The Pleasure Boy 33

The Pleasure Boy 33 (Program Is Launched)

It's one thing to design a program - to imagine, even in some detail, how that hypothetical program could operate; its something quite different to get your approved program up and running. It's yet a third thing, as I'd shortly learn, to manage your program once it's doing business.

After those weeks of waiting for authorization, suddenly I was busy again. Judith had me make a list of tasks to make our lifemate program operational, and bring it to her for review. When completed, a short version of that list read as follows:

• Set up basic WooLMP administrative system;

• Staff WooLMP admin unit - 2 persons initially;

• Announce opening internally;

• Receive and process applications from Woodruffe personnel;

• Issue Press release and Want Ads;

• Receive and process applications from the public at large;

• Match and introduce program candidates;

• Assist matched couples in negotiating their initial contracts;

• Support WooLMP lifemate couples with mentoring and training.

When I showed this list to Judith, she said "Good. Let's talk about the details, but it's your responsibility now. Until we hire staff and build a system for it, the WooLMP program is you. This list of things we need to do? Start doing them. Just keep me informed of what you're doing - in advance when possible, but don't hesitate to make your own decisions when I'm not around. I'll help you at the beginning, but I'll expect you to learn the difference between what I need to know about and what I don't have time to think about. Your job now is to keep the details away from me. Every time I have to think about something that you should have handled, write a demerit in your book. Clear so far?"

"Yes, Ma'am. The WooLMP program is now my responsibility. You want to be kept informed and consulted as necessary, but not bothered with details."

"Exactly. Now, let me help you get started."

"First, money. Your program has a budget now. I'll handle most of it, including staff salaries and office space, but you'll need a fund for operations that you can draw against at your discretion. We'll set it up tomorrow with a trip to the bank. It will have overdraft protection, but you'll be in trouble if you go over budget at the end of a fiscal year. Worse, since I'm responsible for your work, you'll get me in trouble. Make an operating budget for yourself for the fiscal year, and report to me each month on where you are with it."

Second, staff. As our proposal suggested, you may have as many as seven or eight people under you when the program is up and running, but to start with, it will just be you, with one assistant. Would Alan Arnold be acceptable to you? It will be a promotion for him, and he's earned one. I could just give him a raise and leave him handling recruiting for me, but working with you on lifemates will give him the same raise with more scope and the chance to learn something new. He's a bright guy, as you already know. Do you want him, or would you prefer to try someone else?"

"No Ma'am. If you think he's a good fit, I'm fine with him. As you said, he's a bright guy and also a worker. He has no interest in being a Dom or a sub, and I know he has reservation about whether our program will really help with recruitment, but that won't interfere with his job. He's ambitious. If he accepts the assignment, he'll do his best."

"OK then. Why don't you sound him out and offer it to him. Tell him that I suggested it, and that it comes with a promotion. Tell him (from me) that the alternative is to keep his present job with an equivalent raise - so that the money will be the same, whatever he decides. He can come see me to discuss and let me know what he chooses."

"Third, reporting. While you're thinking about staffing and the assignment of responsibilities, remember that one of your prime responsibilities is to keep reminding the other executives of what Woodruffe Corp. is getting for their investment in your unit. You need to keep a systematic record of your unit's doings, and especially of its accomplishments; and you'll want a good business analyst from Pete Linahan's informatics shop to help you set up your internal systems for records keeping and reporting. Talk to Pete and try to arrange this, but meanwhile do the best you can on your own. Be aware that Linahan's immediate boss is Gordon Stuart, the VP of Finance who is no friend of ours. He won't want to be seen as actively undermining our program, but he'll certainly try to use Linahan, and Linahan's analyst to spy on us. This is no problem, because we're going to be squeaky-clean, with nothing at all to hide. What we want in this case is exactly what he will want: a reliable reporting system that tells us, the executives and especially your father exactly what our program is achieving, and what problems it is having."

"Any questions about this?"

