It Was Something in Her Voice

Some would say that Greg Perry was a cold fish. But he wasn't. He was passionate about so many things. It was just that he never lost his temper. If he raised his voice it wasn't passion or anger, it was a purposeful decision to raise his voice, to underline whatever he was saying. But, he was a kind, fair-minded and loving man.

His main passion by far was his wife of twenty five years, Susan. He also loved and was proud of his two children, Melissa and Jude, but they were grown up now. Melissa had graduated with a good degree and was building her own career, and Jude was about to start his last year at University before he would also strike out for himself. Greg was very proud of his children, but he looked forward to Jude graduating and moving off to his own life, leaving Susan and Greg to enjoy their empty nest.

On this last Monday of August, Greg was sitting at his desk pondering if there was anything else he could do to encourage his Board of Directors to accept that he wanted to retire early, or at least edge towards working part-time. It was over six months now since he had promised Susan that he would start planning to ease his work load. She had given up work last year when she was made redundant, and they had talked and decided that it really wasn't worth her while trying to pick up her career somewhere new if Greg would retire sometime soon. So he had promised her he would have freed himself up no later than Jude's graduation next year, but he knew that she was getting impatient and bored with being at home all day. The house was empty without the children, and she missed them. She was doing more charity work with her Church, but she had refused Greg's offer to help her take golf lessons, so that she could have joined him on the greens. In fact, Greg smiled as he thought of it, her Church and his golf were the only things that ever kept them apart, other than work. On Sundays she would head for her God, and Greg would commune with his, in a regular foursome with old friends.

Greg brought his thoughts back to getting the Board to agree to some form of part time working. The problem was that the Board were scared to let him go. Greg had founded Perry Consultants over fifteen years ago. His calm manner, his ability to turn problems into opportunities, his optimistic outlook even when the going got rough had seen him through. And he could look back on times in the business when the going had got very rough, but now they seemed to be in calmer times, and the company was growing steadily. Greg had a good right hand man in Tom Gould, and everyone expected Tom to takeover when Greg did retire, it was just the Board were reluctant to actually let him ease up at all. They were scared of him just not being there, and whenever Greg raised the idea of retirement or an easier work load they had procrastinated: "We need you to see through the current contracts" Or "Let's talk about it after year end." There was always some reason why not. Greg knew that as majority shareholder he could just dictate his own future, but he wanted the outside shareholders, and his colleagues within the firm to be happy at his retirement. He wanted the Board's approval and full support. He didn't want to walk out on a company and a team of colleagues that he'd worked with for over fifteen years, he wanted to go with their blessing.

In truth, Greg didn't really want to retire completely. He was only fifty, and he still had a lot of energy for they company he had created. But he did want to please Susan and spend more time with her. And these days, it seemed his office hours were getting longer not shorter. Somehow he had to get his colleagues to accept his partial retirement, and he had to get Susan to accept a compromise of partial retirement.

There was only one member of the Board who would probably be happy to see him go, and that was Phil Tremit, an external director and a successful local businessman.. He was a champion for Tom, and anxious to see him promoted. To try and speed things up, only last month Greg had tried having a quite chat with Phil, telling him that maybe, with the current mood of the other Directors, he had to accept that he wasn't going to be allowed to retire for some years yet. Greg hoped that Phil would take the challenge, and talk a few Directors round to his way of thinking, but he hadn't seen any signs of change yet.

Just then, as Greg was lost in his thoughts, he heard a knock at his open office door. Paul Benson, the Finance Director, was hesitantly wheeling himself in his motorised wheelchair towards Greg's desk, waiting to be told that Greg had time to see him. Paul had joined the company about nine years ago, when he wanted to return to work after a dreadful road accident that had left him with very weakened legs, he could just about stand and take a single step, and a totally paralysed left arm. He was a fully qualified accountant, but no other company in town wanted to know. It was only Greg who could not see any connection between a man's walking ability and his ability to keep accounts, and had immediately offered him a job on the proper pay for the responsibilities.

