“What do you think Alan’s calling us together for?” asked Pete as the team filed into the conference room.

Dave shrugged. “Beats me.”

Connie looked at her colleagues. “I’ve heard rumors corporate wants to cut costs. That’s probably got something to do with it.”

Dave scowled. “You think people’re gonna get let go?”

Connie looked at him over the top of her glasses. “I can’t rule it out.”

Pete added, “But we just signed that contract. We’re already at capacity! If they want us to deliver on time, we need more people, not less.”

Connie patted Pete on the hand. “I know. But what else can we do?”

The three of them sighed deeply. After a short pause, Connie looked at Pete and said, “How’s the baby?”

Pete chuckled and said, “A lot of sleeping and shitting. And to think I was considering asking Alan for a raise…”

“Don’t bank on that one,” said Dave.

“I know. I know.”

The conversation was cut short by the sound of the conference room door closing. Alan walked quickly to the center of the room and cleared his throat. All of the chatter in the room quickly died down.

“Thank you all for coming in on such short notice. I know you’ve all got a lot going on right now so I don’t want to keep you too long.”

Alan wiped his forehead and took a deep breath. “By now I’m sure many of you have heard that corporate wants to cut back on expenses. I just got off the phone with my boss and he agrees that what I’m about to tell you is sufficient for our group, considering the Malone contract we just signed.

“First, effective immediately, expenses for meals while traveling is limited to $30 per person per day. Anything over and above that, you’re responsible for.”

There was a low murmur of protest but after a few seconds, the crowd accepted this reality.

“Second, unless you’re training a client on the use of any of our products, travel for business will be limited to a maximum of two nights. Any more than that, and you need approval from corporate.”

Alan paused for a response, but nobody seemed to mind this rule.

“Third, effective immediately, we will discontinue the use of our copiers, printers, and fax machines. I figure that we’re a nearly paperless office as it is, so the only things we really need printed are sales and marketing materials.”

The team gave a collective grumble of approval for this directive.

Alan took a long drink of water. The other people in attendance looked away from him and at each other.

“Unfortunately, when I suggested these cuts in my call a couple of hours ago,” continued Alan, “they approved of all of this but they said it wasn’t enough. As a result, I …” He took a second drink of water.

Pete whispered to Connie and Dave. “He’s drawing this out to make us shit bricks, isn’t he?”

“Shhh!” said Connie.

Alan cleared his throat. “I would like to announce that, effective two weeks from Friday, I will be retiring. Please know that I’ve loved working with each and every one of you. This will more than meet corporate’s demands.”

Connie saw the shocked look on Dave’s face and whispered, “I didn’t expect that!”

“Me either,” said Dave.

Pete raised his hand. When Alan pointed to him in acknowledgment, he asked, “What does this mean for our team? Will there be someone here in charge?”

Alan smiled. “You read my mind, Pete. We’re promoting someone from within our ranks to help guide the team from here on in. So, I’m pleased to tell you that Suzette Freeman will be doing all of the administrative work that I’ve been responsible up until now. We won’t be backfilling her old position.”

Dave, Pete, and Connie all stared at each other, stunned into silence, unable or unwilling to express their shock and disillusionment in the middle of this meeting.

Alan and Suzette fielded questions from the rest of the room. Alan said that he wanted to travel with his wife. Suzette assured everyone that the direction the team had been taking, wasn’t going to change. When all questions were exhausted, Alan said, “If anyone has any other questions you weren’t comfortable raising in the group setting, you know where we both are…”
* * *

After the meeting adjourned, Connie knocked on Dave’s office door. He let her in and gestured for her to sit down before taking his own place behind his computer. With a laugh, he said, “I bet I know why you’re here.”

“Oh. My. God! I can’t believe he picked Suzette of all people! She’s horrible for the team! Where’s her no work ethic. Worst of all, she’s arrogant and conceited. It makes my skin crawl just thinking that she’s going to be in charge of all of us. What do you think?”

“I think you’re … not mistaken,” said Dave, calmly.

“What’d she have to do to get it? I’d say she slept with Alan if she didn’t need to get laid so badly.” Connie looked down and shuddered. “So what do we do?”

“Well, let’s take a step back a minute. You just listed a whole bunch of things that are wrong with her. So tell me what’s right about her…”

Connie looked up at the ceiling, scratching her chin. “She’s… Um…. Oh, wait! Remember when we were in that one class last year? She asked a lot of good questions.”

“Okay, so what does that mean?”

“Um… It tells me that… That she’s not unwilling to learn things.”

“Good. Do you think she could learn not to be so arrogant and conceited?” asked Dave.

“I… I suppose so. That’s a hard thing to unlearn, though.”

“The first step in any self-improvement project, is to know your own faults, your own limitations, and, well, what needs to be improved. If she doesn’t know how she’s perceived, then she can’t get better.” Dave smiled broadly at his friend and colleague.

Connie crossed her arms in front of her chest. “So how do you say that diplomatically?”

“I think our opportunity isn’t so much with her, but rather with Alan. He’s going to be transitioning his job to her, right?” Dave looked up at the ceiling. “She’s climbing up the corporate ladder, if you would, but he’s also wise enough to know how easy it is to fall off the ladder. I guess my question is: is it safe to assume that you don’t want our team to fail?”

“Of course I don’t want the team to fail! We’re a team, remember? It might be a cliche, but there really is no ‘I’ in team,” mused Connie.

“That’s true, but if you’re willing to use the letter ‘E’ twice, ‘EAT ME’ is there.”

Connie laughed. “So what do we do?”

Dave raised his hand to indicate that she should hold on a moment. He pressed the ‘SPEAKER’ button on his phone and a dial tone came through. He quickly pressed a few keys on his phone and waited for the person at the other end to answer.

“Pete here.”

“Pete! Can you come into my office for a minute? Connie and I’d like to talk to you.”

“Sure. I’ll be right there.”
* * *

After a couple of minutes, Pete knocked on Dave’s door.