PHILADELPHIA — It all went down today. For weeks, members of my staff and I discussed how we could best approach the “boss.” He has gone through employees like a gambling addict goes through dollar bills in Atlantic City. He has skirted and dodged serious issues (like paying his workers on time, or … paying them period). He has been dishonest and deceitful. In my opinion (and I am not a lawyer), he has violated a spate of federal and state labor laws. A real schmuck, who might have been a decent guy not too long ago. But his impervious ego has created a searing black mark on the staff’s morale.
I turned in my resignation 46 days ago. It didn’t take me terribly long to figure out that this guy and his “business” weren’t legit. But, the loyalties toward my staff and the people we serve, got the better of me. I agreed to stay on temporarily until he found my replacement or until he was willing to sit down and deal with me and my cache of issues.
Problems worsened. Two gentlemen on staff haven’t been adequately compensated. They are independent contractors who had been assured they would be put on the payroll and receive health insurance. I was told a major deal with a group of cash-happy investors would infuse bucks into the business where I could put out a product with a qualified staff. It still hasn’t happened.
So one of the gentlemen proposed we sit down with the “boss” and forcefully request answers to such questions as:
• How this person can sleep at night knowing he couldn’t meet payroll? How could he walk out of the office on Thursday night and allow his employees to work through the night without EVER MENTIONING their pay wouldn’t be ready by Friday. How could he do this REPEATEDLY since the business’ inception?
• How could this person accuse me and others of not following his orders when they were vague, incomplete or not issued in the first place?
• How could this person allow two dedicated gentlemen to show up at the office each day and ignore their repeated requests for FAIR treatment?
• How could this person craft a mission statement for his business, hand it out to his customers, but NOT HIS STAFF so they can HELP HIM CARRY OUT HIS MISSION STATEMENT?
• How could this person look all of us in the eye and outwardly lie to these questions?
This morning, at 11 a.m. sharp, I tapped both gentlemen on their shoulders. We rolled chairs into his office and shut the door.
“I wanted this conversation to go another way,” I began, “with the hope that you would finally address the troubling issues confronting the staff.”
But I indicated I was in possession of two Post-It notes with his handwriting. Most of it was unintelligible scrawl. But some words stood out: Memo/Talk … Secor … jeopardy. I produced the Post-It notes. He asked who gave them to me, as they were on his desk from yesterday. I didn’t reveal my source. He asked the other gentlemen if they took them. They both answered “no.”
I said that my loyalty to him was beyond compromised and that I had already given my notice and I was just here “helping out” until he figured out a replacement plan or he got his millions from his potential investors and was ready to tell me he was ready to legitimize his business.
But I wasn’t there in his office this morning for myself. This place of employment, being a start-up operation, forced me to have a Plan B at the ready, which I do. I was there for the gentlemen who accompanied me. I was there for the entire staff who toil away in fear that there will be padlocks on the front door. This “boss” had eviscerated morale to a point where we all sought solace in one another.
A few words about the staff: They are gloriously imperfect. But even a beginning leader can realize how to corral the strengths and shut out the weaknesses to get the job done. I think I did. At least I tried. And in so doing, I became extremely fond of nearly everyone. I bought them meals and nights out when I could. They returned the favor. Our fraternization was formed more out of solace seeking, but friendship still got in the way.
And you know how you get when you see friends mistreated day in and day out.
We plowed through the questions. We hit the “boss” with some very uncomfortable questions. When we thought he was lying, we said so.
“What are the interns paid,” asked one of the gentlemen seated by me.
“I don’t know,” the “boss” replied. “I just sign the checks.”
This did not go unchallenged. I mean, how can a “business owner” sign checks and not be aware of what’s being taken out of the company till?
I addressed my assessment of the employee turnover, which has been unrelenting well before my arrival. I indicated why these employees left. I had personally spoken with most of them. And the answer always pointed to the same person: the “boss.”
I found it hard to look at him. I felt like the gentlemen and I were three Mike Wallace’s grilling a corporate polluter or a moronic politician. He answered with a lot of “I don’t know” and “that’s a good question” responses. We were beginning to realize a few things.
The only thing I wanted for myself was acknowledgement that this “boss” had been behaving like an ass, a no-good schmuck. I wanted an acknowledgement that he would do better and attempt to dress the issues in a matter that would meet a stern timeline.
At one point, he peered out of the window. I thought for a second he was going to jump out. At another point, I saw his lower lip trembling. While I don’t like sticking it anybody, I and one of the gentlemen pressed on.
Then came a question that irked us.
“What do you do,” the “boss” asked.
It was directed to one of the gentlemen.
The gentleman answered, but followed up with an appropriate opinion.
“That question insults me,” he said.
The “boss” turned to me.
“What do you do?”
I paused, hoping to appear less incensed than I already was.
“What DO I DO?” I asked in return. “You’re about to find out — the hard way.”
It was clear we weren’t getting anywhere. The “boss” wouldn’t give me the acknowledgements I was looking for. He wouldn’t meet the gentlemen’s demands that they be adequately compensated, except for a willingness to put then on health insurance (a crumb, I admit, but long short of the larger issues).
What issues?
Too many to mention, but let’s repeat a few:
• The dishonesty
• The deceit
• The gross mismanagement
Do I really need to go on? I feel I don’t. All I feel the need for is to clarify that the gentlemen and I were successful in maintaining a calm demeanor. We were forceful, but reserved. There was no shouting.
The question from the “boss” came up.
“What are you going to do?” he asked us, individually.
The first gentleman said “I don’t know.”
The second gentleman said he’d stick around and hope things would get better.
Then he looked at me.
“I don’t want to work for you. You’re dishonest. You’re deceitful and it makes me sick to be here.”
A pause, then:
“When’s your last day?”
I stood up, I crammed my balled fist into my pocket and fished for the building keys, which were already detached from my key ring. My fingers found them and I balled my fists again once the keys were in the palm of my hand. Then I took my hand out of my pocket and slapped the keys on his desk.
“Yesterday.”
Comments (3)
I would like to speak to you regarding Mr. Rice.
He is responsible for my companys demise. Defrauded me to fund the Bulletin.