The Staircase of Dragon Jerico
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“EVERYONE SHOULD GET a week off for the holidays—unrelated to their vacation time,” Erin said in her next executive staff meeting. “I’ve looked at our history and it’s typically from Christmas to New Year’s Day inclusive. But it seems to always start on Christmas Eve one way or another. It’s an odd year with Christmas and New Year’s being on Wednesdays. Having people at work one day Christmas week before Christmas Eve and then two days after New Year’s Day seems rather scattered. Suggestions?”
“Official policy is a half day Christmas Eve plus Christmas Day, and a half day New Year’s Eve plus New Year’s Day,” Dirksen responded.
“Are we satisfied it’s the right pattern? How many people are going to use up sick days the day after Christmas?” Erin asked.
“Sick days and personal days have to be used before the end of the year, don’t they?” Duval asked. “It seems like we’re just giving people the opportunity to cash them in.”
“Don’t like it,” Carver said. “Two weeks off.”
“That is a strain on the company finances,” Masters said. “We’ve always managed a week off at the end of the year, but I don’t think we can stand the pressure of giving everyone two weeks off. Especially after the layoffs last year. Employees would be wondering if we were shutting down over the break.”
“I can see that as an interpretation. We’d have to message it pretty carefully. But I agree that we can’t afford to just shut down the company for two weeks,” Erin said. “Even though I’d like to be in that position. We still have commitments we have to live by and remember our contractors wouldn’t be paid for that time. Miss Anders, let’s suppose there were three options. Which would you prefer? One, the entire week of Christmas off plus an early out on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Two, an early out on Christmas Eve with Christmas Day through New Year’s Day off. Three, early out on Christmas Eve with Christmas Day off and the entire week of New Year’s Day off. What would appeal to you most?”
“Oh, wow! Uh… I’d probably opt for Christmas week off. I’d be able to visit my parents if I left on the weekend. That’s a total of nine days in a row with weekends on either end. Plus, the New Year holiday. The Christmas to New Year’s option only includes one weekend. I don’t see many people opting for the New Year’s week option. Christmas is a much bigger holiday for most people,” Miss Anders answered.
“I lean that way myself,” Erin said, “but I don’t want to make a unilateral decision. I’d like us all to agree on the right choice.”
“I have to say that I agree with your assistant regarding the unlikely acceptance of option three,” Duval said. “The other two, though, could be a toss up.”
“Personal choice?” Carver asked. “Each employee could choose their preference.”
It was good to hear Preston engaging with the other execs in this discussion. He kept his answers short and simple, but he was definitely engaged.
“Could we make that work?” Erin asked, turning specifically to her legal counsel, Ms. Dirksen.
“As long as people declared their preference in advance so their managers can adjust the workload, I think it’s possible,” Dirksen answered.
“I think we’ll have most people choose the Christmas week option,” Duval said. “But I’d expect a lot of them to tack on two personal days or sick days New Year’s week. We’d need to be prepared for that. Does that bring us back to the equivalent of two weeks off that Preston suggested?”
“I don’t think so,” Masters said. “Sick days and personal days are carried as a company liability. Unlike just giving two weeks off, if a person takes sick or personal days, it erases a debt. It’s actually a positive.”
“That brings us back to just keeping with the standard holidays and letting those who want to use up their off time cash it in,” Duval said.
“Except those of us who haven’t been here long enough to accrue time off would be stuck in an empty office,” Miss Anders said. She looked around at the people staring at her for her uninvited input. “Sorry.”
“You’re right,” Erin said. “It also pulls the rug from under the idea that the company is doing something nice for people for the holiday. I think I’m tending toward option one as well. Anyone else?”
After a minute or two, with a couple more comments, all the executives agreed on the Christmas week off option. With limited additional business, the meeting was adjourned and the execs left the penthouse.
“Did you get everything you need to type up the notes?” Erin asked Miss Anders.
“Yes, Ma’am. I’m sorry for bursting out when I wasn’t invited to,” said the assistant.
“It was a good point. I’m not going to reprimand you for that. We’ll do some work together on when it’s appropriate and when it isn’t. I don’t think you have much to learn.”
“Thank you, Ms. Scott.”
Erin returned to her desk and reviewed the other reports that had come in over the long weekend. Preston had gone back to his desk.
“We could have given everyone two weeks,” Preston growled.
“Masters had a good argument against that,” Erin said. “My personal preference would have been the same, but I think this way will work better. Do you have plans for the holiday?”
“Um… No. Family celebration on Christmas. Go out to a wild party on New Year’s Eve,” he snorted. Erin looked surprised.
“A wild party? Wow! Who’d have thought it?”
“To me, that amounts to lining up all the cubes in a row and seeing how long it takes me to solve all of them while having a drink of G-Pop’s Wild Turkey after each solution. The trick would be to see how many I could solve before I passed out.”
“That… Actually, that sounds painful,” Erin laughed.
“Do you have plans?”
“Even fewer than you have.”
