Corporate Family Dinner Ch. 02

Elaine didn't come home Friday night or even Saturday morning. She also didn't call and leave a message - because by then I wouldn't have spoken directly to her anyway.

I finally did fuck Susan Price last night, mainly just to get rid of her. She seemed to enjoy it and I didn't have to fake my own orgasm - just fake the relaxation and "acceptance" I conveyed to her afterwards. She left about 2 AM and I had a water glass full of Grey Goose Vodka and fresh squeezed OJ in a final half and half large Screwdriver - and fell into a fitful "passed out" condition. I woke up by 8 AM anyway the next morning and REALLY felt shitty, with the hangover added to my broken heart. I called Elaine's Mom and asked her if she could babysit Julia for the whole weekend and even Monday - that Elaine had to go out of town suddenly for a huge real estate deal she was working - a combo commercial/residential opportunity and we weren't sure exactly when she would get back. I lied my ass off and figured Elaine could handle it all when - and if - she actually returned.

Meanwhile I had my own work to do, as I also told my mother-in-law, more truthfully.

I called my one real salesman rep friend at IMT&R and told him to "count me in" and that I was resigning from IMT&R Monday morning. His name was Ross Price (no relation to Susan) and he was no Ross Perot, but he wanted to be. Many people may not remember but Ross Perot was once a salesman for IBM - a "Marketing Rep" there - and a supersalesman at that. IBM Reps were sometimes considered underpaid in that rarified world of heavy/expensive equipment sales. Many companies paid their salesmen pretty much "straight commissions" at a 10-20% rate - for every $1000 worth sold - they got $100 to $200 as their commissions. IBM didn't work that way - Reps were compensated at a "60-40" kind of structure. 60% straight salary (including all those great benefits of IBM paid for Medical, Dental, Hospital, Vacation days, etc. etc.) and 40% commission - with the commission payments depending on "percent of quota attained", rather than just a fixed percentage of sales dollars. A rep who made just 90% of his quota one year would receive at least 100% of his "targeted total compensation" - that amount his manager deemed fair and equitable depending on his length of time with the company and past performances - but that rep would also be on "notice" and a second year in a row not making quota would mean termination. A rep who DID make at least 100% of his quota made at least 110% of his total target compensations (salary and commissions and bonuses) and also an invitation to the 4 day "100% Club" recognition event held each year for all commission employees at a place like Las Vegas or Miami Beach or Phoenix in early February the following year, and most importantly - job security and certainly a "raise" in his or her own targeted compensation for the next year. As a rep achieved ever more sales above his quota, he earned ever more commission dollars - to a point.

Perot was such a good salesman he was making 2 or 3 times his "targeted compensation" every year and more than his own direct report manager AND often his Branch Manager - and his own personal quota achievements didn't really translate much into more pay for them - since a Marketing Manager's quota was based on 8 or more reps and a Branch Manager's quota based on 24-32 reps total. And some natural human jealousy and "control" issues came into play. Perot got frustrated at his own managers telling him to "back off" after making 200% of his quota. He was a naturally aggressive and competitive little man and was looking for the best way out of IBM by then.

IMT&R wasn't quite as bad and complicated in it's own commissions structure - but almost. They had studied IBM and other corporations and tried to incorporate "best industry practices" from the learned pragmatism of other companies. And was largely successful.

IMT&R became really, really successful once they added that "R" (Robotics) to their product line and name in the 1990's. They also copied the business model that was so phenomenally successful for IBM in the 1960's - total customer service oriented lease-only "turnkey" solutions for it's customer's business needs. In other words, lease IBM's hardware and software and you get "free" all the System Engineering programming resources to fine tune the CICS or Accounting packages specifically for each individual customer. The customer only need hire their own IT operations people - a lot cheaper than actual programmers.

