On thin ice July 19, 2012

 

My big concern about meeting with the owners is that I was still not sure of her relationship to the male boss – although for weeks when we still talked, she spoke frequently about needing to get more money and her plans to ask him for a raise.

She asked me how she should approach him, and apparently made the same request of our former temporary boss.

Something kept her from approaching the owner several times, but apparently, she eventually did.

When still on speaking terms I texted her, asking if she had gotten the raise, and I received a single one response of “yes.”

An odd circumstance if true, since others with more elevated positions in the company had tried and failed, sometimes even encouraged afterwards to find other employment elsewhere.

This coupled with the open flirting I had seen going on between the two in the office, she once tapping him on the top of his bald held with her pad.

But our former temporary boss apparently believes she did not get the raise since he had been among those who had sought a raise himself and was refuted.

“You can’t squeeze anything out of that cheap son of a bitch,” he bitterly proclaimed.

But she had legitimate reasons for getting a raise, since she covered a number of towns well after a number of employees before her had not.

Perhaps her flirting with the boss was part of her campaign to get on his good graces.

All this made me less confident that I would get a fair hearing when the owners finally met with me, especially if they consulted with my former temporary boss, who may well be seeking to have me fired.

I hoped my account emailed to the owners would be enough to convince them of my innocence.

Then, shaking my confidence even more, the boss at the satellite office where I worked notified the owners that she would like to write for the beat I was writing for, and even hijacked a story I had already proposed, making it seem as if indeed, my days for the company were numbered.

As it turned out, they were not numbered.

When I met with the two bosses, they said the issue between me and her was personal, but I would have to continue on at the satellite office – as I had figured – to avoid further complications.

I agreed. I had no choice.

But I had the horrible feeling I still skated on thin ice and needed to make sure I did not do anything to draw their attention again in a negative way.

 

 2012 menu


email to Al Sullivan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taking control Aug. 2, 2012

Image
The poem she posted today echoes in tone if not in content that of her quicksand poem. While as short at the previous poem, this poem about compassion is much more structured, using parallel phrasing to give it power and impact. Yet despite its brevity, it is incredibly complex, and creates a number of possible alternative interpretations, depending partly on for whom the poem is written. My ego (my narcissistic self as she referred to me in an earlier poem) would like to think the poem is directed at me, and so like the poem about quicksand, offers a certain measure of condolence or compassion for a clearly defeated man. But the poem may well also be directed at herself, about the idea of compassion or perhaps pain. While the overtly it claims to be about compassion, in fact, the poem goes beyond both pain and compassion and may well allude of a philosophy of survival. As with the quick sand poem, this poem seems to be offering advice, although less fatalistic. The most
Read more

Reflections of Coelho March 2, 2013

Image
    At some point in all of this mixed up, jumbled up world of hers, she posted a saying by Paulo Coelho, which said, “If you’re brave to say ‘Good Bye’ life will reward you with a new ‘Hello’.” Coelho de, born in August, 1947is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. Coelho wrote the best-selling novel, 'The Alchemist,' which sold 35 million copies and is the most translated book in the world by a living author. He has been frequently described as an author that “thrives on contradictions and extremes,” which may well be why she is attracted to him, and why she recently got into the role of Mata Hari in her real life, perhaps influenced by Coelho’s fictional take on the well-known temptress and spy. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Coelho attended Jesuit schools and was raised by devout Catholic parents. He was obsessed at an early age with the idea of becoming a writer, something his parents frowned on, and his i
Read more

Forgiveness is not possible July 13, 2012

Image
   By far this is the most painful of all the poems she has directed at me to date, partly because it is dismissive, and in some ways inaccurate, and uses some of my own statements taken out of context against me. I need to resist trying to defend myself here and attempt to focus completely on the statements she is attempting to make, dealing later in other pages of this journal in an attempt to set the record straight. Right from the opening lines, she dismisses the need for forgiveness, largely because she said it would imply the possibility of a “next step” or somehow getting back to a previous stage before all the hostility transpired, when it is clear that is not possible. While the poem does not explicitly say so, there is no going back, too many bad feelings, too many unforgivable things said. She describes the “ugly mornings” and the “sweat-streaked days of locking and unlocking” her door. The implication here is fear of violence, something she alluded to in an earl
Read more