“We could…” Preston cut himself off when Erin glanced toward Miss Anders at the other end of the office. “…um… discuss it later.”
“Good idea,” Erin said.
After Thanksgiving evening, and the dinner they’d shared on Saturday that almost ended up in bed, Erin knew the time was approaching when they would spend the night together, either at her apartment or his. She wouldn’t be sneaky about it, but she rather thought that having the entire week of Christmas off would be a lovely opportunity. She tried not to think about how her plans the previous Christmas had been thwarted.
It almost became irrelevant the next week.
“That’s not the way it’s done!” Preston declared.
“It’s not your responsibility any longer,” Erin said.
“The recommended year-end bonuses and stock options always come before the Board of Directors. The recommendation from Finance is just a recommendation until the Board votes on it.”
“That’s not what the bylaws say,” Erin responded. “It was your privilege as CEO to bring the recommendation to the Board to act on it, but the bylaws clearly state it is the CEO’s decision regarding allocating executive bonuses except his own. The only one that has to be brought before the board is the CEO’s bonus, and that was set in the employment agreement.”
“That’s too much authority to be in the hands of the CEO. It needs to come before the Board.”
“Are you, as Chairman, ordering me to forgo my authority according to the bylaws and take this to the Board of Directors? For what? Their rubber stamp? Exactly what in the table of bonuses do you object to?”
“It’s not the amounts. It’s the process. It’s supposed to… It’s always been done…”
“Mr. Carver, do you intend to fire me or would you like my resignation?”
“Wh… What? N… N… No! That’s not… I just… I’m…”
Preston began to hyperventilate and was near to passing out. He turned away from Erin and headed for the stairs to his bedroom.
“Need… to sleep,” he said as he stumbled up the stairs.
Erin watched him go with her mouth open. When she first started, Jacqueline had warned her that when Preston felt overwhelmed, he retreated to his bed for a while. She’d only seen it happen once. That was the day he’d come back from the diner having found out Maizie no longer worked there.
Erin had spent hours over the past week locked up with Ellen Barrett in Human Resources and Leroy Masters in Finance negotiating the table for year-end bonuses and stock options throughout the company. Part of that had come down to the executive bonuses. Her major impact had been to reduce the executive bonuses by half—including her contractual bonus—so that more could be distributed to the employees. She thought she’d done a particularly good job. For the past several years, executive income and bonuses had been excessive, in her opinion. The previous year, executives had all received bonuses, but employees had not. She was not going to let that happen on her watch.
I mucked that up royally.
The past day or so, since her relationship with Jerry had heated up, they seemed to have more conflicts. He’d been in the office steadily since Thanksgiving and was paying more attention to how she was doing her job. She had snapped once before, suggesting that he should be on the job site. Of course, he knew more about what was happening on the job site than anyone, but saying he should be on the site made it sound like she didn’t want him in the office, which made her wonder if that was what she really meant.
Suggesting he could fire her or she could resign was a little over the top for the size of the issue. Why was she being so snappish? And it wasn’t only with Mr. Carver. Mr. Duval had challenged her decision to cut back the bonuses, too. She was pretty sure that Duval had complained to Preston and that had sparked the confrontation this afternoon. There was really nothing wrong with bringing the decision to the Board, except that she didn’t want to be challenged on it. That wasn’t a good reason. If she was right about the bonuses and options, she should be able to convince the Board.
She didn’t want Mr. Carver to fire her and she didn’t want to resign over this. What’s more, it was apparent that the confrontation would damage her personal relationship.
Am I trying to run away?
She needed to pull up her big girl panties and face the facts about her relationship with Jerry. She was scared. She didn’t believe he would ever treat her like her husband had, but she’d shown that she had poor judgment where that was concerned. She’d made a bad bet on her first marriage, blindly following him and abandoning her career choices. She couldn’t do that with Jerry. This job was important to her. She was good at it. She wasn’t willing to sacrifice it to be with Jerry. The question was, could she sacrifice Jerry to keep her job?
When five o’clock came around and Miss Anders cleaned things up, , Erin stayed at her desk. One thing was certain: She wasn’t leaving the office without a resolution today. If Mr. Carver couldn’t deal with it today, she’d sit at her desk all night until he could.
Preston didn’t come downstairs until almost six o’clock. Erin was still at her desk. She looked up and he turned to go back upstairs.
“Jerry, please don’t go. I really need you right now.”
“You need me?” he snorted. “What for?”
“Because you are you and I’ve not been fair with you this afternoon. I’m not used to avoiding conflict. I always just wade right in, resolve it, and move on. I knew that would upset you and I should have chosen a different tack.”
“You were right. You have the right to make the decision without the Board’s approval.”
“Maybe so, but there is nothing wrong with getting the Board to approve it. I was being overly protective of my status. And the thing is, I know better. You’ve always supported my decisions. I need to recognize there’s a problem when you don’t.”
“Last year, I saw the company lay off thirty people for the first time since I’ve been here. Seeing the cuts you were making reminded me of that. I’m sorry,” Jerry said.