"One question, Ma'am. I can count lifemate couples, training accomplishments, mentoring contacts and so forth. But how can we measure our contribution to Woodruffe's revenue stream or profit margin - its 'bottom line'?"

Judith sighed. "Excellent question. You can't directly. That's exactly where we'll be challenged. Our only recourse is to tell good stories about lifemate whiz kids and their achievements and about their satisfied, highly productive Dominants. You'll need to collect such stories, write them up, and provide references for anyone who wants to check. That's the best you'll be able to do. But don't neglect the 'hard' data that you can collect - on appli­cants, matchings and couples, and on the bean counting of expenditures and time sheets. That's what will keep Gord Stuart off our backs - and off your father's back, incidentally."

"Just one more thing for now: We've talked about using Myrna Stiles and possibly your mother in a variety of roles: for mate finding, training, men­toring and contracting - everything to do with our support function, the free support we're promising to lifemate couples. We have Myrna on retainer, and your Mom says she'll only work for us through Myrna. I want you to contact Myrna Stiles, informally for now, explain our requirements in detail, and get her to start thinking about them. Talk to your Mom informally as well. The key decision that we'll have to make - that you will make and then convince me of - is what support we'll gear up to provide in-house and what we'll subcontract to Myrna's firm. Either way, that support will have to fit within our budget, and either way we're going to need their help, because if we want to do the support ourselves, we'll need their help to find or train the staff to do it.

Start a discussion of these matters with Myrna, and bring me into it when the time comes. First, get her advice on what support is necessary and what would be ideal. I'm sure you have your own ideas on this subject but if you two have differences of opinion, I want to know about them. When we've reached agreement on our approach to the support function, we'll bring in Woodruffe's legal department, and draw up the necessary contracts. But long before that, you have to get this ball rolling: find out what they're prepared to do and on what general terms before the formal negotiations can begin."

"There. The key point is that until you have a staff and a system in place. Woodruffe Corp.'s new lifemate program is you. You, personally - only you, except with a little help from me when you can't do without it. Because I'm behind on a lot of other HR stuff. I've given all the time that I can spare to Woodruffe's lifemate program. Do you think you'll be able to cope?"

"There's certainly enough to keep me busy, Ma'am," I answered her. "With your guidance, I think I can cope, but I know I still have a lot to learn. I'll be very glad to have Alan's help, if he agrees."

Alan did agree to work with me so there were actually two of us from the beginning. We collaborated well, but I could see he silently resented that I was nominally his boss. I dealt with that by continuing to have him guide and tutor me on the fine points of human relations management, by defering to his judgment when we had differences of opinion on administrative matters and by cultivating him as a friend. I made a point of inviting him to join me for lunch most days, and for a beer after work when I knew that Judith was staying late or taking an evening on her own. Mostly, I used that time for informal talk about our unit's business, but I also answered his questions about D/s relationships without violating Judith's privacy. He picked my brain about BDSM and Dominance, and began to dip his toe in the Scene as novice Dom; but what he wanted were playmates, for he was too self-centred to handle or have use for a lifemate submissive. I don't mean to say that he was selfish or narcissistic. He was neither. But he had his own interests, in jazz and serious poker, and would have felt cramped or stifled in any intense relationship.

If he acquired some skill, he would have no trouble finding partners for he was a handsome, confident sexy man with the love of precision that a good Dom must have - as much for play as for the lifestyle. I gave him a few tips, listened to his adventures, and amused myself in following his progress.

Setting up a WooLMP Unit as per Judith's instructions, I put Alan in charge of the administration and reporting requirements while I focused on public relations and the human side of it. I wrote a column for the Woodruffe Company newsletter, issued a press release to announce the approval and launching of our program, and gave most of my time to interviews with program applicants, both among job seekers and current employees. Figuring that I'd already made a personal enemy of Gordon Stuart, the VP of finance, I sent Alan to speak with Pete Linahan about our informatics requirements, both for records keeping and reporting; and when a business analyst was assigned to work with us, I sat in on Alan's meetings with him, but let him handle this detailed design work mostly by himself, limiting my participation to our luncheon conversations. I even had Alan brief Judith on his progress, listening in but letting him do the talking.

