2 Executive Retention

by Maria E. Schneider

  "Oh."

  "Those Kronology folks are idiots. Lock them in a room with a troll," Bill advised as he shuffled off towards the lab door. "I heard Ben was back on board. Since they're hiring maybe they'll find money for profit sharing. If you want your share, you're gonna need to have a high percentage of solved problems."

  Profit sharing? At this point, I was probably lucky I still had a paycheck.

  I turned to ask Radar what else he had found, but he was gone.

  I went back to my office and called Huntington. If he didn't know already, he needed to know that Ben was back. For certain he needed to know that more than one paycheck was going into the same direct deposit account.

  Finding out about the direct deposit checks made me think that some of my other ideas weren't so far-fetched either, but I wasn't ready to tell Huntington that maybe A.J. and Pete deserved a closer look.

  Some things were better left to the right timing.

  Chapter 30

  I had conveniently forgotten that the weekly project meeting had been moved to Tuesday because the week before we had been out for Thanksgiving. Pete and A.J. attended to remind us about the company party on Wednesday and rally us with their enthusiasm. Oh goody.

  Management didn't disappoint either. They did everything except wear clown suits.

  Jacques started by lying outright. "The Kronology Server project, thanks to Sedona, is a success."

  Arnold didn't let that sit for even a heartbeat. He adjusted his smarmy glasses and interrupted rudely, cutting his eyes to A.J. to make sure the CEO was paying attention. "Do you have the actual fix in hand?"

  Jacques nodded and embellished his lies. "Yes, we're getting great responses from those folks. I want to point out these successes--my group follows the company motto. Who here can recite the company motto?" He held up a hand as if he was leading a band, but the band didn't start playing.

  I was going to claim ignorance because I had only been around a total of two weeks. Of course, I was also the most recently hired so I should be able to recall the big, bold headers on the paperwork, but I hadn't actually read the material. No one read it, and no one paid attention to company mottoes except the marketing people that came up with them to impress management.

  "I propose we put the motto on the back of our company business cards!" Jacques exclaimed. "It would be a great way to remind all of us that ‘Acetel is where customers come together!'" He beamed. Perhaps he interpreted shuffling feet and muffled groans as support.

  As CFO, Pete must have decided it was his job to respond to such a silly financial drain. "Great idea. I want everyone to know that even in these tight times, we will spend money where we need to. We need to rethink the paradigms and find new ways to generate revenue and synergy."

  And waste it on business cards with logos. I carefully kept my eyes on the table in front of me.

  Jacques babbled through some more interesting "facts" and then Arnold stood up. He said, "Welcome back, Ben. Really glad the company is doing well enough again to be able to hire a few people." He glanced at me when he said it. I was busy trying to overtly study Ben, who sat three people away from A.J. The only difference from the first time I had seen him was that he was now wearing glasses. He had an electronic device, either a phone or Blackberry in his hand, but with attention on him, he moved it under the table. His eyes swept the room with a vague friendly look. He did not stare at me even though I was rudely staring at him.

  Arnold began his presentation. He mentioned his group's profitability, which should have given management a clue, but the real message didn't become apparent until Arnold talked about how profit sharing could be better split up between groups--giving groups that brought in extra revenue more of the profit.

  A.J. interrupted the speech as soon as it became evident that Arnold was not-so-subtly trying to redirect cash to his own group. I thought A.J. might reassure us that profit sharing wasn't going to be canceled, but all he had was excuses at the ready. "We do want each and every one of you to share in the success of the company, and as soon as we're able, we plan to re-instate a new profit sharing plan. The manner in which that is done can always be improved upon."

  There was some grumbling, and I distinctly heard Bill say, "Everyone didn't get a retention bonus." The executives had a sudden attack of earwax blockage. No one acknowledged the remark, so of course, the elephant was not standing in the room, no siree.

  It didn't help any when Arnold asked, "When do your foresee the company being profitable enough to reinstate profit sharing?"

