Taking Texas By Storm
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 14 

Like Peas In a Pod

As we were leaving the building, Mrs. Carr was holding my arm, “Ed, please call me Leanne.  Knowing your Dad and Mother as I do, I’m sure that you might be uncomfortable with that, but I would like for us to become very good friends.”

I guess I must have tensed or something, because Mrs. Carr laughed,  “Ed, I wasn’t referring to anything romantic.  I’ll explain what’s on my mind over lunch.  Let’s go into that delicatessen.  That’s my kind of place at lunch time.”

After we had our food, which I was permitted to pay for, and had started to eat, Mrs. Carr began, “Ed, I am really impressed with your two young men.  Not only are they very talented, but they must be very intelligent, as well, to be able to speak such impeccable English.  I’m hoping that I can get both of them to appear on the New York stage.  It would be great if they were to both appear in the production of Oliver.  I would like to introduce Brahim to the New York opera world as soon as possible.”

“I guess what I’m really saying is that I would like the three of you to come to New York as soon as possible, so I can brag to the people about how I found your guys in this hick town. Houston has a very active arts community, but New York is still where the action is.”

“Leanne, I’ll see what we can arrange.  I’m not sure what Brahim’s schedule is going to be, now that he is going to be in Rigoletto.  He’s already concerned about his college courses.  Allie, is indeed very intelligent, but Dr. George Daniels and the school personnel thought it would be best for Allie were to be assigned with his peers to become acclimated to life in the United States.”

“Quite frankly, I don’t think that anyone expected Allie to become adjusted so quickly. I’m sure that you realize that he has captivated my parents.”

Leanne smiled, “Ed, it’s easy to see why.  Seriously, I would very much like for you to bring the guys to New York as soon as possible.  You can stay at my house in Greenwich.  Here's my card.  It tells you how you can get in touch with me.”

When we walked back to the headquarters, Mrs. Carr hugged me, “Ed, I hope I hear from you and the guys soon.”

I watched as she climbed into a cab.  As I was going into the facility, I met President Odom as he was leaving.  “President Odom, I have a question of a personal nature to ask you.”

He looked at me funny, “Go ahead and ask.  I’ll answer if I can.”

“Sir, I need to find a good financial institution and a good financial advisor to assist me in managing my funds.  I’ve never had to worry about money problems like this before.”

President Odom started to laugh, “How did you know I was going to the bank?  Come with me and we’ll get you connected with the right person.”

We walked to the next block and went into the main office building of The First National Bank of Houston.  President Odom obviously had been here before because he knew right where to go.  President Odom introduced me to the President of the bank and before long I was working with my financial advisor Eric Carlson.

He opened a checking account; I made the deposit of the check that Dad had given me.  When I told him what our address was, he laughed, “You should have visited our branch in the shopping center that is near your house.  There’s a young man there who could help you as well as I can.  I should know, because we live together.”

I looked at the gentleman, “Eric, what made you feel free to tell me that you were gay?”

Eric laughed, “Okay, my brother works for you and he thinks you walk on water.”

I had to stop and think, “Eric, are you talking about Steve Carlson who is in charge of the Maintenance Division at Shell?”

“Yep, every time we see him and his family, he provides us an update on what King Ed Waller has done.  Mr. Waller, I can’t tell you how much you have improved  the quality of Steve’s life since you arrived.  He seems like a totally different person.  Before, he was bitter and now he’s feeling good about himself.”

Eric handed me some papers, “Take these back to your Human Resources and Finance offices so they can make arrangements for your pay to be directly deposited into your account.  Do you know how much your pay will be, each period?”

“Eric, I’m not sure exactly how much my pay will be, since it keeps changing.”

Eric laughed, “Ed, why don’t you find out and we can make an appointment, say at three o’clock next Wednesday, to discuss how best to make your money work for you.”

I shook my head no, “Eric, it would be better for me if we could take care of this over the lunch hour on Wednesday.  I’ll even bring lunch and we can have a working lunch.”

Eric stood, “You are a workaholic, just as Steve said.”

When I arrived at the office, Tammy looked at me, “That was an awfully long lunch hour, Mr. Waller.  Do you suppose you could advise us where you are, so we can keep the world from falling apart?  What would have happened if President Odom had wanted to talk to you?”

“President Odom knew where I was.  So what’s the problem?”

For starters, “The sexual harassment and discrimination policies and a copy of Grant’s letter have been distributed, and Grant has had so many calls that he can’t take care of them all.  Oz has been trying to assist him, but it’s taking him away from the job that he is being paid to do.  We haven’t seen Joe and Katie since they went to check out the Legal and Finance Departments this morning.”

I looked at Tammy, “If everyone here at Shell worked as hard as our people do, the work force could be cut by nearly twenty percent.”

