Hidden Boss

He opened a folder and started handing some papers out. "As an alternative, I've been looking at these machines. According to the sales rep, they're expensive, but they allow two Baristas to work side by side and double production. We'd be able to serve customers faster and handle more business per store. Perhaps a three to five percent increase per store. That might allow us to pay a bit more."

I looked at the gleaming machines. They seemed pretty spiffy compared to the solitary devices we used now.

Caroline interrupted, "May I speak?" she asked Franklin.

He nodded.

"Wait a minute," one of the Directors interrupted. "Why are we listening to some clerk from a store?"

My knuckles went white, clutching the table. He noticed, and his face blanched. That was my woman he was talking about. She put her hand on my shoulder, I immediately relaxed. She was super that way.

Franklin spoke, "That clerk, as you so rudely put it, Larry, works every day in the belly of the beast. Something none of you here has ever done except Chris and me. She knows about the day-to-day business issues that you don't. I've gone over her personnel file. She's one of the best managers we have. She also has a Masters in Business Administration. Frankly, if it hadn't been for her marrying Chris, I would have liked her to take over the Chicago District Manager position. But we couldn't figure out how to make it work with Chris working here. If she feels she has something to say about this proposal, I want to hear it."

Huh? I looked at my Bride in shock. A Masters Degree in BA? Same as me? She'd never mentioned it! The DM position in Chicago? She'd never shared that either.

She gave me her trademark grin and mouthed, "Spank me!"

I wilted, this was the love of my life, and yes, a little paddling of her secretive butt tonight would go a long way. Then the delicious thought of kissing it better afterward had me shifting in my chair, trying to hide my rampant hard-on. She giggled, spotting my tented pants.

She stood up. "I apologize, Mr. Hepburn. If I'd known you would be bringing up these machines, I'd have passed some information the sales rep may have neglected to tell you about them. The company that makes them was founded in Chicago. Obviously, the stores there were the first they approached. Several of our competitors jumped on them. I wasn't so sure. I talked to the other store managers; we decided to wait until there was some substantive experience. We didn't want to bring forward an untested idea too soon. Fortunately, the distributor never talked to our District Manager, or we would have ended up with the same problems.

"On the surface, they look like a good thing. But our stores are designed with a fixed workspace layout. Those machines don't fit into those spaces. The working area would have to be enlarged; something else we need would have to come out or be relocated. There's no room for that. I know, I've done the measurements. Also, the fixing station is to the right of the existing machine. That's where we add seasonings or other additions to the drinks. It's a left to right workflow as it exists now. With two people, that doesn't work. You would have to add in an additional fixing station to the left to accommodate it. Again, there isn't room.

"In the stores that installed those machines, they found the employees were bumping into each other constantly. Drinks got spilled, seasonings got mixed up. The wrong lids with customer's names went on the wrong beverages. The complaint rate in the stores went up fifteen percent. Their business didn't increase; it dropped five percent. Many of those unhappy customers are now with us; we've been the net recipient of those problems.

"Anytime I heard a new customer complaining about the service over at a competitor's store, I followed it up asking questions. It was those types of errors I heard constantly. It got so bad in some stores they stopped using the two-person feature and went back to one person. That's an expensive machine no longer being used for the purpose intended. If you want to try one, you'll need to use it in a new store, purpose-designed for the changed work flow it'll create."

Hepburn shuffled his papers, looking uncomfortable. "Thank you, Caroline. That was educational. I had no idea, but as Mr. Franklin pointed out, I have no experience in the stores. I have to admit this has taught me I need to talk to front line staff to get a feeling for anything new. I've been remiss about that. I'll talk to our designers and see what the scope would be to enlarge the stores enough to accommodate your suggested workflow. Perhaps you would help us with that."

Wow, that was a stand-up admission coming from the future CEO of the company.

Caroline nodded and spoke, "I'd be happy to, sir. And if I may add to that, I'd like to suggest you build a kitchen layout at head office and make all the executives spend some time in there working with the machines in the cramped spaces. That way they'll have hands-on experience in the daily problems the stores and staff face. You could even try an enlarged area for those machines and see how it works without going to all the effort of changing the existing store's designs."

Franklin let out a deep sigh. "How come we never thought of any of this?"

Hepburn shrugged, "I have no idea, but those are excellent ideas. I'll get right on them. Thank you, Caroline."

Wow, that was my wife wowing the executives of the company. I was impressed...! Turned out I spoke too soon.

"I think it's a waste of money building a kitchen in head office. I like the look of those machines too. We should buy a dozen of them and try them out, so we have some real data to work with, not just random impressions, however well-meant." That was Larry, the asshat director. Had he not listened to a word she'd said?

