The project daze came to Bruce Warner in ways he had never expected and could not have prepared for. First there was this friendly guy Will who acted like his boss but at the same time seemed eager to escape from Fast Access. Then there was Valerie who was in fact his boss but never had a moment of time to spare for him. He felt like a little church mouse that had been set loose in hell. Every day brought a new adventure with negotiation on project requirements. Sure, there were tasks to track and people assigned, but every checkpoint meeting found someone challenging existent requirements or adding new ones. The rank and file folks of Giant Networks had immediately warmed to Bruce, finding his attitude refreshing. He was actually willing to listen to their concerns and attempted to bring their feedback to management meetings. Bruce had noted right away that DJ Fox and his group provided more than their share of these issues. He was constantly having to work back through delays in schedule arising from one or more tasks assigned to DJ’s group. Finally, he could stand no more. He realized that both his own success and the success of the project depended on his ability to reel in the EMEA Support team.

“Hi Valerie. My apologies for barging in but I feel it’s important that we have face time on this issue.” Valerie pulled together some papers she’d been working on and gave him an entirely pitiful look. “Ok then, Bruce lets go through your concerns. But shouldn’t we bring Will in on this?” Bruce wanted this job and realized there would always be certain hurdles to climb. Will had been saying lately that he should assert himself more, especially when dealing with managers. “Will said it was important that you have my perspective on this.” Valerie was thinking about it. “Ok Bruce. Why don’t you speak with Kim in the morning to get on my schedule? Tell her to red flag this and we need an hour. OK? I don’t want to short change you.“ Bruce agreed, after all, it was the first sign that she was going take him seriously. Now he allowed himself to think how they would offer him a permanent position at the end of the contract. “I’m back in the saddle.” He announced triumphantly that night to his friends in the bar. Later he went out to the parking lot for a smoke break and called his girlfriend. Sally Branscombe was observant enough to note that Bruce’s attitude about this job had waffled from week to week. Still it felt good to hear a touch of confidence in Bruce’s voice. She allowed herself to think that he might take charge of what happened in his life and maybe there was some possibility of a future with him.

Another week went by and Will was looking at the schedule update that Bruce had sent out. He’d only recently felt like it was safe to pull back from this project but what he saw today alarmed him. There were several tasks marked in bold red to indicate slip and as before, they were all associated with the European Support team. “I thought Bruce had this under control. He was supposed to have worked this through with Valerie.” Will picked up the phone and dialed. “Hello Bruce. Do you have some time this afternoon? I need to talk about the schedule.” Bruce agreed that they should meet. In fact, he’d been embarrassed about the lack of progress recently and dreading when he would break the news to Will. “I still haven’t had that meeting with Valerie. She keeps putting me off.” Will was stunned! It was exactly the kind of thing that could happen around here, but still he couldn’t help feeling that Bruce should have taken a more active stance to red flag the problem with Valerie. “Bruce, I don’t think we need to meet after all. It’s clear enough who I need to be talking to. I’m going over to see Valerie right away.” “Thanks Will. I knew you would understand but I didn’t want to bother you with this. I’ve sent email and tried to call her a couple of times. The only thing I’ve gotten back is a couple of meeting cancellation notices.” Will liked Bruce and there were many examples where he was doing a fine job but surely he must realize that Valerie wasn’t likely to be embracing him with open arms at the end of his contract. “What kind of an arrangement do we have here anyway?” Will thought to himself. “Bruce has not been setting up to succeed. Shouldn’t a manager be responsible for that?”

