Maureen again.
"Are you out of your mind? You actually hung up on me?"
"Do you have any idea that my cousin is sitting right next to me?"
I replied lazily, "Oh. And?"
She let out a contemptuous scoff.
"You don't even get it, do you? No wonder you're stuck doing grunt work at the bottom of the company."
"Let me spell it out for you. I brought my cousin and his whole family out tonight for karaoke and drinks, to thank him for getting me hired."
"If you had an ounce of sense, you'd get over here right now, settle the tab at Encore, then drive every single one of us home. Make a good impression on my cousin."
"Do a good enough job, and maybe I'll put in a nice word for you. One sentence from my cousin and you'd be transferred out of the factory floor and into an office. Just like that."
What a scheme.
So she didn't just want a personal chauffeur. She wanted me to foot the bill too.
I paused, then asked, testing the waters, "You're sure your cousin can get me promoted and reassigned with a single word?"
An HR Director had considerable authority, sure, but nowhere near enough to shuffle people between positions at will. Any appointment above mid-level required the Vice President's approval. Changes to core positions had to go through the executive committee. And every one of those approvals ultimately landed on my desk, requiring my signature.
But Maureen didn't hesitate for a second.
"Obviously."
"Let me tell you something. Last month, some guy in the marketing department mouthed off to my cousin once. Just once. My cousin had him shipped off to the warehouse. The man had been with the company six years, and he didn't even dare make a peep about it. Gone, just like that."
"So don't bite the hand that feeds you. My cousin's reach inside this company is beyond anything someone like you could imagine."
I went quiet for two seconds.
It hit me. Last month, there had been a solid veteran employee transferred from marketing to the warehouse. I'd thought it was strange at the time and asked why someone that capable was being moved to a warehouse. The Vice President told me the employee had requested the transfer himself, said he wanted a change of pace. I figured he was burned out from the grind in marketing and signed off on it.
Turns out it was Maureen's cousin pulling the strings all along.
I drew a slow breath and said, my voice low, "Your cousin really knows how to work the system."
Maureen completely missed the edge in my words. She preened.
"You're only figuring that out now?"
"My cousin says in a few months, he's going to bring our whole family into the company. Every last one of them, men, women, young, old, planted across every department. Once that's done, the entire company answers to us."
What an HR Director indeed.
Quite the ambition.
The corner of my mouth curled. "Isn't your cousin worried the boss might find out?"
Maureen scoffed, utterly certain of herself.
"My cousin already thought of that. The owner of this company is the richest man in the city. He's running over a dozen major corporations. You think he has time to care about the smallest branch office in his portfolio?"
"As long as the boss isn't around, my cousin runs the show. Period."
I smiled.
She wasn't wrong that I managed over a dozen major enterprises. But those operations had long since stabilized. Aside from a handful of critical decisions that still required my involvement, they practically ran themselves.
It was this company, the smallest one in my portfolio, that had been underperforming for years despite every effort.
That was exactly why I'd been showing up here almost every day, inspecting the factory floor, studying market conditions, trying to figure out where the problem was.
Now I finally knew.
The rot was coming from the inside.