"Yes, Paul? What can I do for you?"

"I thought you might like to see this list of charity donations we will be making for this financial year before tomorrow's meeting." Paul proffered Greg a sheet of paper.

"Mmmm....thanks. Anything that's going to cause arguments?"

"I don't think so. Eighty percent of them were on the list last year. The new recipients are the ones in bold type."

"And you used the same percentage of the gross profit as always?"

"Yup. It's mainly your money, so if you are happy with it, then who am I to argue?"

Greg glanced down the list. All the charitable donations that were made through the company were to local small charities, Friends of the Hospital, the local Mother and Baby group, that sort of thing. Then Greg noticed one he didn't know:

"What's 'Help at 43'?"

"43 Manvers Street. It's an advice centre for addicts. It helps them find a bed for the night, they know which hostels accept addicts; help them get full social security payments despite their problems, that sort of thing."

"How about getting them off drugs. That might help them more."

"Oh no. That's the point, they aren't preached at. Their lifestyle isn't challenged. It's for people who haven't got to the point of wanting to give up yet. It's to help them stay safe until they're ready to make a big change in their lives."

Greg looked up at Paul. "No way!"

"What's wrong with them?"

"I'm not spending my money, and as you rightly point out, I am still the majority shareholder so it's mainly my money, on a bunch of people who are deliberating hurting themselves and probably everyone around them."

"But they need help until they get to sorting themselves out."

Greg sighed, "Look, Paul, I shouldn't have to tell you, I'm not against helping people who are trying to help themselves. People who have had a difficult period say, even if self-inflicted, but are trying to dig their way out of their problems have my respect and support. To my knowledge, we've got at least two ex-drug addicts and one recovering alcoholic and one guy with criminal prison sentence behind him, and about four registered disabled, including yourself. They are putting their lives back together, and we will give them all the help we can." Greg looked at Phil and answered his unasked question, "And No, you don't need to know who they are. But they are doing a good job and good luck to them. But there's a world of difference between respecting and helping them, and a bunch of losers who want someone else to put their world right for them. So cross that one off your list and reallocate the money. OK?"

"Would it help if I said that my wife is a volunteer there?"

"No. I admire Jean for trying to do her bit in society. But tell her to go and help people who have problems through no fault of their own and who respond to the help they are given. That's just my opinion. Sorry, but she gets none of my money."

"OK. I'll revise it before the Board meeting tomorrow."

The monthly Board Meeting the next day went well. No mention was made of Greg's retirement, and the charitable donations went through on the nod. Greg was feeling quite pleased with everything until they got to Any Other Business. Then Paul looked up and said he should inform the Board that C&G Services hadn't paid their invoices for nine weeks. Paul wasn't worried about C&G's credit, but there was a potential cash flow problem for Perry Consultants.

There was a general mutterings around the table about C&G being their biggest client, using well over twenty percent of the company's consulting team. There was a discussion as to whether anyone had heard any gossip about C&G, and Phil Tremit had played golf with Leslie Goodman, their managing director on Sunday. Phil suggested that he thought that they were possibly in very early takeover talks."

Greg had been sitting listening to the discussion, angry with Paul for not telling him a lot earlier about a potential problem. But then Tom Gould, knowing what his boss would be thinking, leant into him to say that Paul had been reporting to him about the situation, and they were monitoring it closely.

It was time for a firm hand, Greg decided, "Paul, what percentage of our turnover is down to C&G?"

Paul looked up his notes, "Twenty-one point four percent."

"And their contribution to our gross profit?"

"Twelve point seven"

"So they are nowhere near as profitable as our smaller clients. OK. Where are we in getting tough with them?"

Tom spoke up, "We've issued our strongest and final warning letter already. Actually we are legally in a position where we could withdraw all our guys at a moment's notice, not that we would do that. Perhaps I ought to go and see Leslie Goodman and get him to cough up."

Greg looked at him, "No. It's time to play hardball. Remind them one more time that they are in default. But, if we have no money by tomorrow evening, then on Thursday tell our guys to report here on Monday morning, and not to go into C&G. If we tell our guys on Thursday, C&G will get to hear and that gives them Friday to get their act together and pay us."