Will thought about going to Marco for help with the situation but then he realized that Marco would want him to handle it and besides, he wasn’t in the mood to hear a lecture. It took Will another couple of days to get an audience with Valerie and only a quick phone conversation at that. “Yes, I spoke to Bruce about the schedule. We agreed there were some things he can try.” Will was puzzled. He’d been trusting Bruce and of course he didn’t trust Valerie much. Yet if she were lying to him she seemed perfectly at ease with it. “When did you speak to Bruce?” he asked. “Oh, I just spoke to him a few minutes ago actually,” she replied. Before Will could respond she added, “I hope you can do me a favor. I’m going to be on a trip next week. Can you go to the Fast Access meeting while I’m out? This is a critical period and there are several milestones coming.” Will agreed to do this but told himself it was for Bruce’s sake and for Marco’s sake, but most of all for his own sake. The project was still winding through hell and he was still tangled up with it. He called up Marco and told him about Valerie’s request but Marco seemed to already know about her travel plans. “Just thought you’d like to know, ah, high level what’s going on.” Will told him. “Oh really! Well thank you.” Marco said in that overly exaggerated tone he used to denote “don’t bring the sucky world to me.” Will turned to go but Marco called him back. “I just wanted to let you know that you are doing a hell of job with Fast Access and other people have noticed that too.” Will found himself wondering what other gems Marco would bring out to polish. “And Bruce?” Will replied. “What do people think about Bruce?” Marco didn’t appreciate the questions, not after he’d been trying to play nice. “People are stepping over each other and getting all tangled up just because they want to come in here and say something nice about Bruce.” Marco teased. “Hey come on, you know what it’s like with new people. They have to prove themselves.” Will thought about that before replying. “Well, I think Bruce is doing a good job with this. Anyone would have trouble dealing with DJ, much less a new guy.” Marco removed his glasses and rubbed his eyelids. “Well there you go.” He finally replied. “Bruce is having trouble with DJ and you are going to step in to help. I think that’s all I need to know about Bruce right now.” Marco pulled a finger across his throat to indicate the subject was closed. Will could feel tension building and he knew whatever happened next week would be about his career at Giant Networks and probably have very little to do with Bruce. “If I were him, this would be the last place I’d want to be when the contract is up.” Will thought and made a note to advise Bruce to start looking and the company job board and figure out where the opportunities are. “Working for Valerie would go beyond desperate.”

The next morning Will came looking for Bruce but could not find him. He tried again a couple of hours later and still no success. He ran toward the stairway but just then there was Bruce emerging from the elevator. “Hi Will. Were you looking for me? I was taking a break.” he said and tugged at this shirt pocket to indicate the cigarette pack. Bruce looked very nervous. “Valerie said she talked to you?” Will half expected him to deny it but there was no response from Bruce. “Do you think you are getting anywhere on this DJ situation?” Bruce fidgeted. “Can we go back downstairs? I think I can use another smoke already.” He said. Will couldn’t stomach cigarette smoke but judging from Bruce’s expression, there probably weren’t going to be other choices available. “Can we take the stairs?” Will was so averse to the affect of second hand smoke that he could feel it immediately burning his eyelids if someone lit up over twenty yards away. Prolonged exposure meant a headache and finally nausea.

As they walked down the stairway, Will began digging for information. “I’m sorry to push but I need to know what’s going on with DJ. Right now, it would be incredibly relevant to give some positive news to Marco.” Bruce gave him a knowing look. “Valerie told me that my plan to break off EMEA into a separate call sounded fine! I showed her the way I had reorganized the schedule. It was different from the way you had it, showing dependencies on EMEA with subtasks. Provides more visibility for the pain points we’ve been having.” Bruce was smiling. He was feeling pleased to think he might have more information than Will for once. “So Valerie told you to go forward with that?” “Yeah, but then she turns and tells me IF IT’S NOT TOO LATE.” “Ok, you got me on the hook, now tell me what she meant by that.” “Sure Will. She told me she planned to have a Come To Jesus meeting next week with DJ.” Will cringed. “Ever notice it’s mostly women using that expression nowadays? It’s like how you hear that someone was beaten when they were child and more likely to hand down the same treatment to their children. Now we have people imitating the condescending and blasphemous expressions from their precious star VP’s. Anyway, I guess you realize it wouldn’t be normal for a manager to have a side bar with a key stakeholder about the schedule and leave the PM out of the discussion? Damn it Bruce, you can’t let her manage for you! There’s one major pressure point and one big road block on the project and we knew this from the start. We have to offer the solution here, not step aside.” Will glared at him.