IMT&R did the same thing with their Robotics solutions - lease only the equipment and the actual integration and fine-tuning on each production/manufacturing line and the customer gets "free" the IMT&R engineering technical expertise to most quickly and efficiently get everything up and running and really productive. The customer need only hire operators for the equipment - rather than engineer level programmers. And the "operators" were really just the best manufacturing line employees they already had. Of course, once the robotics went in a LOT of regular machine operator employees (many union people) lost their jobs - just as computerization of businesses by IBM mainframes once cost some human jobs as well. IMT&R's success and size now meant it was very much on the political radar - and the Justice Department brought an anti-monopoly action against them - just like it had against IBM in 1969. That suit dragged on for 12 years and cost IBM at least a billion dollars in legal fees and lost employees time fighting it. IBM eventually changed some of it's own business practices "voluntarily" and eventually the suit was dropped.

The most significant change IBM made in the early 1970's was to "unbundle" H/W and S/W and programming services, as well as offer for outright purchase as well as lease all it's products (except for the copyright issues on it's packaged S/W, of course). And this was the key that opened the door for Ross Perot and his own vast future wealth - EDS, Inc. was born to fill the void offered by IBM no longer offering "turnkey" solutions at an attractive pricing level. Turns out IBM System Engineers hired at an hourly level could NOT be had cheaply. The Justice Department regulators made sure of that. Also, IBM H/W orders were on a strict "first ordered/first shipped" basis and preferred customers (largest) even with "emergency" situations could get no priority deliveries. All of this admin oversight meant ever increasing costs of doing business. EDS just leased (or sometimes purchased outright) IBM H/W and O/S S/W and then offered much cheaper turnkey solutions using the brightest people he could hire right out of college - all those new nerds and computer science graduates - way less than IBM's overhead and under absolutely no DoJ constraints. It made EDS a very successful company and Ross Perot almost rich enough to buy the Presidency of the USA.

So - what does all that have to do with me? IMT&R bit the bullet and threw in the towel on that DoJ suit very quickly. A consent decree was hammered out and about $900 million saved on legal fees - but IMT&R could no longer offer the best price kind of turnkey installations it once had. And Ross (the other Ross, he would soon be known as) Price saw his own chance - just like Ross Perot.

He had already resigned from IMT&R and was forming RSS, Inc. (Robotic Systems Solutions) despite that "yellow dog" employment contract all IMT&R employees had to sign. You know - the "can't work for a competitor for a year" kind of terms. Even clerks like me signed the same boilerplate contract. Ross ignored it. I ignored it.

Ross wanted me to join his fledgling and risky start-up as "Corporate Head of Administration" and develop and manage the admin side of the business. He knew what I had been doing the past 11 years - basically learning everything there was to know about IMT&R's adminstration from the ground up at merely a branch level - but I had also developed contacts and information from HQ's, Plants, and Labs - and I had even started making some improvements and documenting everything in a large but comprehensive and comprehensible looseleaf note book. For once I had a really good direct report manager - a girl named Carol (younger than me) with a 4 year Accounting degree and a little bit of manager experience elsewhere before joining us as a "direct hire" into first line manager here. She had nowhere near my own technical knowledge of all the clerical procedures and specific audit points here - but she WAS a great "people person" able to keep her people as happy and motivated as possible. I was the senior clerk under her and eventually showed her all my work to help her get up to speed technically. She was amazed and very pleased, and soon started pushing me and my work to her own higher management - I was already now scheduled to jump 3 normal levels of promotion to a great management position in New York City, and start implementing many of my own changes nationally - and maybe even globally.

But Elaine had ruined all this, unknowingly. If the scheduled promotion went through, I was sure the rumor mill would churn and decide that I was just given that promotion as a "reward" AND to actually just bring his "hot wife" to New York to be more available for one horny exec or another, whenever.

It would make my own work that much harder and maybe even impossible. And I didn't want to do another thing for this company now, anyway. So - Monday I was resigning and joining Ross with no promise at all with what my initial salary would be - probably not much even with the great title. Start-ups are hard and risky and I didn't fool myself - Ross would have to sell his ass off just to get our first order - I could have the admin stuff in place - and would probably be doing an awful lot of just "grunt work" myself - but I didn't mind working like that and just kept my fingers crossed.