“In a way, I’m trying to make up for it. No one got bonuses last year except the executives. That didn’t make sense to me. I know how concerned you are about your people. How did it happen?”
“I left it up to the Board. They passed the bonuses resolution and I didn’t really even read it. I couldn’t believe you were taking action to correct my messes,” Preston said.
“I can’t do it without you,” she answered. “I’ll take the decision to the Board, but I need to know you agree with the stance. I need your vote. Mr. Hathaway and the new board members look to you for the spirit of the company and how they should vote. If you are behind me, then I know it will pass. Is the bonus structure I put together satisfactory with you?”
“We should cut the executive bonuses completely. I suppose that would really start a war, though. I’m satisfied. I’ll support you, whether you take it to the Board or not.”
“I will. Our meeting is next Wednesday and I’ll put it on the agenda.”
“Maizie… This is probably the wrong time to say this, but I love you. I’ve been in love with you for a long time now.”
“It’s probably too early to make such declarations, but I love you, too. Let’s plan to do something special during our week off over Christmas. I’d like that.”
They kissed. Before it got too intense, Erin slipped out of his embrace and grabbed her coat.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” she said.
Preston almost turned around to run back upstairs when he saw Ms. Scott was still there, but she stopped him by calling him Jerry. It was almost like a code word that got them out of office mode and into dating mode, except it didn’t quite go that far.
It was such a silly fight. He recalled an incident when he was maybe eight years old that he’d been playing on his bicycle with a croquet mallet and ball, pretending he was playing polo. The incident involved a girl about the same age he was who wanted to play and borrow his mallet. He’d created a god-awful fuss about needing the mallet for his big match in the morning and ended up being sent to bed for his rudeness.
Of course, there had been no big match the next day. In fact, Preston couldn’t remember having ever played that game again. He couldn’t remember ever seeing the croquet mallet again. But he did remember going to bed when he lost control. That was one of the more childish behaviors he carried into his adult life. It was a wonder that Maizie had waited for him.
The thing was, he agreed with her regarding reducing executive bonuses. When he’d realized executives got bonuses when all the other employees went without and thirty had been laid off, he was furious. He wanted to reprimand them, but his voice—Royce Duval—had been the driver of the bonuses in the first place. So, Erin was acting on his behalf in the way he wished he had acted. Why was he so upset that she wasn’t taking the decision to the Board?
He’d apologized. She’d apologized. They kissed and made up. He wanted to live in that kiss and to move their relationship up a notch. If he could find the words. If he could avoid making a hash of things again. She was much too valuable to him to lose. Either as CEO or as his partner. He was hoping she would be his partner for life. She was the first woman he’d ever considered as a life partner—a wife. He had to find a way to address the possibility with her. He had to make his mouth work without panicking.
There was some heated discussion of the bonuses at the board meeting. Lawrence and Jacqueline had been alerted to the issue and decided it would be fun to watch, so the three officers who had spearheaded the coup attempt earlier in the year were resigned as far as the vote was concerned. They were all surprised though when Preston spoke up at the meeting. He had a carefully prepared statement that he read.
“I have had a lengthy chat with Ms. Teresa Lincoln of Allard Holding. Ms. Lincoln, thank you for your advice and for your participation on our Board.” In reality, the ‘chat’ had been several email messages. Erin was surprised to find that Preston had contacted her. “I believe our policy regarding executive bonuses, increases, and stock options should be revised. I am looking to the model used at Allard for an example. Ms. Lincoln, would you mind giving us a brief description of the model we discussed?”
“Certainly, Mr. Carver,” Erin’s former boss said over her video link from Philadelphia, the national headquarters of Allard. She’d been at the shareholders’ meeting which elected the new Board and attended the first Board meeting thereafter in person. Her usual attendance, however, was remote. “We have a very simple model. It is our opinion that no executive ever contributes more than his or her employees. The difference in responsibility is reflected in base salary. But at Allard, no executive receives a higher percentage bonus or stock option than the average across the non-executive employees. If we determine, for example, that the bonus level for the year is two percent, it is two percent across all levels in the company. Of course, we have some flexibility built in to recognize extraordinary performance and substandard performance, but that is no greater for executives than for any other employee. Mr. Carver?”
“Thank you, Ms. Lincoln. I have asked that this be brought before the Board at this meeting so we can prepare to address it. It is my intent that we adopt a similar policy and have it approved in our bylaws at the next annual shareholders’ meeting,” Preston said.
“That’s a pretty radical shift,” Ms. Dirksen said.
“I believe Mr. Carver has opened the door for discussion, but that since this has come as a surprise to the Board at this meeting, the discussion should be tabled until our next meeting. At that time, we will all have a draft of the proposed bylaw changes that we can refer to so we are responding to the same thing,” Erin said. “Is there other business to be brought before the Board? If not, Mr. Carver.”
“This meeting of the Board of Directors of JeriCorp Architecture and Development is hereby adjourned. Happy holidays to you all,” Preston read from his prompt card.
The meeting was adjourned.
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