Bruce was surprised by the outburst and now they had stopped on a landing and he could see he needed to say something to get things back in perspective. Will had been his ally here and even though he wanted to make his own mark, Will was still his life line at this company. Just the same, if Will wanted him to assert himself, he could do that right here. “Don’t worry about it man. I’ve got a deal with Valerie. After she speaks with DJ, we’re supposed to meet again and put the final touches on the schedule and we’ll finally have stability there. After that, it’s basic project management and you know I can handle that, right? Isn’t that why you brought me here?” Bruce started to walk down the next flight of stairs but Will did not follow. “OK Bruce. You’re right. I’m going to step out of this. Let’s get together next week after you have your meeting with Valerie. Like I said, I’m sorry to push this.” Bruce was pleased. “Hey, if I don’t see you, have a good weekend Will. I’m going over to Santa Cruz to visit Sally this weekend. Just lay around the house and walk over to beach. Sounds like you need a little bit of relaxation yourself.” Will couldn’t agree more. “Have a good one Bruce.” Bruce turned and walked hurriedly down the stairs, his hand fumbling for the pack with one hand and for the lighter with the other. He couldn’t wait to get into another smoke. Will walked back toward his office. “Its not the way I’d handle this but everybody has his own way to get things done. There are a lot of soft touches in program management and it would be hard to know exactly what had happened without being in the room with Bruce and Valerie. Maybe Bruce has a good read on it. Who knows?”

Monday morning and Will’s phone was ringing as he walked up to his desk. He could also see the message indicator blinking. He hadn’t been expecting much to happen on Monday morning this early. “Hi Will. I’m Lexi Jones from Dannon Recruitment. I’ve been trying to reach Bruce Warner. Valerie said we needed to get him in here today. “What?” was all Will could muster in response. “I thought Valerie had offered to the job to that other guy Robert Boyle?” “Can you hold there a minute?” Lexi asked. After a moment she came back online and explained that Robert had decided to accept a full time position from another company. Will recalled Robert had appeared a bit smug in the interview. “Turns out he was just playing us as a second option,” he thought. “Well Lexi, let me see if I can help reach Bruce today.”

Late in the morning on Monday and Will had still not been able to get in touch with Bruce. Valerie was furious and had called Marco to complain about the lack of support from Dannon and Will and a few other random entities. Marco, not knowing all the particulars of the situation, had offered to have Will assigned to the project until the contractor could be on board and the situation stabilized.

“Hey Will. What happened Friday? Valerie seemed kind of upset.” Marco was in Will’s office Tuesday morning to find out what was going on. “I owe them a favor Will so I told them you’re on the project, effective immediately. Find out what the hell is going on with Fast Access. Get you ass in there and start working the project until we can find another resource. If I were you, I’d start leaning really hard on Dannon. Tell ‘em we’re thinking of sending this req out to other agencies.” Marco wasn’t really worried, he knew Will could probably handle the project for the long term if necessary. Will wasn’t too happy about the prospect of working for Valerie though. “Well now, it wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened, now would it? Get out the chairs and start playing some music.” Marco had his own special way of laying thing outs for Will. “Oh, ah….Will. You need to get over there and lead the Fast Access kick-off meeting this afternoon. I’ll forward you the invite I got from Valerie. You can relax though, it doesn’t start for about an hour.” “Thanks Marco. I knew I could count on you to makes things interesting this afternoon.” “Hey, don’t push your luck. See ya.” Marco said and then he walked away intent on avoiding further questions.

Will skipped lunch in order to make a phone call to Dannon and he was hoping maybe he could grab a few moments after that to prep for the meeting he was supposed to be leading. “Hi Lexi. Will here again. I think we might need a plan B. Bruce hasn’t returned my call yet. I’m really not thrilled with any of the other candidates, so maybe can you get a few more people in here. Use Robert and Bruce’s resumes to model the background we’re looking for.” Will had decided he wasn’t going to threaten Lexi with the dreaded “Giant Networks means everything to your pitiful little company” line that was so typical of how people around Giant thought about themselves and their company. Will believed that if someone was giving best effort, one should honor that by at least being polite. Suggest alternatives and work with them like the word “partner” would imply. “Well Will, I do have some promising news. We’ve contacted Bruce just a few minutes ago and they are doing the background check on him. He should be able to come in tomorrow and I’ll confirm that within the hour. In the meantime, I’ll get your plan B started in case we need it.” Will was happy with the news and immediately put all effort to discover what agenda he’d be pushing in the Fast Access meeting. Things were looking up!