Ross as an accomplished and experienced salesman had all kinds of contacts, and all kinds of fans, actually. Many people believed in his talent and future - and he was rather quickly gathering all the other major necessary talents into his new company - including the venture capitalists he would need to get off the ground. The actual IMT&R H/W and O/S for even a medium sized company's manufacturing plant was going to run from $500,000 to a million. And a medium sized company was the first goal - to prove RSS could deliver and beat IMT&R's own bids - and then hopefully word of mouth and industry press would do the rest. But it also HAD to be profitable right from that first customer. We didn't have the finances to do it otherwise. Most of the other principles and chief officers brought some of their own skin - capital - into the game. I couldn't and he wanted me anyway. It was a great opportunity that I couldn't pass up, now - just like I couldn't afford the risk for my family before, when I had a marriage and family.

Elaine and I were both juniors in college when she got pregnant. I dropped out almost immediately once she decided she was going to keep the baby and that we should marry right away. Neither of our families were well-off and no financial support was forthcoming, nor expected. I was an English major with a history minor because I was hoping to then go to law school, someplace. Elaine was a psychology major and wanted to become a psychologist and hopefully teach and do continued research. At least Elaine was able to finish out her junior year and even finally get her B.S. degree in night school that third year after Julia was born. I tried taking a few night courses myself, since IMT&R would pay for either "job improvement" courses or merely "degree acquisition" courses. Because I didn't have a degree my job advancement opportunities were pushed back by the general USA business culture that so highly prizes a piece of paper. I really finally settled down and just concentrated on doing such a good job and even bringing efficiency improvement ideas forward that someone in management would finally notice and HAVE to advance me. But no one really did until Carol. Eventually reading "Dilbert" made things a lot clearer for me.

But that was all over now. And I was back to basically being poor. Being poor sucks, it really does. It's not just not buying stuff you would like to, it's also not being able to buy services, like lawyers or PI's, or even the best medical services "if and when" needed. I couldn't just walk out on Elaine now - couldn't even afford a cheap apartment right now. We only had a couple thousand dollars in savings. Elaine pretty much spent all she earned as it came in. Maybe best thing for me would be IF she stayed wherever she was with some rich asshole. And if she could basically make $40,000 a trick - she could damn well start paying some of "our" living expenses for a while.

I needed to act very carefully for a while.

Finally about 4 PM Saturday Elaine called me and I was ready for her - I thought - and answered.

"Honey", I said "where are you? I was going out of my mind so worried about you", I lied (pretty convincingly I hoped.)

"Oh, Bob - don't worry. I am OK, hon." She sounded pretty beat down, actually.

"Where are you? Why aren't you home?" I almost sniffed but I thought I'm not that good an actor and she might get suspicious.

"Well, uh, I am actually in New York City in this fabulous suite at the Trump Towers. I don't quite know how I got here. Things are a bit of a blur from last night and I am really hungover. But another girl, Kay, from the party last night is here with me and we are OK. Sam is being - real nice. He is acting a bit embarrassed himself at just how drunk everyone got last night and wants to make it up to me...and Kay. Maybe taking us shopping and out to a nice restaurant. I wouldn't be much good back home anyway right now I am SO hungover and sick."

"Well, when are you coming home?" I implored.

"Not until tomorrow, for sure. I will call you tomorrow and we will touch bases. I am sure I will be in bed early tonight after dinner and get all rested up and feeling better. I love you, Bob, and I am so sorry this has happened. Please forgive me...?"

Hmmm - I'll bet she is back in bed early tonight. Guess I just need to play the clueless cuckold...

"Of course. Things happen, I know. You just take care of yourself. OK?"

"Do you still love me?" she almost sniffled. "I know Susan came by last night and what you two did. I also know she told you some stuff I never wanted you to find out about. Are we OK, really? Do you still love me?"

"We definitely have some stuff to talk about Elaine - but yes, I still love you. I can't just turn off that feeling I've had for you for the last 12 years. I mean, you can't either, can you?"

"No," she almost wailed. "I don't know what's going on right now with me but we'll work it out. I know we will. Things will get even better for us very soon and we'll just reap the good stuff from this weekend and forget all the bad. Right, honey? Please...?"

"Sure honey, just take care of yourself and rest up. Don't worry about me, about us, at all. Look I've got to go now. Talk to you tomorrow." And I hung up.

Poor clueless deluded woman. Was she really lying to herself as well as me? Someone once mentioned psychology majors are all weird - trying to somehow fix their OWN mental problems and defects by studying others. And it seldom worked. I had never applied that to Elaine - before now.

