Commencement

Tim had sent a text to Callie and phoned Tamiko about dinner at Emily Ann’s tonight. Both of them had agreed to come. This was the first Friday in a long time that Tim saw the prospect of getting off early, and the fact that he was going to get together with his friends made it just that much better. For the past two months, Tim had been working like a slave. Before the layoffs, Tim had just had to handle supply requests and processing for just one department, but now he had to oversee the supply requests for all of the departments. First, he had to come up with a plan to make sure that the transition went smoothly. Next, had to notify all of the departments of any and all changes ahead of time, make sure they were implemented, troubleshoot any rough spots, and it all had to be done within a week. Clara and Vera were practically lifesavers when it came to the memos, helping to create a new handbook for procedures, the Power Point presentation, and helping to train the staff. Then he had to train Preston, while figuring out a way to handle the increase in the volume of his work, without causing delays for the departments he was serving. Finally, there was interacting with the vendors and the big deal with the Brill Corporation that had to be finalized. At the start of this period of transition, Tim had virtually no social life. It was just get up go to work, then go home (usually bringing more work with him), watch the news, then go to bed and back to work the next morning.

  Within the last two weeks, things began to improve. Tim was beginning to find his groove. He had developed a pacing plan to help him with the increased volume of work and was beginning to get used to the new momentum of the office. He was even beginning to come out ahead in certain areas. For example, he had just finished the department expenditure and cost projections for the reorganization plan that he thought would take him into another late night. Now the reorganization was finished, and everything was ready for the final presentation at the big meeting on Tuesday. Tim had just e-mailed it to the departments just before Allen called. Now there was nothing in his way to keep him from enjoying a night out with his friends.

  Tim was looking forward to seeing everyone. It had been so long since they all had a real conversation. He wondered how Allen was faring with his job search, whether or not Tamiko and Callie had mended fences, and how Tamiko was making out with teaching. He hoped Richard would just stay in whatever hole he was hiding in. “He’s probably in jail, where most hustlers wind up”, Tim thought smugly to himself. Most of all, he was looking forward to relaxing and feeling human. All the time he was spending at work made him feel like a robot. Tim had just sent a quick text to Allen to confirm their plans when Preston Scott swaggered into the office about a half-hour late from lunch. He was carrying some mail and files that he had just received from either Clara or Vera, and was wearing a very self-satisfied expression. Preston had been with the firm for only a few months, but he was getting a lot of attention from co-workers and superiors. There was always someone who was inviting him out to lunch, and if it was a higher up, then he was sure to be late.

  “Are those projections for the presentation ready yet?” asked Preston not even bothering to look at Tim directly.

  “He has some nerve!” Tim thought to himself. “As if he’s the boss!” It seemed as if all of the attention had gone to his head.

  “I already e-mailed the entire plan to Standoff and had Clara send up a hard copy to the main office”, Tim answered, trying to staunch the anger that was welling up inside him. He couldn’t believe this guy. Preston was supposed to have helped to put the paper together, but between all of the impromptu social meetings with upper management executives and late lunches, the actual work Preston did was next to nothing. In fact, Tim had to have lunch in the office just to get the projections finished on time, not to mention all of the overtime he had already put in. Recent layoffs left much more work, which his new vice president provided very little help with.

  “Without my approval?” responded Preston, irritation and annoyance in his voice.

  “What else was I supposed to do? We have a deadline remember?”

  “Which is Monday at 5:00, remember?”

  “And you don’t have to sign off personally on everything. I’m the head of the department. I’m the one who’s going to be held accountable.”

  “I’m still supposed to know on what’s going on, Tim. I don’t like being out of the loop.”

  Tim swiveled his chair around to the computer console on the other side of his new smaller desk. Standoff had ordered all of Tim’s furniture taken out and replaced with the new age, feng shui furniture, which he hated, just so Preston could have more space. For Tim, who was six feet one and a half and 160 pounds, it was like working in a Tiny Tikes play office. He then made a copy of the proposal and e-mailed it to Preston.

  “There. I just e-mailed it to you”, he said when he was done. “Now you have your very own copy to look at whenever you want.”

  “I wanted to be able to check to make sure that all of our bases were covered. I was just at lunch with the VP of human resources and I got some more ideas about how we could streamline operations here.”

  “If you’d like, you can always make an addendum and bring it to the meeting on Tuesday. Maybe they’ll want us to factor it in next quarter’s report. I just went ahead because we already had our guidelines to work with after we got feedback on the preliminary plan. Anything else will just get torpedoed at the meeting. It always does.”

  “I think Standoff will be pleased with what I have in mind.”

  “And that is?”