When Judith asked me why I was doing this, I told her about Alan's well-controlled resentment and my strategy for diffusing it. "It's only natural," I said. "You brought me in out of nowhere, set him to teaching me, and then promoted me over his head. He deserves credit for understanding, and for handling the situation as well as he has. As much possible, I've treated him as an equal, putting him in charge of the administrative aspects of the WooLMP Unit, while keeping the people aspects - PR, applicant interviews, training, mentoring and contracting for myself. My suggestion is that you break our unit into two parts: Include the administrative side of WooLMP with the headhunting function - Alan's specialty - and let him run it, maybe with another pay increase if you can justify it. Make it his job to turn up applicants for subordinate lifemate positions just as he turned up job applicants before. Existing employees who want a lifemate or want to become one, and job applicants interested in lifemate status become my responsibility. These need to be screened, interviewed and either accepted or soothingly rejected. If accepted they will need to be trained and matched with partners. Once matched, the mentoring function comes into play: contracts will have to be negotiated and registered, differences will need to be resolved, further training may be needed. This human side of WooLMP is really a different job - one for which I have good qualifications, where Alan's lie elsewhere."

"This makes sense," Judith said, "but I can't justify breaking the WooLMP Unit into separate work groups. Could we keep those functions together on the org chart, but divide the responsibilities as you're suggesting?"

"Sure," I answered. Give Alan the WooLMP, with me and my whole function under his supervision. Since he works for you and I'm your lifemate, I'll have all the freedom I need. The only downside is that my salary will be a bit lower, so you'll get somewhat less compensation for renting my services to the Corporation."

"Not to worry. I can afford to keep you around. I'll be applying for a raise as soon WooLMP starts to pay off. As Woodruffe expands, its HR function is growing larger and more complex and more critical. I'm due for a raise in any case."

"Have you spoken with Myrna yet?"

"Not yet, Ma'am. I wanted to get our unit set up before we decide which functions we want to subcontract. We need to be able to process applications, and accept or reject applicants before before we gear up to handle them once they're accepted. We need to collect a small pool of accepted, applicant Dominants, and a much larger pool of accepted subs before we start trying to pair them, register them as trial couples, and then handling them as such."

"We might ask Myrna's firm to help us advertise for subs to pair with our accepted Dom applicants. That's how they make most of their money, and they're good at it. And then there are all the functions which come after we have a matched pair of applicants, considered now as a trial couple. Some of these we'll want to do in-house; some we'll prefer to farm out. We have a lot to discuss and arrange with Myrna, but we won't need her until we have some candidate Doms looking for partners."

"Don't we have a few already?"

"No one from outside yet, Ma'am. The first want-ads mentioning the program, only appeared yesterday. A few potential subs have booked interviews with me for consideration as apprentices. We have several Woodruffe people - your friend Min Lee in Payroll is one - who have expressed an interest in taking a submissive. But no one has signed an application yet. I'm still waiting to get our first batch of application forms from the printer."

"Well, when you get them, bring me a few. I'll talk to Min to see if she is serious. I'll also mention that we're now taking applications at the next executive committee meeting. You should also put an ad in our company newsletter telling people that we are now taking applications for Dom and sub lifemates, and asking them to email or visit you for an application form."

"Yes, Ma'am, I was planning to. Do you want to talk with Alan, or would you like me to offer him my job as manager? To let him know that it was my suggestion, so he knows there will be no hard feelings if he takes the job."

"Yes, that's a good idea. Tell him that you've already discussed it with me, and that I've agreed to it. He should come see me either way. I want to tell him that he's getting a raise whether he accepts or not."