I had to harden my own heart now and yet hide THAT from Elaine. That last little lie of mine was as overtly cruel as I could go, now - and for probably a long time to come. Elaine and I would never ever be happy again, as we once were (or at least as I once was) and that was just a fact. Maybe Elaine was starting to feel that a bit now, as well.

In fact Elaine was. She was crying helplessly and keeling over in pain. Kay was shocked and a little scared and hurried over to hug and support her. Luckily no one else was around just now. The guys had all pretty much left them alone today to just rest and recover - but they were expected back tonight about 7 for dinner and then "after" - and Elaine needed to get herself back together before she ruined it for both of them. Kay and her own salesman husband were "open marriage" types and both now just hooked on their "wonderful" hedonistic lifestyle. And they could hardly stand to be alone with each other now, at least while either was sober.

But it was only a little after 4 now and plenty of time to get Elaine settled down after she got it out of her system. And there was plenty of booze and even a little white powder still around that Adonis had showed her - to help "revitalize" them before tonight.

Eventually Elaine cried herself out and Kay directed her back to the bed and still held her until she went to sleep. Kay would give her an hour until 5 and then wake her back up, give her a shot of Southern Comfort and then a little snort of coke, if needed. By then Elaine should be back in that "everything's going to be OK" mode, and looking forward to the pleasures that awaited them tonight.

At 5 Kay woke Elaine back up from what seemed to be a pretty deep sleep. A few times Elaine had moaned in her sleep like she was dreaming - and the sounds of the moans weren't the good kind. And now she looked pretty bad and would need at least 2 hours to pull herself back together and get her game face on.

"Here, Elaine - drink this," Kay said as she handed Elaine a shot of Southern Comfort.

After Elaine did and sputtered a little, Kay asked her, "how are you feeling now?"

"Not real good, I just want to go home."

"Well, OK - I understand but let's talk about it a little bit. I overheard your part of the conversation earlier. That was your husband, Bob - right?"

"Yes."

"Well, sounds to me like he knows you're OK - and also knows or has guessed some of what happened last night...but is still talking to you, OK. Is that about right?"

"Yes, but now I am so worried. He didn't sound right today. He didn't sound like he really loved me anymore..."

"Well, didn't he say he did? If he really does love you, he will forgive you. That's what real love really is. My husband and I forgive each other all the time." Kay could hardly keep from grinning at this huge untruth - but she did, too much at stake right now.

"And besides, what's done is done. It can't be undone. Now we don't want to upset Sam and the other Big Wigs in ANY way right now, otherwise last night and today and the hurt for Bob and even you now will all be for naught - worse than that as the things that should happen now are really the very things that just might fix up Bob and your marriage just fine - as long as they do happen. Right? And these guys know the rules and have ALWAYS acted fairly in the past. Quid pro quo. That way, no messiness. No lawsuits or even just bad publicity, newspaper investigations. Things like that. But if you upset them now - who knows what they might do? Like just fire Bob and trump up things about him - and you. Geesh, people like you and me can't fight them. They are just too big and powerful and even ruthless."

"Hey, that's why they fuck so well, right?" Kay tried to get a smile.

"Maybe. Probably you are right." Elaine answered back with a sad attempt at a return smile.

"Listen, let's both do just a little blow and then get ready. It will really make you feel better and take the edge off and we will talk more about it all later. Tonight shouldn't be nearly as intense as last night, you know. And tomorrow will be even better with our promised shopping and we can probably even hit the spa here for massages and full treatment. Let's just make sure Sam and any others are really satisfied by the end of the night!"

And that's what they did. Just a short line of coke each, then a shower for each and Kay just chatted Elaine up and kept stroking her with compliments to help her feel better. And it pretty much worked. Sam didn't show up to take them to dinner but Adonis and Mr. Diversity did - actually their names were Michael and Harold, and they were fairly nice and pleasant but pretty obviously just viewed the two ladies as sex object bimbos. But they had been tasked with keeping them happy and even getting them primed for tonight - when Sam and Walter Tinsdell - CFO - were both expected to join them back at the suite.