"I'd like to move a motion that the board defer any planned expenses to build a kitchen and focus on implementing this new machinery technology. Can I have a seconder?"

Franklin spoke up, "Belay that motion, Larry. You're talking about operations. The board has no say in day-to-day operational matters. If you don't like the results, you can complain at a board meeting, but you don't get to direct. The proper people will make decisions about the machines and kitchen.

"But that does bring up another matter for the board that I wanted to deal with today." He dug into his briefcase and hauled out some files.

Settling them on his lap, he went on.

"As previously announced, I'm retiring, and I've now set a date for Mar 31. Milton Hepburn is my official choice to take over for me. However! I've been consulting with lawyers for the last few months, and here is how the future will look. I want to leave a legacy behind, a gift of kindness and caring for our employees' future. They've done so much to get me where I am today. I can't walk away and forget about them.

"So I'm officially moving all my shares into a Charitable Foundation that will use the profits generated to look after our employees. My choice to be the CEO of this Foundation will be Chris here. You and Milton will need to work together. He will run operations, and you'll run the charitable side."

Chris was shocked. He had no expectations of any of this. "I'll try to do a good job, sir."

"That's great, Chris. You can bring in Caroline to work with you if you like. Or, considering that you could have an office anywhere in the country, perhaps it might be nice to locate it in Chicago. That would allow Caroline to be the new District Manager."

"Yesssss!" she screamed into my ear, pumping an arm in the air.

Franklin smiled, having neatly boxed me in. It would be churlish of me to deny Caroline the opportunity. I guess we were moving to Chicago.

"Wait a minute Franklin. You can't do this. Why would you give all of this away for a bunch of coffee slingers?"

That was our Director of the hour or corpulent fucker, depending on your point of view.

"You ask why, Larry? Because I have all the money, I'll ever need. I want to do something good. Something I can hold my head up about. Isn't it enough at some point once you have everything? Why not share it?"

"No, it's not enough. It's a game, and the money is just keeping score. I'll never stop; I don't like this change. I'm not giving money away to a bunch of lowlifes! I'll vote against it, and I hope the other directors follow me."

Franklin considered him for a moment. "You and I have done a lot of business together over the years, Larry. I'd hoped you'd consider my desire in all this, but I also expected this attitude from you. Whether you like it or not, the company is moving in this direction. It's sad, but I need your resignation as a board member. It's in the file folder in front of you. And any of you other directors that feel the same will find a resignation letter in your folder too. Please just sign them so we can get on with the meeting."

Several board members pulled out the form and, after a short consideration, signed their resignations.

Franklin stood at the door, shaking hands and thanking them for their service over the years. Finished with that, he sat back down.

"Our next order of business is to elect two new Directors to the board, Caroline and Chris Hanes. All in favour, say aye." It was unanimous.

Epilogue:

Things went well over the next few years. The Hidden Boss special episode with our wedding was a real hit. The TV channels played it over and over. It was a promotional gift that kept on giving to the company. I hadn't realized Franklin negotiated residuals for us and the unexpected money bought us a lovely house in Chicago.

We were able to raise our staff's pay with the additional profits from the Foundation and set up a basic medical plan. With the increased pay and benefits, our human resources dept was turning away applicants. Everybody wanted to work for us. Especially once they'd seen how we dealt with bad managers like Jerry, the old District Manager.

Caroline was an enormous success as District Manager; everybody loved her.

Because of the show, our in-store sales are up 50%. Our Franchise sales (new units) up 30%. We've opened ten new locations in Chicago alone.

But the best part of all? I found the love of my life, my sweet Caroline. The girl I thought I'd lost forever. And yes, I did spank her that night. She confessed a few other things too, but that's between us.

Speaking of which, it's time for me to go practice in front of the bathroom mirror:

"Yes, Dear! YES, dear! Yes, DEAR!"

Arghhh. Still needs work! Maybe Franklin's got some more pointers!

©2020 Gordo12

*Glass Roof -- So on a significant move between cities with our house unsold, we rented a house that had a master bedroom with a glass roof. It was incredibly cool. Waking up at night with the moon shining down on us or listening to the hypnotic rhythm of rain on the glass. So romantic! So different! So many ungrateful rug rats because of it!

Many of my stories (several unpublished) feature the moon shining on the characters, and I suspect it comes from that experience. If you ever get a chance...!

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Author's Note: This is for the Winter Contest so I would appreciate your comments and votes. Even if other comments have said the same thing, sometimes a preponderance of the same kind of analysis makes an author pay more attention.

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