Late afternoon on Monday and Will had just sent out status and action items from the Fast Access meeting. As usual there were plenty of surprises, the most significant being that Fast Access was still waiting for business requirements to develop a timeline for rolling out the 7400 series support model. Valerie rapped her knuckles on the door and then walked in to Will’s office. “Good job with Fast Access. I think they made it pretty clear what it would take to get them in bed.” Valerie announced, clearly pleased to combine slick with vulgar. “The 7400 team needs to step if they still expect a quick turn on this”, Will offered. “Yeah, well the RIF notices are going out and we’re committed. There won’t be any support unless you make it happen. Anyway, I thought you got off to a good start today. What are your thoughts on this contractor? Do we need him?” Will was floored. “She thinks I’m going to volunteer to take this on after she muffled the requisition process?” Will couldn’t see himself becoming somebody’s pet, a concern already in his relationship with Marco. “Yes Valerie, we need the contractor. I have Bruce coming in tomorrow.” Valerie tried to hide her disappointment. “Excellent news! Let’s see if this guy will work out then. I’d appreciate you taking some time with Bruce over the next week or two. Go to all the meetings. I’ll decide on to proceed once you two give me a status report next Friday.” Will realized this wasn’t going in the direction he wanted, but thought it best to put aside his concern for the time being. “Ok then, I’ll let you know once we get things situated with Bruce.” “Oh Will, there was something I meant to tell you. The 7400 team doesn’t have requirements down because they are playing games with the budget. I think they’re trying to squeeze in more requirements at the last moment and hope to blame the cost over run on us. They’re like little chicks chirping and you feed them, hoping to shut them up. Only now they’ve become fat little chicks that are even more hungry. I’m sure you’ll figure out how to deal with them. Bye-bye now.” Valerie said with the air of satisfaction that her orders were being carried out. She believed in keeping the troops on edge. That was Valerie, forceful and clever.

Bruce Warner was running late. It was a Tuesday morning and he hadn’t faced the prospect of getting up and going to work for months. He felt like hell and the attempt to drink a lot of coffee had made him feel sick. Yet here he was, arriving at Giant Networks, and then getting lost trying to find the security check-in site. “All these buildings look exactly the same. They must save a ton of money on building design and maintenance.” He rushed around the parking lot and had to ask at least three different people for help with directions. It was after 11 am when Bruce finally called Will and told him he was somewhere in the parking lot but he had a security badge.

Will came outside and when he saw Bruce walking toward him, his heart jumped up toward his throat and alarm bells were clanging in his head. “He looks terrible”, Will thought. His shirt was visibly soaking with sweat and he looked as though hadn’t slept for a couple of days. This was his guy, the one Valerie had overruled at first and anything he did would surely reflect on Will. He tried to remain calm and polite as he greeted Bruce and took him back toward the office. “Did you have trouble finding us?” Will asked. “Well, yeah.” Bruce answered. “Don’t these buildings remind you of an army barracks?” Bruce looked around, surveying the horizon. As far as one could see, there were Giant Networks buildings in either direction. “Yes sir!” Bruce gave a mock salute. “Please excuse the way I look. It’s hot today and I’ve been rushing around all over the place. I must have walked a couple of miles.” Will finally smiled a little. “Well I know what you mean, they have those signs and walkways all over the lot but I think it only adds to the confusion.” Will was starting to feel a more relaxed, but still didn’t necessarily feel like bringing the new guy in to the building for introductions. “Bruce, it’s almost lunch time. How about if we grab something to eat right now? There’s a place we can walk to from here if you’d like.” Bruce hesitated as though there might be several things concerning him. “Come on! It’s the traditional way to welcome the guy on board.” Will announced with gusto. “Well Ok Will, but to tell you the truth, I’d rather drive over there if you don’t mind.” Bruce was pulling at his shirt, indicating how bad it looked and Will understood. Will was also thinking about how there was no such tradition to welcome a contractor on board with a free lunch, but he had to think quickly in situations like this.

