by Melody Anne
David knew his company was in trouble but he didn’t know about the hostile take-over. Derek’s victory felt so much better, knowing David had walked into his former offices today only to be met by Derek’s security.
He’d been tempted to be there, sitting in the man’s chair, just so he could see his reaction. He’d barely been able to stop himself but he had plenty of time to gloat. He turned around and stared out the huge windows of his office, looking down at the thriving city of Seattle. He always felt good when he acquired a new company but this one was different. This one was the pinnacle of everything he’d been working for over the past ten years.
Derek heard commotion outside his office and turned around to find the man in question had barged in through his doorway. Derek’s secretary came chasing after him. “Sir, you can’t go in there,” she was trying to say, her voice and eyes panicked.
“It’s okay Lana, I can handle this,” he told her. She apologized and stood there, not knowing what to do. “You can call security, I have a feeling Mr. Freeman will need to be escorted from the building once we are done talking,” he finished. The smile never left his face. This confrontation was coming far quicker than he’d expected.
“You piece of crap!” David yelled at him.
“It’s good to see you again, David,” Derek said, never losing his cool.
“I was getting things straightened out and then you swoop in and steal my company out from under me,” the man continued to yell. He was so angry, his head was completely red and he could barely speak. The angrier David got, the calmer Derek felt.
“I guess you should’ve run your business a bit more above ground and not left it vulnerable to a takeover,” Derek said. David looked like he wanted to jump across the room and strangle him. Derek looked over the man, who had seemed so much larger than life when he was still a teenager. The man now looked shrunken and old. It was satisfying.
“I ran my business successfully, for over forty years, you pompous piece of trash. You may have the rest of the world fooled but I know where you come from and I know who you really are,” David spat at him.
Derek was losing some of his calm. He narrowed his eyes on the man who had changed his life. He knew David was trying to get a reaction from him but he refused to bite.
“Unlike you, David, I kept a protective, watchful eye on my business. I may have started out on the wrong side of town, as you like to point out but I made choices to change my life and now you’re the one who will have nothing,” he said, with a mocking smile.
David actually lunged at him, as the security guards stepped into the room. Derek held his hand up, to stop them from grabbing the man. He wanted him to try and throw a punch. Derek was normally not a violent man but it would be his total joy to knock David across his pathetic jaw.
David saw the look in Derek’s eyes and quickly backed down. “This isn’t the last you’ll hear from me,” he said, still not leaving.
“Security please escort Mr. Freeman from my building. Let the front desk know he’s no longer welcome to step foot on the premises,” he finished. He then turned his back on him, as if he didn’t matter in the least to him.
“I will get you back for this, just you wait,” David yelled, as the men dragged him away. Derek continued to smile as he sat back down and once again looked over the papers that gave him ownership of the Freeman Corporation.
Derek pressed his buzzer, “Lana can you please pull up the full employee list for The Freeman Corporation and the financial documents.”
“Yes sir, I will have the information to you within a few minutes,” she replied, as efficient as always. He didn’t know how he’d been so lucky to find her but if she ever retired he’d have a hell of a time replacing her.
She brought the information to him and he got to work. He hadn’t done his normal homework when acquiring the corporation. He normally knew the business inside and out before he took it over. He simply hadn’t cared with this one. He was buying it up no matter what. He didn’t even care if the buy ended up costing him millions; he had the money to spare. This was about his pride and nothing more.
As he studied the papers over the afternoon, he was surprised to find there were some legitimate reasons to keep the company as it was, instead of splitting it up like he normally would do. If David had run things how he was supposed to, the corporation would’ve never gone into jeopardy of being taken over. The man was more of an idiot than Derek had originally thought.
He’d have to think about what he was going to do with this one. If he decided to leave it in tact, the first thing to go would be the name. Derek wouldn’t leave that man’s name attached to any aspect of the business.
The Corporation was a major producer of medical equipment. They actually made a quality product but had a horrible marketing department. If the right people were brought in, he may decide to keep the company together.
As he studied through the papers over the next several days, he discovered David had embezzled millions of dollars. That was one of the reasons the company was in such a weak state. He’d leave the legal department to look further into it. He wouldn’t mind if the man ended up in prison. It would just be icing on the cake.
The minute David had placed the corporation on the stock market; he had investors to be accountable too. Since David had been stealing from those investors for years, they were going to want answers. He smiled some more as he thought about David’s life continuing to go down the drain.
He left all the staff at their jobs for now but had memos sent out notifying them they were going to have to defend their jobs. He normally left all of that to his staff but since this operation was personal to him he’d be conducting many of those interviews, himself.
