feeling pressed by the demands of her new job. The executives had apparently decided they should make no decisions without consulting her. She had requests to approve the board meeting minutes, sign off on the partnership draft with Interlake Land Holdings, and decide on a cellular company. She knew these were normally things Duval handled, and in her mind, they were clearly the responsibility of the COO.
She’d also received an invitation to speak at the local Chamber of Commerce next week, and had Cheryl accept the invitation, even though it was short notice. She’d talked it over with Carver and he said he always ignored such things, but it was probably a good idea for her to accept the invitation.
“The quarterly financial reports look good. Mr. Masters, did you note anything out of the ordinary?” Erin asked in the meeting with her senior officers.
“Not really, Ms. Scott. We are seeing the waning effect of our January one layoffs. That will put us in an advantageous position going into Q3. We’ve been watching our subsidiaries more closely. Most of the construction wing we had active in St. Louis has been shifted to other projects. Some have been laid off.”
“We acquired the Mackenzie property in the foreclosure, did we not?” Erin asked.
“Yes, Ma’am. The property itself could be sold or held for a while.”
“Mr. Carver, is the building worth salvaging as a JeriCorp property if we could locate a tenant or buyer?” Erin asked, turning to Preston. He looked momentarily like a deer in the headlights.
“Y-yes,” Preston answered. “It’s g-g-good.”
“Good. We have interest from a potential tenant. Mr. Masters, please prepare a financial analysis of the project and what would be needed to reopen it. We’ll need to put together both a lease and purchase projection with any potential impact the project might have on Cloudhaven.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“I’d also like to start my tenure with a clean slate, so to speak. I’d like you to arrange a full audit of our corporate finances from top to bottom, including all subsidiaries,” Erin said.
“That could take three months to complete.”
“We should get it underway as soon as possible, then. We’ll want certified numbers to present at the shareholders meeting in September.”
Masters puffed a sigh and just nodded. It was clear he wasn’t happy.
“Status of negotiations for the partnership and contract progress for Cloudhaven. Mr. Duval?” she said.
“Right. Well, we’re just skipping right along. You have the partnership papers to sign,” Duval said.
“That’s within your purview as COO, as it has been in the past,” Erin said. “If the partnership is solid and the contracts are within our parameters, sign them. Don’t sit around waiting for me to pat your head.”
“Yes, Ms. Scott,” Duval growled bitterly. He’d need to go through the papers again if they were going to have his signature on them. He didn’t want any surprises that he would have relished if Erin signed the papers.
“Mr. Carver, status of the planning documents for Cloudhaven Phase One.”
Preston read the statement he and Erin had prepared. This was more about Erin managing her team than Preston being told to make a presentation.
“Infrastructure plans have all been drawn and approved by the Land Development Department. Cloudhaven is in an unincorporated region of Lewis County and has little in the way of building codes or a planning commission. We have offered the county assistance in putting together a mutually beneficial organization. Soil tests and environmental impact studies have been completed. Surveys are complete and we are clear to begin grading.”
“Excellent. I appreciate you keeping me informed as the project progresses. Ms. Dirksen, is there any legal fallout to our repositioning in January? Any other issues to be handled?”
“The layoffs were handled according to policy in January and most affected employees received a substantial severance package. The reorganization of the subsidiaries to consolidate operations was fairly smooth, though we have a continuing negotiation with Local 494 regarding the Mackenzie project. If we return to development and get them back on the job, those problems should disappear.”
“Very good. Please keep me in the loop should any new developments arise. Also, I would like a review of the board structure: Who is automatically granted a position, any record of compensation for board-related activities, and the process for board nominations to come before the shareholders’ meeting. I want to be sure we have a solid plan and slate of nominations according to the bylaws. Please understand, everyone, this is not a precursor to shaking up the board any more than it has been in the past week. This is an effort to have a unified slate of candidates to present to the shareholders. We need to be looking at every way we can have our company dressed and pressed for the shareholder meeting. Any questions?”
“Is that all we’re meeting about?” Duval asked.
“Do you have another agenda item?”
“Well, no, but usually executive meetings are day-long. We’ve been at it less than an hour. People will wonder if we did anything,” Royce said.
“I have no interest in meetings that drag on and on. If you have issues that need to come before this executive committee, bring them. If it is just something you need to cover with me, make an appointment and let’s hash it out. I think that’s everything for today. We’re adjourned.”
Erin got up and left the board room where the executives met. Preston made his goodbyes and hurried after her to the elevator up to their office.
“What a ball-buster,” Royce growled at the other two senior managers. “What are we going to do?”
“Our jobs,” Masters said. “I’m not particularly happy about having a full corporate audit done, but it’s not a bad idea. I don’t believe we’ve been audited in three years. There’s nothing to hide. And it’s a good business practice. I can’t really complain.”
“I expected her to latch onto every symbol of power, like the contracts and partnership papers,” Royce said grudgingly. “She might not be as hands-off as Preston, but she does give us room to do our jobs.”
“Just make sure you do it well,” Dirksen said. “She’s also the kind who will hold you responsible.”
“Ms. Anders, please go ahead and send the meeting summary I gave you before I left. I don’t need to make any revisions to it. Make sure the action items for each manager are clearly called out,” Erin said when she returned to the penthouse.
“Yes, Ms. Scott.”
Erin didn’t stop at her former desk. She’d added two large monitors to her desk. She kept the Cloudhaven project plan open on one so she could respond quickly to updates any of the departments made to it.
Miss Anders was adapting well to the environment and the tasks she was given. She’d been well-trained in administrative responsibilities and Erin was certain she could coach her along to an expanded role eventually.
Erin went into the sitting area between her office and Preston’s, where she flopped on the sofa, threw her head back, and sighed.
“I don’t think there’s ever been such an efficient executive meeting at JeriCorp,” Preston said from the chair next to her. For a long time, they just stared out at the sunny day on the rooftop patio.
“I love looking out at the patio,” she mused.
“How about lunch there on Saturday?” he asked.
“Mr. Carver?”
“No. Jerry. Seems like we might both need an afternoon forgetting about the company,” he said.
“In that case, I’d be delighted,” she chuckled. “I suppose, however, I’d better start working on my presentation for next Tuesday. Any suggestions regarding the topic?”
“I’m hardly the person to make speaking recommendations,” he said. “I’ll… uh… be happy to help if you need technical information, but you’re already a better executive than any of your officers.”
“I talked to my mentor in Cleveland Tuesday to find out if Allard would be interested in opening conversations on the Mackenzie building. Perfect timing. They’re looking at a spring announcement of their regional expansion to St. Louis. She said she had been certain I wouldn’t stay with her company long enough to take it over, but she’d done her best to prepare me for that job somewhere else. It was so stupid of me to believe Bruce was worth throwing away my career. I had such high romantic hopes.”
“There’s nothing wrong with romance, I guess,” Preston said. “It’s just always evaded me. Um… You know… Y-y-you could hire him back. If you wanted to.”
“What?”
“Your husband was coordinating the Mackenzie Project. He probably knows it better than most people here,” Preston said.
“No. Not just no. Hell, no! It would be bad business to bring him back into a situation where he still had to interact with all the same people and have his ex-wife at the helm of the company. And it would be bad personal relations to suggest to my ex there was any possibility for him to reconcile. I am not going there.”
“I… uh… should get the grading contracts sent out,” he said, jumping up from his chair. Erin smiled after him as he went to his desk. Then she pulled herself off the sofa and went to her own desk.
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