  People leaned forward in their chairs, scenting blood or meat. A.J. made soothing motions with his hands and continued politicking. He started with, "We intend to be one of the best places to work in this entire industry," and followed it immediately with typical management proof. "We have always kept up with industry standard benefits."

  If you're only "keeping up with standard" benefits, how does that equate to being the "best" in the industry?

  A.J. was smart enough to continue talking so no one could ask any more questions. "The sooner we focus, the sooner it will happen. We fully expect within the next year to be able to have some profit sharing for at least parts of the company." He raised a cautionary hand. "Good work always needs to be recognized and rewarded. We will stay competitive."

  A.J. quickly turned the conversation back to work accounts, wanting to know specifics about the cases that were currently being tested.

  Not surprisingly, all of Jacques customers were "completely happy" and all cases were "eighty percent resolved." When asked, Arnold gave a summary of each customer and the exact technical problem in excruciating detail. Eyes glazed over at first, but the room got downright desperate when he announced, "I suggest that we go around the room and let each person discuss his or her case load. It might give you a good idea of just who is contributing the most."

  Pete stood up so fast he nearly knocked his chair over. "This has been exceptional. With this trip to Denton, I can happily say that all reorganizations are now in place. We have a lot to be proud of. There isn't another company around that could so quickly get reorganized and focused.

  In a Herculean effort to blend, I kept my expression neutral. Do not ask me how a company can label a reorganization as "progress," especially when the new organization charts looked the same as the old ones. Maybe I was missing something, but to win the game, didn't you have to do more than move chess pieces aimlessly?

  From the tight set to Arnold's mouth, he was disappointed to hear the reorganization was complete. It meant he had no near-term chance of getting promoted to head the Denton office. Then again, no one else would be running it either. Jacques' pen tapped against his leg, but the hieroglyphics weren't particularly frenetic, so I took that to mean his surprise and stress level weren't on the high end of the scale.

  After Pete's benevolent words, he and A.J. did the obligatory, "Keep up the good work and see you tomorrow at the party," before scurrying out.

  They had probably expected a less volatile meeting where they could give advice on handling customers, rather than a nervous crowd focused on profit sharing.

  As soon as the meeting was over, I stopped by Becky's office. "Busy?"

  "Like an ant," she said, staring at her fingernails. "Pete and A.J. took off for lunch."

  "Ah, good." I came in and shut the door.

  She sat up and her eyebrows wiggled in anticipation. "What?"

  "No, nothing juicy. We just got out of a meeting with the elite. Pete said the reorganization was done. Did we actually get a new org chart?"

  She waved her hand. "It looked like it was going to be a huge deal, but Pete gave me the info for the new chart yesterday afternoon. They didn't do the changes they were talking about." She turned to her mouse. "He hasn't told me to send it out yet, not that there is much to see, but promise not to tell, and I'll show you."

  That was the reason the door was shut, but I didn't mention that. And Huntington didn't count as tell
ing, did it?

  She opened a power point slide. "Before A.J. and Pete showed up from the San Jose office to reorganize Denton, the sparks were flying. It was obvious that Jacques had a huge leg up on getting promoted to run the Denton office."

  "Why was it obvious?"

  "He had permission to hire--you know, he hired you. No one else had permission to hire, not even in San Jose. Jacques gloated up and down the hallways and started working on a new personal improvement survey." She rolled her eyes. "Then A.J. arrived, and he let Arnold take two of Jacques' people. They both originally worked with Ben, the contractor that was let go, but now he's back too." She pulled up another chart. "For whatever reason, after A.J. and Pete came this time, Arnold announced that A.J. was rearranging people so that he could be made director of the Denton office. A.J. even gave the go-ahead for Arnold to promote one of his guys to team lead."

  "But what happened? Why didn't Arnold get promoted?"

  She shrugged. "Who knows?"