“That’s your job Mr. Waller, should you choose to accept it.  Get these people off their dead butts, and working for a change.”

“Okay, give me a break Mrs. Grimes.  I’m going to the Real Estate Division to see what’s happening there.  Call me if you need me.

When I arrived at the Real Estate Division, there was no one there except a couple of secretaries.  I walked up to one of the young ladies and asked, “Where is everyone?  Don’t tell me everyone is out of town on business.”

“As a matter of fact, sir, they are out of town.  They’re having a retreat in Las Vegas this weekend, to plan strategies to improve business.”

“Thank you, miss.  When did they leave and when will they be back?”

She looked at me as if I were daffy,  “They had reservations on the one o’clock flight this afternoon.  Most of the bigwigs didn’t even come to work today.”

When I got back to the office, Greg was sitting there, “What’s the problem, Greg?”

Greg stood, “Ed, I was just advised that twenty people from the Real Estate Division had reservations to attend a meeting in Las Vegas.  The problem is that the company paid for their spouses to accompany them.”

“Greg, this is bigger than you and me.  I need to find out who authorized the trip.  Something smells very fishy.  Let’s go see if President Odom is back from his meeting.  As we went into the hall, President Odom was getting off the elevator.  He asked, “Ed, did you get everything done that you needed to get done?”

“Yes, sir.  Mr. Carlson, who was assisting me just happens to be the brother of Steve who is in charge of maintenance, so if things don’t work out, I’ll take it out on Steve.  Sir, we’ve uncovered another problem that I think you should be aware of.”

President Odom frowned, “Let’s go into my office and you can tell me about it.”

When we were seated, I started, “When I returned from the bank, I went to see what was happening in the Real Estate Division, the only people there were some secretaries and the receptionist.  I was informed that the other personnel had gone for a retreat in Las Vegas to discuss strategies for ways to improve business.  When I returned from finding no one there, Greg was waiting for me.  He informed me that he had just found out that twenty people from the Real Estate Division had flown to Vegas and that the company had paid for the spouses to go, as well.”

President Odom sat up, “Say what!  I’m not finding this funny at all.  In fact Caroline and I are invited to the Division Chief’s house for a dinner party tonight.  Let me call her and see what she knows.”

President Odom made a call, “Caroline, I thought we were invited to the Small’s house for dinner tonight? … So Regina called and said that Ned suddenly had to go out of town on business, but that she was going to go ahead and have the party anyway, since everyone had already been invited. … No, I’ll explain more later.”

After President Odom hung up, “What is it with you, Ed?  I’m too old to be playing I Spy.  So what are you going to do about the problem?  You aren’t going to be happy until you get everyone fired are you?” 

He started to laugh, “I guess I need to start looking for a new job.  Guys, document what happened in this case so we can confront Ned Small and his cronies when they return.”

When we arrived in the office, I looked at Greg, “See when the reservations were made, who authorized them and whatever you can to include the people who were to be attending the retreat.   I’m going to go talk to Steve and Juan.  I have an idea, and I want to see if it can work.”

Joe arrived just as Greg was leaving, “Boss, I spent more than four hours in the Legal Division and I swear there wasn’t one piece of legal work being done, unless you call doing crossword puzzles or searching the web legal work.  I didn’t know Shell Oil had any interest in E Bay, Amazon or ESPN”

I laughed, “Get in line, we need to take care of a problem that Greg uncovered, first.   Tammy, please call Steve and Juan and ask them to meet us in Myrabelle’s office.  Greg, as soon as you have the list of names of the people who went to Vegas, bring it to Myrabelle’s office, please.”

We met the others in Myrabelle’s office and I asked, “Is there anyway we can be alerted when certain people arrive in the facility?  Say I wanted to get a message to Steve when he arrived, is there any way that someone would be able to tell him that I needed to talk to him.”

Juan answered, “We can put a flag by someone’s name to identify that you might need to talk to him or her.”

I hadn’t realized that President Odom had joined us, “So, if I needed to yell at Mr. Waller when he arrived, you would be able to send him to my office or escort him if need be?”

Juan started to laugh, “I guess his name will have a flag on it every morning.  Let me demonstrate how the system would work.  Mr. Waller, please hand your security pass to the guard so she can process it as if you were leaving for the day.”

I did as I was asked.  He went into the computer and put a flag by my name.  Juan turned to the security person, “Please, make it seem as if Mr. Waller is reentering the building.”

The monitor we were watching had a flashing light that wasn’t visible from the front so the person wouldn’t realize what was happening. 

We were joined by Greg, “Ed, you’re not going to believe this. But some of the people, do not even have any association with Shell Oil.”

Greg handed the list to me and I had no idea what to think about it so I handed the list to President Odom.  He took a deep breath, “This explains why I got a call from Mrs. Small wanting to know what company business was so important that it would be keeping her husband away from their fortieth anniversary party.”