DJ Fox was Director of European Services & Support and at that moment just happened to be walking across the parking lot toward Will and Bruce. “Hey Will, got a second?” he called out and he approached quickly with the air of someone seizing on a lucky opportunity. Some people might say that God was not smiling on Will at that moment, but Will was thinking, “the gods must be smiling down right now, having arranged some pawns in this configuration.” DJ completely launched immediately in to his “parking lot” summary speech of concerns for the 7400 Support roll out in the EMEA theater. He was losing some people in the RIF and hence forced to give up some of his power with this latest outsourcing move. His only recourse in the situation would be throw down freaking hell on Fast Access and the Project team and make the most of an opportunity to present a horse and pony show of customer concerns. “I expect you’ll follow the usual course and let Americas Support come first? Force the rest of us blokes to line up behind! Well, I’m putting you on notice right now that it’s not going to be that way this time. I’ve got slim resources and a very short window. I will insist that this roll-out goes concurrent.” Now DJ stopped talking and took a good, hard look at Bruce for the first time. Then he turns back to Will, his lip sneered and he eyes glaring. “If you were smart. You might have already asked for my opinion before bringing these Fast Access guys in here for a meeting today.” DJ stopped to let those words sink in and survey the damage. “Good God Almighty,” Will thought, “first there was Valerie and now this guy. We’re going to have a fine time with this project.” Will turned toward Bruce, his eyes pleading with a “lucky you” expression. “DJ, I’d like to introduce Bruce Warner. He’s going to be taking over the Fast Access project.” The men shook hands but now DJ had his hands on his hips and he was looking at Will unbelievingly. “Valerie told me to run concerns through you. I thought she would know what’s going on if anyone did. Maybe I need to stop by and chat with her?” Will could easily see that it was a bad time and place to work through DJ’s conflicts. “No, you can run concerns through myself and Bruce. We’ll get back in touch with you later this week. Are you here until Friday?” DJ was determined not to walk away without a fight. “I’m expecting to get through this before Friday.” he told them.

With that, the pleasantries in the parking lot were over and the men parted ways. While Will and Bruce went out for lunch, DJ Fox went straight to Valerie’s office to tell her he wasn’t going to entrust Giant Networks customer critical business to a new contractor. He also threw in a couple of pointed comments about Bruce’s appearance along with his very own off the cuff assertion concerning his capability. Valerie reassured him that Marco Riccardi was completely behind the project and she would personally insure that it would be a success. DJ was a happy man! It had taken less than thirty minutes for him to create a big splash around the Giant Networks corporate campus. For her part, Valerie called up Marco and asked him to “keep an eye” on Will and his new contractor. “Oh great,” Marco said with his unwavering capability to express exasperation in two syllables or less. “Will is still not experienced enough to manage this perception crap. It’s like going in to a bar with your little brother. Couldn’t he at least make it look like he knows what’s going to happen next?” Given a moment to think, Marco eventually found a silver lining. “Valerie, please, DJ’s just firing a few shots over the bow to get your attention. I was kind of thinking about taking a trip out to Amsterdam anyway. It wouldn’t hurt to show some executive concern for the success of Fast Access in Europe. I’ll take those guys out and we’ll all get smashed. At the end of day, they’ll be toasting your team and DJ will be slobbering all over himself to make sure the next train doesn’t leave the station without him. Do I sound worried?” Valerie laughed in that cute way women sometimes do if they want to come through as unimposing. “I’m writing in this trip on my schedule now. Let me know if you want to come along. I can pull a few strings just for you Valerie.” Marco said with his own sweetheart voice. “Will do.” Valerie answered. Office politics put together strange bedfellows.

Chapter 1: Bruce and the Preacher Man

Something happened that day at the office that was very disturbing. Will should have gone out with his friends to a ballgame or he could have watched the DVD that came in the mail over the weekend. Instead it was 9 pm on a Wednesday evening and Will was sitting on the couch staring at the wall. The TV was silent and the laptop case was closed. Will had been mulling over a series of why questions, the kind that didn’t bring easy answers. As usual, it was something involving a management decision that had confounded his sense of right and wrong. It really wasn’t anything new except this had been one of those times a “decision” had direct impact on a person’s life that went beyond what happened in those offices at Giant Networks. So Will was thinking about what kind of people he spent his time with at work and how anyone could instigate a situation like this without feeling the same kind of pain that he felt.

It takes a certain kind of person to succeed as a manager in a Silicon Valley company. They need to have a certain attitude. To believe in themselves (“I’m right”), their boss (“definitely always right”), the company (“we are on the right track”), and in their own progress. (“I’ve done great things and promise even more to come”) The manager must have the ability to set aside truth, logic, or any present circumstance with potential to prevail against the company line. By and large, managers in the modern day corporation were sophists to their very core. They had invented for themselves a whole new way of communication that Will referred to as Corporate Speak. It was the kind of language that was couched in whimsical and nonchalant fashion and was meant to detract blame and nullify the significance of bad decisions. Damn it! Many managers are really stubborn people who could never admit mistakes or identify uncertainty.