His co-directors were suddenly worried that Greg was willing to throw out their biggest client, and he could feel the vibes of concern.

Greg looked around the table, at each of his co-directors in turn, "I don't mind giving a good deal to such a big and important client. We'll do all we can to help them. But, they have broken the bloody contract. I'm sorry, but they'd have our guts for garters if we broke our side of things and didn't supply the guys they need when they need them. They'll either pay up fast, or we'll discuss a new contract with them after the event."

Again, Greg looked around his colleagues, no one seemed prepared to speak against him. So he turned to Tom: "Tom, could you bring me a plan, sometime tomorrow, of what we do next week if C&G don't cough up. I guess there will have to be some lay-offs at some time, make sure that's the freelancers. I know that some of our best consultants took the extra money of being self-employed knowing we would contract them for years. Well they'll learn that there's a downside of being freelance, we owe our loyalty to the salaried employees first, and so the freelancers will be the first to go. But let's hope it doesn't come to that. OK?"

"Yes, Greg. But I don't like this situation. I think we could handle it a bit less confrontationally."

"It's not me who's breaking the contract with C&G. It's them. It's out of our hands. And anyway it'll give us the chance to put up our prices if they want to come back to us. Or we can use our better people with some of our smaller and more profitable clients." Greg looked around his board again, "Well, if there is no other business, let's close this meeting. Thank you, Gentlemen."

The meeting broke up, with Paul wryly remarking to Greg that it was at least the first meeting in months when Greg's retirement wasn't mentioned. Greg noticed that Phil Tremit was standing fairly close to him as he replied loudly enough for Phil to hear, "Well, it seems I've got to accept that you guys won't let me go. I've given up on suggesting anything else."

Greg just hoped that it would prompt Phil to start undermining him and ease him into retirement.

On the following Monday, Greg was working at his desk when Leslie Goodman burst into the room: "What the fuck are you playing at Greg? I thought we were friends."

"We were, and I hope we still are, but I can't afford to have guys working at your place when you aren't paying for them. It's as simple as that. You were warned, several times, both formally, and my guess is, informally as well."

"Well, yes I was, but I never thought you'd follow through on the threat. I thought I was too important a client to you for you just to throw it all away over being a few days late with our payment. Well here's your money, it's a banker's draft, so it won't bounce, and we can get back to where we were meant to be."

Greg took the proffered draft, and walked out with it to his secretary, "Give this to Paul for banking."

Greg returned to his desk and looked up and smiled at Leslie, "Fancy a coffee?"

"Yes please."

"OK, as soon as my secretary comes back. Out of interest, Leslie, why did you stop paying our bills?"

"Ah! Yes.... Well...... We were having a special audit done, and I just wanted to up our cash position a bit, if you understand, Greg. We lost a few invoices into a bottom draw for a little while."

"It sounds a bit fraudulent if you ask me, but that's your problem not mine. I had heard that takeover was in the air."

"Not any more it won't be if they visit today. We're basically at a halt without your guys."

"Well I remember telling you over dinner when we signed last year's contract, that you were a fool to rely on us so much. We're meant to be consultants and interim managers, not sub-contractors supplying all your essential staff."

"Well, yes. After this morning I guess I will have to give that some thought. Anyway, I won't wait for that coffee, thanks. If you could get your guys back after lunch, lets put this little hiccup into history, eh Greg?"

"I'm sorry Leslie, but they won't be there after lunch."

"But... But I've paid you what's owed. So you've got nothing to worry about."

"But you broke the contract. We don't have any contract between us, Leslie. And I've checked, your non-payment broke it absolutely. Kaput. We could negotiate a new contract if you wanted, but I warn you, I'll be upping the price. I see no reason to have you as my least profitable client when you don't pay your bills. But, look on the bright side, it gives you an opportunity to negotiate a deal where you can move towards being less dependent on us, if that's what you want."