Joe looked at the list, “Ed, I know for a fact that some of these people are not married, and it appears that they are taking their significant others on a boondoggle.”

I cringed, “Juan, feed the names on this list into the computers and flag the people who work here so that we can confront them when, and if, they do come to work on Monday.  President Odom, this seems to me that there is a lack of management at the highest levels in the company, to allow such things to happen.”

“Ed, I couldn’t agree more.  We need to get together on Monday and plan how to proceed.  I guess I just assumed that everyone was doing their jobs.  Unless I miss my guess, there are going to be some very senior positions open soon.  How soon can you have the report of the hours that people were actually in the facility this week?”

Joe put up his hand. “Tammy and I have developed a computer program to keep records of when people have been in the facility that is up to date as of close of business yesterday.  It will take me and Grant a couple hours to include the data from today.  How would you like us to sort it?  We can do it alphabetically or by divisions.”

I shrugged my shoulders, “Joe, you and Grant need to look at the data and decide what format would be the most meaningful to those of us who are not familiar with the program.  Remember, I’m not a number cruncher.”

President Odom started to laugh, “Heck, we all recognize that you’re the people cruncher.  Greg, I was just coming to talk to you about the motor pool and the use of the limousines.  I’m also curious as to how many people other than me drive a company car.  I have never seen a list of the positions who are eligible to have company cars.  Let’s go to your office and talk.  Ed, why don‘t you join us?”

When we walked into Greg’s office, his secretary handed him a message, “Mr. Kravitz, head of the Legal Division, would like a limousine to take him to the car dealership so he can pick up the new car he bought.  I told him he would need to clear the request through you.  Here’s his telephone number.”

President Odom took the message and punched the number.  “This is President Odom, let me speak to Art Kravitz. … Art, the limousines were not meant to provide a taxi service for people to go on personal errands. … I don’t care what happened in the past.  I’m telling you that the limousines are to be used only for company business. … You have a problem that you need to solve, not Mr. Gump.”

After President Odom had slammed the down the phone, “This is what I suspected might be happening.  Greg, I want you to advise your dispatcher that limousines are not to used for a personal taxi service.  Write up a memo for my signature to that effect.  Yesterday will be just fine.  In the meantime, see if you can find out how many people are using authorized private vehicles.  Ed, you probably should be authorized a company vehicle.”

I chuckled, “President Odom, there is no reason why I should be authorized a company car.  The only driving I will be doing is driving back and forth to work or on personal travel.  Unless my responsibilities change dramatically, I would not be expected to go to meetings on behalf of the company.”

When I arrived in the office, Katie was talking to Tammy, “Why don’t you bring Trig and your two sons to our apartment complex on Sunday about four o’clock.  The boys can go swimming in the pool and we can have a picnic in the picnic area for the evening meal.  We’re going to go house hunting on Saturday.”

Katie turned to me, “Oh good, you’re back.  Ed, I didn’t get any good vibes when I was in the Finance Division.  It’s as if everyone is backstabbing everyone else, protecting their territory.  Word had gotten out that I work for you, and I got the distinct impression that the people are afraid that they are going to be dismissed, especially the mid level managers.  Mr. Taylor is looking forward to our helping clear the deadwood out in his department.”

On the way home, Greg started to give me a difficult time. “Heck, Mr. Waller, anyone in their right mind would have jumped at the opportunity to have the use of a company car.”

“Greg, what sort of signal would that be sending the people of the company if I were to be driving a company owned car.  Our job is to find ways to save the company money.”

As I was getting out of the car, I grinned, “Guys, I’ll pick you up at 6:45 on Monday.  I want to make sure that we’re there to greet the first visitors when they return from the Las Vegas retreat.  I think it might prove very interesting.”

Greg and Juan laughed, “Yeah, we wouldn’t want to miss the fireworks.”

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  I do suspect that there will be fireworks on Monday morning.  Some people seem to think that the work place is just some sort of stopping off point to get their pay envelope or the keys to a company car.

Like Ed, I believe that if you work for someone or even if you work for a large company, you should expect to do a good day's work for a day's pay.  Of course, there are special circumstances, and that is why most employers offer personal time off, either payed or otherwise.  Those days off should be used sparingly. You never know when you will have a real need to use one of them.

It has always seemed to me that the people who do the least work for a company are the ones that wield the most power.  They can always order someone else to do the things that they are not willing to do. I would really enjoy seeing the jerks that are living off the hard work of their employees sent packing as soon as possible, and the only gold they get should be in the form of some liquid that I would rather not talk about. Unfortunately, at least some of them might actually enjoy something like that.

It is really a good thing that Ed works for the company, and that he is as honest as he can be.  Let's get all that dead wood out of the company before someone causes real trouble. 

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 02/12/10