Derek had a couple of trusted associates coming with him and he was like a kid on Christmas morning. It was time to go to his new corporation and do some investigating. He’d made the decision to keep the company as it was but there would be a lot of people losing their jobs and a lot of new hires. It would take months to get it all straightened out.
He was getting ready to leave, when his father walked into the office. “Where are you off to, son?” his dad asked.
“I’m going over to the new company today. I have to eliminate some staff and get the HR set up to hire new employees,” he answered as he headed towards the elevator.
“I’ll come with you, since I’m a great judge of character,” he said, as he climbed in the elevator with him.
“That would be great. I could use an extra person I trust,” Derek answered. He knew his father had a soft heart but he was also a shrewd business man and would know who could be trusted to stay on and who was far too loyal to David to be trusted.
“Son, I know this has been your dream since that dirt bag hurt you but you need to remember most of these employees didn’t even know David Freeman. They’re just like you or I, trying to make a living,” his father reasoned.
“I hate it when you’re right, but I know. Most of the executive positions will be replaced. I simply can’t trust people who worked closest with David. I’m not worried about any of the factory workers. My staff will make sure all of their background checks pass but other than that I’ll leave them alone, well not completely leave them alone,” he added.
“What?” his dad asked, with confusion.
“David was by far underpaying the factory workers, while padding the executives’ pockets. They are barely making minimum wage,” Derek said with anger. “I’m going to raise their pay and offer bonuses for high work production and early completion of projects.”
“That’s why you’re so successful son, you actually care about the core of the company,” his father praised him. Derek knew what it was like to barely be able to survive and didn’t like that feeling. He always treated his employees’ well. He had a very low turnover rate. Once people came to work for one of his corporations, they didn’t leave.
“The bastard didn’t even offer health insurance
for his factory workers. It really is no wonder he was losing everything,” Derek continued to rage.
“Well just remember these people are scared about their jobs and don’t know you’re different. It would be a really good idea if the first thing you do is call a meeting and reassure them,” Daniel said.
“You’re right, again. I wasn’t planning on doing that but I’ll call a meeting first thing tomorrow. I want to spend today looking around and then eliminating some of the dead weight,” Derek told him.
“Sounds like a plan, son,” Daniel offered, as he slapped Derek on the back.
They rode to the new office in silence. Derek was immensely satisfied to see the crew working on the new sign out front. The old one was down and the new sign was going up with his corporate name on it. Each time he saw that, his heart skipped a beat with pride.
He knew he had to take apart most of the corporations he bought up. He made far too much money not to split them apart, plus some of the companies were unfixable. He did love to keep the good ones together though, turning them back around. He could provide so many jobs for people and the feeling of success, as he fixed them, was what drove him.
Derek walked into the building, surrounded by his best team members and his father. He knew they made an intimidating sight and he enjoyed the looks on the staff members faces as they walked down the hallway.
They approached security. That had been the first change he’d made. He always put in his own security team, immediately. He didn’t want the previous owners stepping foot back in the buildings after he took them over.
“Good morning, Mr. Titan, it’s good to see you,” the guard greeted them.
“Hello Tim, how are things going here?” he asked.
“Everything has been mellow the last few days. Mr. Freeman tried to come in the day after the take-over but was escorted out and hasn’t been back since,” the man reported.
“I’ve had new badges created and no one enters without one of them. All employees who are kept will receive their badge before they leave today. There will be a lot of people let go and I don’t need them sneaking back in and causing trouble. I also want several security personnel up on the twenty-fifth floor to escort people down as they’re let go. Today, unfortunately isn’t going to be a pleasant one.”
“No problem Mr. Titan, I will send them up right away,” he answered.
“Here’s your new badge and some for your men. Some workers will be in over the next few days setting up key pads for all the elevators and exits. Here’s the list of men who will be here doing the work. These men and only these men are allowed in. If their company tries to send over replacements call me and I’ll let you know if they’re approved or not,” he finished.
“Okay boss,” Tim replied, then set to work making phone calls.
Derek spent the first part of the morning exploring the huge building. The most time was spent down on the bottom floors, assessing the factory and its workers. They were eyeing him with trepidation and he knew his father was right; he needed to speak with them soon. The work was going slow and he noticed obvious mistakes being made. He knew a lot of that had to do with their lack of enthusiasm for underpaid work and part of it had to do with the fact they were so unsure of their futures.
He decided to call a meeting right away. It wasn’t the employees’ fault that the previous owner was a horrible man. Derek knew their attitudes would change, once they knew the changes he was making.
He spoke to his men, who went in search of the foreman on each floor. It only took about thirty minutes and he had all the factory workers assembled. He looked out at the massive crowd. There were about five-hundred faces looking up at him with fear. The job market was already terrible and all the people were in fear of joining the ranks of the unemployed.
