“It doesn’t matter,” Lisa splashed in. “It doesn’t freakin’ matter who knows what. It’s all coming down, man. I’m sure there’s an internet block on its way. My girlfriend, Robin, works for Converse, they have to go to IT just for approval to use the internet. Eventually they’ll have us wearing hairnets and preparing toast and jam. And it’ll still be wrong. I don’t know.”
There was a collective moment of silence for the benefits that were soon to be gone.
“Philip! Who made you pizza today? Marie Callender or Mama Celeste?” Lisa was on target again.
“Uh, well we know it wasn’t you. The only thing you do in the kitchen is complain.”
“Mmm…touché. You know Philip, seriously, you should add on your online dating profile that you have impeccable cooking skills. I’m sure there’s a lot of women out there that would be smitten with a guy who likes clothes shopping and makes them a good microwave pizza.”
“You’d be surprised, Lisa. Your cats don’t mix you up a nice mojito when you get home?”
“Nah, they just poop on my couch and pretend they don’t see it.” Philip snorted a bit as he walked out and everyone else fell back in their chairs laughing. Lisa had the room again.
“You have an interview today, Dennis?”
“What do you mean?” Dennis was intrigued.
“Dress shirt, nice shoes – something’s up.”
“I don’t think I could get a job at McDonalds right now with the way things are going.”
“Good point,” Lisa replied. None of them really liked Dennis. He was just one of those guys who is a coworker today and tomorrow he’s a former coworker whose funny stories get ripped off. Their little finance clique felt bad for him having to be subjected to whatever marketing was actually doing each day. Dennis was kind of entertaining though his LinkedIn requests kept getting ‘lost.’
“One of the bigwigs from Britain is here today. I’m surprised I haven’t been assigned to show him around Boston this weekend,” Dennis explained.
“Or jolly old Waltham,” Tim chimed in.
Lisa caught up, “Here’s a Chinese restaurant you shouldn’t go to. Here’s a Greek restaurant you probably shouldn’t go to. Oh, here’s an ugly office building and everybody stuck on 128 watching us in our ugly office building.”
Dennis picked up his lunch tray and held his pose for a second. “There’s just nothing out there.”
Chris could hear the sound of the crowd getting up from the kitchen table with chair legs moaning to call on a long afternoon. He hated eating lunch at his desk, but there was a bi-weekly managers meeting and Flo needed a particular report done. Plus he had a ‘doctor’s appointment’ in the late afternoon. Chris had gone right from work to the wake for Donna’s aunt a few months before where everybody in the office gave him the interview wink so he knew better than to dress ‘inappropriately.’
# # #
With the Friday afternoon traffic stifled on 495, Chris was cutting it a bit close to get to the interview. In fact when he got to the parking lot of Vivitech, another software company, he was only five minutes early and the rushing made him a bit sweaty as it was a warm day. This was a second interview where he was to meet with the CFO and Controller. The company, located in Lowell, was much smaller than Product Wave. Chris had met with the accounting manager and a senior accountant who both seemed professional and like good coworkers. The company was nice in that it was close to home and their products, software that was being integrated in household goods like refrigerators or toasters, seemed pretty cool to Chris.
The lobby of Vivitech was Spartan, with a black leather couch and a coffee table. Sitting on the table was a 2007 Annual Report. 2008 had apparently been selectively misplaced. Before Chris could analyze the table any further the controller came in.
“Hi Chris? Phil Nardone, how are you?
“Chris Mackey, I’m doing well, thanks.”
“You didn’t have any trouble getting here I hope – oh that’s right you’ve already met with Linda and David.”
“No, yeah, the traffic was a little thick, but it always is on Fridays.”
“Sure, sure. So you’re coming from Product Wave, huh? That’s interesting. They were a client of mine when I worked for Deloitte. They have offices in Houston, Nashville and uh…”
“Sacramento,” Chris exclaimed.
“Yes, right.”
Chris interrupted the thought, “But um they’ve closed those offices now to consolidate in Waltham.”
“Oh really? Well, it has been about ten years since I worked with them. They had some interesting accounting issues surrounding their software. Anyway, you’ve been there for four years?
‘Well, I started with Sound Tech and then while I was there PW purchased us and eventually started on this corporate simplification. My role hasn’t really changed, just the logo on my paycheck, I guess.” The controller didn’t really find the paycheck comment all that funny.
“Well, let me tell you about our company a little bit. I’m not sure what Linda and David told you so I’ll just give you my take. We are coming up on our ninth year in business. I’m sure you’re familiar with the product so I won’t get too far into that. We’ve been in Lowell for about a year and a half. You live nearby?
“I live in Lowell.”
“Oh that’s great. I see that you worked at E&Y so I know you understand the value of hard work and being part of a team. I’m sure it’s a similar atmosphere to Product Wave in that regard. We have one subsidiary in Mexico so in this senior role you or David would be responsible for reconciliations and consolidation.”
There was no sense in continuing to listen. Chris knew the controller really didn’t know what was going on with his team and trying to divvy out a small amount of work to two people was never going to work. He was frankly surprised a new position was created. It seemed everybody else, including PW, was giving two or more jobs to each employee. Chris battled through the rest of the interview just for the practice, but he was dulled.
“How’d it go, babe?” Donna was chipper for a Friday evening.
“Nothin’ doin’ on that one.”
“They already called you back?”
“No, but I met with the controller and the CFO today and I just realized how the company is…I don’t know what the word is…I’m just not feelin’ it.”
She hugged him in her soft sweater and her hair mischievously leapt from her shoulders into his face.
“The next one is Wednesday, right?” She was just so hard to frustrate though he had thought about her reaction to the damp interview all the way home. Donna held a key role at the Paws Animal Clinic, but her pay lagged behind her value. Chris felt like he owned the couples’ financial success, whether that vision was old-fashioned or not. Perhaps the Easter weekend together would present a chance to enjoy each other for the first time in a while. Although Chris could usually find a way to multitask some worry about a variety of concerns into what should have been a relaxed day off.
Chapter 4
-Let’s not poke the 10,000-pound gorilla-
Saturday, April 11, 2009
It was a rainy spring Saturday. Chris could hear it gushing down the gutters at about 7:00AM. Their bedroom was enveloped in the perfect cool air that makes you crave digging deeper under the covers. He fell back asleep and dreamed about