  "You're saying A.J. reneged on his promise?"

  Becky sniffed. "I wouldn't say that. I think A.J. honestly intended to come here and figure out which of the managers to put in charge. That's what the whole reorganization was supposed to be about--get things cleaned up and make sure that business got handled better so that we didn't end up with layoffs again." She pointed to the chart. "But it turned out that Pete decided we needed a financial person here more than any other change, so they hired Ben back. Pete and A.J. never chose a manager to run the office. They leave on Thursday or Friday so as far as I know this is final. I have no idea what changed their minds."

  I did. Huntington had been shot, and I was floating around the place stirring up all kinds of trouble. I looked over the chart carefully. Obviously there was no sign of Sandra Garcia or any of the other post office box employees.

  "Interesting," I said. "I bet neither Jacques nor Arnold are very happy to find out the reorganization is done."

  "I'm not sure Arnold wanted the job as badly as Jacques, but Arnold's girlfriend will probably be disappointed. He dates this really nice lady. She's a lawyer and just made, what do you call it, partner at her firm."

  It was hard to fathom who Arnold might date since he seemed to have trouble looking anyone directly in the eyes. "Arnold seemed pretty disappointed. Do you know that he actually suggested we start splitting the profit sharing up so that groups with a higher case load would get fatter checks?"

  Her eyes went wide. "No! He totally wouldn't dare!"

  "Oh, yes he did. Apparently he didn't bother to run it by A.J. before mentioning it in the meeting."

  "He asked about it in front of everyone? Oh, my!" The gleam in her eye disappeared as another thought occurred to her. "What did A.J. say about profit sharing?"

  "It sounds like it will be a while before they award it again."

  "Rats." Becky gave a forlorn sigh. "I was hoping that since the managers got retention bonuses, there would be something left over for us little guys."

  "A.J. wouldn't even give a time frame for profit sharing or talk about how it might work." I raised my hands helplessly. "We're all in the same boat."

  "Yeah and it's sinking. Dirtballs."

  I didn't disagree. The problem was there was too much dirt covering everyone. The lack of ethics made it awfully hard to pinpoint who had crossed what line. As Huntington had pointed out, greed wasn't illegal. The trick was to find out who had decided to turn simple greed into unlawful profits. It was time for a pow-wow, and we needed more information than I could provide. The good news was that I knew who might be able to dig in and find the right details.

  I followed Radar's example and slipped him a note under the server door.

  The note said, "Meet in server room, seven tonight. Burn note." I hoped Mark caught him burning the note on camera. It would make Radar look nicely paranoid.

  Chapter 31

  Huntington and Mark met me at the outer door of Acetel. It was dark and lonely in the parking lot this time of night; my car was still there, but I saw no other vehicles. Since neither had a badge to enter the building, and I doubted Mark wanted to pick the lock, I was their ticket inside.

  Huntington ducked in first and Mark followed. Both of them had black leather jackets; Huntington must have replaced his old one. The new one looked just as buttery soft and super-cool as the old one.

  I was happy to see Mark, no matter the reason, but I was flustered. We weren't exactly dating. We weren't exactly not...interested either.

  I let the door swing shut after Mark came in. He tilted his head, his eyes unreadable in the auxiliary hallway lighting. He didn't seem to know how to greet me either. A light kiss might work, but we hadn't moved to that comfortable stage. Our encounters were more...enthusiastic than that. Any other kiss would be rude or...some sort of display.

  He settled for, "Hi," and grazed my cheek with his knuckles.

  What did that mean??? I wasn't sure, but I blushed anyway.

  Huntington didn't care or didn't notice the awkward moment. He moved to the side of the hallway, away from the door and unzipped his jacket. "Your buddy here? I'm glad you suggested we move in on him."

  That got my attention. "You think he's guilty?"

  Huntington said, "Don't know, but it will be nice to have him on the payroll. Even if he works both sides of the fence, it's always easier to catch the guilty if you have him on your payroll."