  “You’ll find out on Tuesday, after I’ve written the addendum.”

  ‘Touché” thought Tim as he noticed how Preston was trying to bite back. Tim knew he’d have the last laugh anyway. They never listened to the lower level officers at those meetings. Even if they liked his idea, if he couldn’t spin it in a way to make them think it was their idea all along, they’d hang him and take credit anyway. After all, that’s what they had done to Tim about a million times. Tim should have taken him under his wing and told him all of this. He wanted to, but in his heart he knew better. At best, a guy like Preston would think that he was being negative, and at worst, he would go back and tell the higher ups what he said and then he’d really be in for it. “No”, Tim thought, “I’ll just let Preston find out all these things for himself”. They were treating him like their little wonder boy now just to feel him out and get a sense of what he was like. Once they’d gotten used to him and learned enough about him to put him in his place, he’d end up just like Tim. Then maybe he would help Preston out. Maybe.

  “I see you’ve taken care of our e-mails for new orders. Is there anything that you might be able to swing my way?”

  “No, I’m taking care of them”, Tim said casually. He knew better than to let Preston handle any of the new requests anymore. When he was hired, Tim specifically trained him on how to handle the new intakes, and oversaw him as he handled his first few. Tim thought Preston was capable of doing a good job. He was great on the phone and seemed to handle the orders promptly, and knew to check and cross-check with the budget and existing intakes. Having gained confidence in his protégé, Tim was willing to allow Preston to handle all the new intakes while he handled more complex tasks like finding new vendors that provided great quality and service for less, as well as the tracking and billing to various departments. However, once left to himself, Preston tended to drop the ball. A lot. And Tim was always held accountable. Twice Preston had not responded to departments with regard to statuses of their orders. Preston even delayed the processing of a request for some important software that was needed for a presentation up in accounting and the boss over there was so upset, he complained to Standoff. Luckily, Tim got off with just a humiliating public berating. Then Tim tried to train Preston to be more of a liaison between the department and the vendors and utilize Preston’s customer service skills. While Preston was able to talk a good game and make people feel comfortable, he didn’t get much work done. Whenever Tim asked him for a status on something, i
t was always “I’m still working on it.” And if Preston wasn’t “working on” something, he was passing off work to Clara the admin, which wasn’t fair to her. So Tim had to pretty much handle most of the work himself.

  “You always say that. Then you end up working through lunch, and staying late when you don’t have to. I’m the Vice-President, your co-leader. Let me help you. I can’t do that unless you give me something I can cut my teeth on.”

  Tim wanted to tell Preston that he had his chance, but he blew it. But he knew he had to take a more diplomatic approach. So instead, Tim took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes and began to address the man in front of him.

  “Preston, my friend, you have only been working here for about two months. It’s going to take some time before I put you on a major project. For the time being, I think you just need to work on observing and familiarizing yourself with the procedures and routines. I know a lot of the tasks I’m giving you right now may seem fairly mundane, but some of this stuff has got to become second nature before you get into the larger projects”, Tim lectured, hoping that he wasn’t sounding as condescending as he really wanted to be.

  “Tim, would you mind closing the door? I’d like to speak with you privately for a moment.”

  This couldn’t be good. Tim wondered what Preston wanted to talk about. With Preston’s disappointing performance over the last few weeks, Tim felt he should have been the one uttering those words. Tim decided to humor him to find out what this was all about. He walked over to close the door, then came back and pulled a chair up to Preston’s desk. He tried to appear concerned and conceal his usual sarcastic smirk.

  “Tim, I don’t want you to get offended, and I’m going to try to say this with as much tact as possible. I know that you’re used to being your own man, and very much used to being one of the few African-Americans with any kind of rank in the company.”

  “And your point is?” Tim sighed heavily.

  “The point is, that I don’t want you to think that I’m some kind of threat to you.”

  Tim had to look away from him at this point, so Preston wouldn’t notice the smirk that always crossed his face before he was about to let someone have it with some of his trademark sarcasm.

  “Really? And just what makes you think I feel ‘threatened’?” he said using air quotes. Tim leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and couldn’t help but give Preston an incredulous look. Truth be told, Tim was intimidated by Preston at first, but once he realized that Preston probably couldn’t chew gum and walk at the same time, such feelings evaporated. The only thing Tim felt now was a righteous indignation at the fact that Preston had gained the favor of so many people with so little justification for it.

  “Well, for instance, the way you’ve been keeping me from handling major tasks, and leaving me out of major decisions. If I didn’t know any better, I might think that you’re purposefully trying to make me look bad.”