"I could see my lawyer...."

"And spend a fortune, and he'll tell you the same as me, that the old contract ceased when you defaulted on payment. You broke it, not me. Now what do you want to do?"

Leslie stared at him and hesitated. Reluctantly, he admitted, "You've got me over a barrel, Greg. I guess I will have that coffee."

The Board hadn't liked what Greg had done with C&G, but they had to reluctantly accept that Greg had done it again! Everyone on the C&G contract were back to work after lunch that Monday, as an act of good faith by Greg, but the new contract was more profitable and better for both companies.

So, come the last Tuesday in September, Greg was looking forward to the Board Meeting.

He looked at his watch, it was just before two thirty, and he was the only one there. But then all the other Directors arrived together. That raised a thought in Greg's mind, he didn't know of any problem or discussion that he was excluded from, and Tom Gould hadn't warned him of any trouble brewing. But, something was up, Greg instinctively felt it, knew it. He waited whilst they got seated around the table.

When they were settled, he leant forward to bring the meeting to order. But then Phil Tremit caught his eye, "Excuse me Greg. Before we start on the agenda, do you think we might raise something else?"

Greg leant back again, "Of course, Phil, what's the problem?"

"Well, first, I think we should congratulate you on your brinkmanship with C&G last month. I saw Leslie Goodman last week, and although he is licking his wounds a bit, he's quite chirpy about C&G's future and full of kind words about you. But there is another thing, some of us have been having a little talk, and we were wondering if you could clarify your own future, and any possible plans you may have for retirement?"

Greg thought: so at long last they want to talk about my retirement do they? Thank God for that! But they've got to go gently, I'm still the majority shareholder, and after last month, I'm a hero. "Well, Phil, Gentlemen," He looked around the table, many of his colleagues looked uncomfortable, looking anywhere but at him, "I think I've got plenty of time to think about my final retirement, I was only fifty on my last birthday. And I've still got a son at University."

Phil Tremit looked directly at him, all the others were carefully studying their papers. "Well, there have been times when you've mentioned that you may look forward to taking things a bit easier, and we thought it might be helpful if you could put some time frame about that, and some ideas on your possible successor."

"Well, I think you all know that I expect Tom to take over, when I do go. And, yes, I had hoped to come to this Board at some time to seek some arrangement which allows me to relax a little, but not before Jude is off my hands. I'd rather accepted it that you wouldn't let it happen."

Phil Tremit seemed to be their spokesman, "Well, none of us are looking to push you out, Greg. We all appreciate how you've built this company." There was a general mumble of support from everyone at the table for that, "But, we are beginning to think that the company is moving into a new phase of its development, and that maybe now is the time to hand over some of the reins to Tom. Perhaps you would give it some thought? No rush, but now might be as good a time as any."

Greg looked around the room, and thought. He guessed that the little C&G debacle had been more distasteful to some of them than he had expected. He always felt that a problem was an opportunity, like the problem of C&G which he'd turned into an opportunity, and this was an opportunity to please Susan and he wanted to grasp it in both hands.. If the Board were willing to do the right deal, then some holidays and adventures rather than work was in the offing. And the other directors' full approval would ease the minds of the outside shareholders and auditors.

"Well, gentlemen, maybe you're right. I was thinking that I wouldn't even raise the subject again, after your reluctance last time, until next summer at the earliest. But, if you all think it is time for Tom to do more, well let me put a proposal to you." Greg paused, looking out of the window but not focussing on anything, he was collecting his thoughts. They are all probably relieved that he hasn't sacked them, they're grateful they seem to have survived this gentle but critical confrontation. They'll probably agree to more than he should have dared to ask for. "I could hand over to Tom this afternoon. He could become General Manager today. I would remain, but all the day to day stuff would be Tom's problems. Now, if you would agree that I could up my holiday allowance from whatever it is now, and don't ask me, I've never taken my full allowance for as long as any of us can remember. But if I could take twenty weeks, say. On my full current salary of course, then maybe would take the opportunity to partially step aside."