  I wasn't sure that philosophy was true--or healthy. I wondered what that said about Huntington hiring me, but didn't want to think too hard about Huntington's multiple personalities.

  I led the way down the hall into the lab. The lab had no lights on at this hour. I had turned them off after Vi left. I wasn't sure that Radar would be waiting because his only reply had been a cup of ashes left at my workstation sometime after five o'clock.

  There were enough server lights flashing in the lab that I was comfortable moving through the equipment. Huntington must not have been quite so sanguine because he turned on a low beam LED flashlight.

  At the back of the lab, I knocked on the server room door. If I knew Radar, he'd make me wait. Deliberately, I stepped back and off to the side a bit. That made both Mark and Huntington slide sideways too, following my caution, even if they didn't know why.

  When nothing happened, I tried the knob. It wasn't locked. I started to move inside, but Mark put a hand on my arm and pulled me back gently. He went in first. Huntington followed.

  When no shots rang out, I walked in and swung the door closed.

  The room was slightly brighter than the lab, because Radar had left two monitors running. There was no sign of Radar, however. "Are there lights in here?" I asked.

  Mark put his back up against the wall where a switch might be. Both he and Huntington were in black jeans and black coats. Guess it might be hard to identify them later given the low lighting--just in case someone else had added their own cameras.

  "Okay, let's see what we have here," I said, taking a seat at the first monitor. Radar had left one directory open on the desktop. The first file in the list was named "Sedona." A glaring clue if there ever was one.

  I moved the mouse over the file and clicked. The file contained a list of fourteen employees and three direct deposit account numbers. "Aha! Fourteen employees with only three direct deposit accounts! I knew it!"

  While I sorted and double-checked the names Radar had left, Mark sat down at the other monitor. "List of post office boxes. Matches what Steve and I found."

  "What did you find?" I asked.

  Huntington said, "The post office boxes are real, and they weren't opened all at once. No one is going to remember a face and even if they did, it could easily be the guys in the Lincoln or others like them following instructions via text messaging."

  "So Beefy and Buns never came clean about who they were working for?"

  Huntington shook his head. "Despite being delivered to the cops, neither have been much help. They claim they were hired strictly by te
xt messaging. Their cell phone records back up a lot of calls coming from pay phones and public places--including a library. They were told where to pick up their pay, told who to follow and who to target."

  "But in jail, they won't be shooting anyone else," Mark said.

  Huntington ignored the comment. "Thanks to you--and your friend, Radar--we have a pretty good idea of how the money was siphoned away from Acetel. What we don't know is who took it. It will be interesting to see what we find if we're able to trace the owners of those three bank accounts."

  "We have a lot of suspects," I said. "Jacques is definitely guilty of trying to prod his stock options. And Ben has been hired back."

  Huntington said, "Getting hired here is not an automatic sign of wrongdoing. Ben said Pete called and asked if he would come back. At least this way we have all the players in one place."

  "I guess so," I said. "Does Ben travel much? These post office boxes were opened in two different states. That means someone who traveled. I don't think whoever is behind this scheme hired Beefy and Buns to fly back and forth to do it. The two people who travel most are Pete and A.J." There, my idea was out in the open.

  Mark said, "Most of the time Pete and A.J. come here, but a couple of times a year the Denton managers fly to San Jose for larger company meetings."

  I would have preferred the bad news come from Huntington because it would be easier to argue with him. "And the lower-level engineers don't fly there at all?"

  "Correct. Except for Radar, none of the other engineers or employees make regular trips back and forth."

  I let that hint go and addressed Huntington. "Didn't you tell me that A.J. used to be an engineer?"

  Huntington nodded. "Hardware."

  "What about Pete?"

  "Marketing background initially, but he was in finance at two companies before taking the CFO position here. Why?"

  "Because either of them might have the know-how to hack into the system."