Over lunch, in the Woodruffe cafeteria, I broached the subject with Alan. "I need to tell you about a conversation that I had with Ms. Arruda this morning. We were talking about you, and we agreed that it was wrong that I was being promoted over your head. You have seniority here, and you've been teaching me. It's true that I'm Ms. Arruda's lifemate, and that I've been closely involved with her in designing the WooLMP program, but that's no reason why I should run it. I suggested that she promote you to manage the WooLMP Unit, and that I work for you and advise you on dealing with program applicants and with our registered lifemate couples. You would handle the administration of our unit, and make the actual decisions - under Ms. Arruda, of course. You'd be my immediate boss instead of the other way round."

"You suggested that!?"

"Why not? I'd actually prefer it. I have no experience or training as a manager. My career prospects won't improve because I get such experience. I'm here as a geisho expert on D/s relationships and BDSM. If she wants me, I'll still be Ms. Arruda's lifemate no matter who manages the unit. She's not going to offer you the lifemate job. She can see you're a fine employee, but not a submissive."

"She thought it was a great idea and thanked me for suggesting it. She said to tell you that you were due a promotion and raise and would be getting one whether you accepted this manager's job or not. She wants you to go see her so she tell you that herself."

"And you're sure you want me to accept? You won't mind having me as your boss?"

"No, I won't mind, because it won't change anything except to give you a title which will help you, but do nothing at all for me. We'll both take our orders from Judith Arruda, just as we do now. I'm going to handle the mentoring and training of this program while you handle its administration. We'll both have a say in applicant selection and partner matching. That's the only way it can work, whether I'm called 'manager' or you are."

"Judith sees that perfectly well, and she knows that the org chart will look neater if you're in the manager slot. You have the seniority and you're a regular employee. I'm a newbie, just parachuted in - even if my name is 'Woodruffe.'

In this way, the WooLMP Administration Unit came together. Alan was pleased with his promotion, and we were both pleased to be offered a file clerk - a cool young woman named JoAnne Brooks - to help with our paper work. We accepted her gladly. Once the applications came rolling in, there would be plenty of work for her. But now the company was paying three salaries for our program, with nothing to show for it yet. We had to change this, or Gordon Stuart would win. The executives knew that we were launching a new program and that results would take time, but their generosity would be limited. Within a few months, they'd want to see what Woodruffe was getting for its money, or they'd be competing to show each other how 'pragmatic' they were by voting to shut us down.

Alan's focus had been on headhunting before this promotion, and the launch of our WoodLuMP program (as people were starting to call it) did not change that. His first move, once he had spoken with Judith, was to write our new program into the Company's regular 'Help Wanted' advertising to see what effect this would have. He did it well. Within a few days, , we started to get applicants, both from current employees and from job seekers, requesting forms to enroll in the program. If they came to the office for a form, I would speak with them briefly. To those who phoned or sent an email, Alan had our clerk JoAnne send an electronic form with a polite note thanking them for their interest.

Most of these applicants were subs, with no particular qualifications for work with us - just unemployed or amateur submissives interested in a full-time service job. But when I interviewed them, even some of these seemed trainable for entry-level precision manufacturing or assembly work. And we did get a few of the kind that we really hoped for - skilled, experienced workers, including one electronics engineer, with strong BDSM interests, who wanted to experiment with 24/7 lifestyle submission on a trial basis. That suited us fine; all initial contracts in our program could be terminated without penalty after the first three and six months. In this way, our program began to justify itself, even within the first few weeks.

Several current Woodruffe employees, including Min Lee (Judith's friend in the payroll department), sent in applications looking for submissives. Those in junior or mid-range positions mostly wanted subs with marketable skills whom they could send to work at Woodruffe or some other place to help defray the costs of their upkeep. A few of them were actually looking for de facto wives who would obey, serve and bear and raise children, but never scold or chatter.

Senior employees applying to the program - including every one of the VPs, except for Gordon Stuart who had been hostile from the start - wanted a submissive as a housekeeper or sex toy or both. They needed no extra income from a lifemate, and might or might not prefer to keep them at home. Their requirements varied. A few wanted (primarily) an apprentice, to whom they could pass along their knowledge and skills. Others wanted an assistant - were willing to do whatever teaching was required, but would prefer as little as possible. A few, however, actually looked forward to having an eager student at their feet.