He stood at the make-shift podium and grabbed the microphone. “My name is Derek Titan and I’m the new owner of this corporation. First, I want to assure you all we’re keeping this company open,” he started. He heard several people release the breaths they were holding. He also saw many in the crowd visibly relax.
“There will be some changes made but I think you’ll like what we have in mind. It will benefit every one of you. I’ve looked through the financial records and you’ve been woefully underpaid and not offered benefits. You’ll receive a ten percent wage increase and offered health insurance. By the end of the day you’ll receive paperwork showing the changes. You’ll have to go through a background check to continue working here but you’ll see things are going to be much better,” he continued talking.
He was now seeing smiles in the audience and some with their mouths gaped open. He had to fight his own smile from spreading across his face. He needed to appear confident and in charge. He couldn’t appear to be a friend. The boss had to be respected, not necessarily liked.
“If you work hard for me and meet production deadlines you'll be rewarded. I want to turn this company around, into what it should be. You make quality products here, so let’s be a quality company as well. I want investors to walk through these stations and see happy employee’s, doing an above quality job. The better you do, the more bonuses you'll get. We will be setting up some HR representatives down here in the offices and bringing each of you in over the next few days to sign paperwork. This is a new corporation and if you do choose to leave we'll offer you a severance package. If you have any questions, please wait until you’re called in so we can move things along quickly,” he finished.
“Please return to work and your foremen will be calling you in over the next few days. I need all the supervisors to please meet me over here,” he concluded.
He explained what they'd be doing in more detail to the supervisors, then made his way up to the executive offices. There weren’t many people around. He saw a few secretaries, who glanced wearily at him as he passed but not many others.
He walked up to David Freeman’s old office and sighed with delight. As he stepped through the doorway, he felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. The furniture had already been replaced. He hadn’t wanted to sit in the same seat or use the same desk as that man. He hadn’t touched the other offices but this one would be his when he was working there and it needed to be comfortable.
He sat down in his chair and turned it toward the windows. The office wasn’t as nice as the one back at his main office but it would do. He’d already had a complete overhaul done on it so there was brand new cherry wood floors and expensive furniture. He had priceless pieces of art hung on the walls and a top of the line computer system. He liked surrounding himself with the finer things in life.
He enjoyed the view from the huge windows and his few minutes of peace, before he had to continue his day. It was going to be a very long one and he knew he’d be lucky to get out of there before midnight. People were never happy to be fired and he had a lot of people to let go. He sighed, as he turned back to the computer and started looking through files.
Chapter Three
Jasmine walked into the familiar building, having to fight back her tears. There were men outside, working on placing a new sign. It was more proof the company no longer belonged to her father. She’d been trying to reach him for days, to ask him what had happened. He hadn’t even told her the company was in jeopardy of being taken over.
He wasn’t answering his phone, or returning her calls. She’d been to his place several times and was told he wasn’t there. She tried again that morning but wasn’t able to get past the gates and found a real estate sign on his front lawn.
Jasmine was trying to understand what was going on and why her father wouldn’t speak to her. She knew the new owner of the company was scheduled to be there that day and she was determined to get some answers. She’d worked so hard throughout the years and had some day hoped to own the company she cared so much about, but those dreams were now gone.
She would’ve walked out the doors when the take-over had occurred but she didn’t only have herself to think a
bout. Her anger drained a little bit as she thought about her beautiful son. He looked so much like his father it made her heart ache sometimes with missing the man. She had to remind herself his father wasn’t the same man he used to be.
She started to pass the security desk, when she was stopped. “Sorry Ms. Freeman but we have some new procedures now, can you step over here?” the new guard said to her.
“What’s going on Tim?” she asked, perplexed. She actually liked the man. In a stressful situation, he’d been kind and helpful. He didn’t try to bully people, like some of the old guards had done. She’d came close to filing a sexual harassment case on the last head of security but her father had talked her out of it, saying it would look bad for the company. She’d made sure to never be left alone in the building with the previous guard though because she hadn’t trusted him.
“We have a new security system being implemented,” he told her. He then looked through his computer screen until he found her name. He typed some things in the boxes and then handed her a new badge. “This is just a temporary one. The boss is doing a bunch of cuts and when everything is done, the remaining employee’s will be issued permanent badges,” he finished, looking sorry. She had a bad feeling she was one being let go. She had to suppress the tears one more time.
She got on the elevator and took a fortifying breath. If she was going down, she was certainly going to do it fighting, she thought with determination. This new boss sounded like a real piece of work.
She was currently the head of Personnel and loved her job. She loved working with people on a daily basis. She’d hired most of the factory workers and was more scared for them than anyone else. She fought her father many times to give them better wages and benefits but he had treated her like a child telling her she didn’t know how to successfully run a business.