  “Preston, really, I’m not trying to make you look bad. As a matter of fact, what would make you think that you ‘look bad’?” he said using his air quotes again. “Has someone complained about your performance here?”

  “I feel like my talents are being wasted.”

  Tim could not help the palm-to-face gesture, upon hearing this. Was he stupid or just audacious? Either way, Preston desperately needed a review of the “facts”.

  “Preston, a few weeks ago, I had you handle some new intakes. Do you remember what happened with those intakes?” Tim asked pointedly.

  “Those orders were processed.”

  “Then how come several very important people sent me some very angry emails? Hmm?”

  “Everyone got what they wanted in the end. There were just a few lapses in communication, that’s all. I don’t think it means I should never handle another transaction again…”

  “And what about when I asked you to help me wrap up the deal with the Brill Corporation? All you had to do was get them the contract to sign and send back. We needed that contract on Standoff’s desk ASAP.”

  “I was just trying to get background information.”

  “You didn’t need background information! It was a done deal. And I didn’t know that it was Clara’s job to handle the spreadsheets for the reorganization we were working on.”

  “I delegated the job to Clara, that’s what Vice Presidents do. Besides in every case no harm was done…”

  “Because, I picked up the ball, not to mention the heat from everyone upstairs.”

  “Or because you are the President of this division, and that’s your job.”

  “My job is to oversee the smooth operation of this department, not to clean up after you, or hold your hand while you work. If you want more responsibility, you’re going to have to show me that you’re ready for it”, Tim found himself saying sternly.

  When he realized how intense the situation was becoming, Tim decided to back off. He didn’t want this to turn into an angry confrontation. The next thing you know, good ol’ Preston would run off crying to co-workers and starting gossip mill rumors that Tim was out to get him. He may even go blubbering to one of the higher-ups he had been getting cozy with.

  “Look, I’ll be fair. You’re going to be working on this addendum, right? How about we make that your first big project. You can put all of your wonderful ideas in it.”

  “With all due respect Tim, my ideas should have been included from the get-go. They would have, if you hadn’t been in such a rush to make yourself look like the eleventh hour savior”, pouted Preston, unsatisfied with Tim’s token concession.

  “Or, if you hadn’t have taken a two hour lunch.”

  “That wasn’t just some frivolous lunch. It was a business meeting. I’m not a slacker Tim.”

  “I never said you were. But I’m giving you based on what you’re giving me. If I get little, then I give little. When I get more from you, I’ll give you more.”

  “That’s like a catch 22 isn’t it? How can I give you more, when I have so little to work with? In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I would think you were purposely trying to sabotage my career.”

  Tim wanted to say that he didn’t have to sabotage Preston. Preston was doing a very good job of that himself. But Tim knew those were fighting words. He didn’t want to fight. Tim always chose his battles carefully, and this was not worth fighting over. After all, he knew he had the upper hand if Preston wanted to go complaining. Tim had been collecting a mountain of evidence against Preston, as a safety measure. So to keep the conflict from escalating…

  “You’re wrong. Just work on the Addendum.”

  Tim got up and took his seat back to his own desk. He couldn’t believe how Preston just seemed so obstinately convinced about the slighting of his self-perceived genius.

  At this point, Tim would have loved nothing more than to just grab his coat and leave, but he still had a few more hours to go before he could leave for the day. The tension in the office air was so thick, Tim felt like he was suffocating. He could feel the heat from Preston as he sat stewing in his animosity and disappointment. Preston thought he was holding him back, and in the business world, if you felt someone was holding you back then you had to deal with that person. Tim knew Preston would do something to get back at him, but he would have to wait until that shoe dropped to know exactly what it was. All of a sudden, Tim felt another wave of nausea wash over him. It made him a little disoriented and he thought he would vomit at any moment, but then the feeling passed. “I probably just need some air”, Tim thought to himself. He had been having a lot of nausea lately, mostly in the mornings, and headaches but Tim just attributed this to the fact that he’d been under a lot of stress with the reorganization of his department. Not to mention that Preston himself was a headache. The fact that he hadn’t been eating well didn’t help matters, either. Since Tim had been working so hard, he hadn’t really been paying attention to what he ate. Most times it was a cup of coffee here, a sandwich there, and maybe a donut or t
wo in between. Tim hadn’t had a decent balanced meal since as Allen’s graduation party. He decided to go to the canteen to get some seltzer water. That always helped. Tim was definitely not going to let any physical problems interfere with his plans for tonight.

  “I’ll be back in five if anyone needs me”, Tim said talking into the air. His comment was met by a chilly silence. Apparently Preston was either deep into what he was doing or he was still sulking. “Yeah, let him bring it. Tim thought. I’ll be ready.”

  Twenty