It was just this sort of irreverence for knowledge that now goaded Will he sat there on the couch that evening. He felt that someone had crossed the decency line and it was all the more sad because this situation had begun with rays of hope only a few short weeks before.

Eight Weeks Earlier:

“Hey Will, can I see you for a moment?” Marco Riccardi, a VP at Giant Networks had noticed Will in the hallway and called out from his office. “Valerie Dubois is going to hire a new Program Manager and she’s trying to set up an interview team. I told her you can help represent us.” Will considered it a good sign that they trusted him with recruitment of important position like a PM. He would not only be part of the team, but help integrate and determine their make-up. It was all very positive. “Great Marco! I know Valerie’s group well enough but I ought to speak with her and find out what specific projects are going to the new person.” Marco was always happy with the way Will would throw himself forward at a new assignment. “Well OK then. Sounds like you kind of got this under control already. Go ahead and get with Valerie then, sooner is better.”

Will was surprised to find out from Valerie that the position was being offered as a six month contract with a potential to hire option instead of a permanent hire. “Will, I need to move on this real fast. I was hoping you can take this stack of resumes and find the best candidates You can make it a phone screen, maybe five or six of them. Lets bring the best couple of them in for a quick interview.” Will waited patiently. He had a lot of questions but realized there was a certain way that people thought about contractors at Giant Networks and it generally didn’t go over well to counter this attitude directly. “Valerie, if you don’t mind, I’ll go ahead and set up in person meetings with a few of them. I think it should help.” Valerie’s face showed a hint of concern which Will picked up on. “When do you need this done?” he said quickly before she could object. “Today’s what? Tuesday, right? I was hoping to have a PM in here by Monday to help us coordinate and develop a new support model for the 7400 series. We have the Fast Access people coming in for a meeting Monday afternoon.” Will was already starting to fill the whirlwind gathering which was fairly typical of the way things happened at Giant Networks. They always wanted to jump from concept to reality in minutes rather than days. “What is Fast Access?” Will countered regretfully. “You didn’t know we outsourced support for all the new Consumer lines going forward? We bid out the business last quarter and Fast Access gave us the best turn. They’re expensive but quick! We need to take risk and cut Support cost after the revenue impact from the downturn. We are going to RIF about 250 Support people and get it done in time to mention in the quarterly earnings announcement. Keep that to yourself of course.” Will was trying to put the news in perspective but Valerie was already making a show of impatience by rattling her thumbs on the desktop. “Ok, I’ll see if I can get people in there during the next couple of days, then we can settle up on the final two candidates. Are you available Friday?” Valerie thought about it . “Marco told me you are basically free to do this, so I’ll trust you to keep me in the loop. I want those interview appointments on schedule for Friday. Talk to Kim as soon as possible to nail down the spots, 30 minutes each though I probably won’t need that if you did the homework and screened them.” Valerie’s eyes drifted away toward her computer screen and then she actually started doing something else without waiting for Will’s reply. She made it clear that the result was all that mattered, there should be nothing more to discuss. “Ok then.” Will responded and left the office knowing he’d gotten about as much from Valerie as he could expect.

Will managed to find four people with relevant credentials for a PM contractor who could interview and be available to start on their timeline. By Thursday afternoon he had narrowed down to two candidates. There was Robert Boyle, a guy with ten years Telephony experience. Robert came in dressed up like a country preacher on Sunday with a strong and earnest handshake and a solemn “I’ll do what you want” attitude. Robert insisted on showing Will that he had made the most of his ten months “between jobs” by getting a book published. He reached down and pulled up a black briefcase to his lap and unsnapped the lock. “Here it is. It’s called How To Manage Career Transition.” Will took a quick look at the book, noticing it was a self produced. Will might have written a book like that himself at one point but right now the whole subject seemed kind of pathetic to him. It had a “blind leading the blind” aspect to it. Will guessed it was exact opposite impression from what Robert was apparently hoping for. Will tried to probe with questions about what it would be like to work with this guy in meetings and how he might manage conflicting priorities among difficult people. There was a lot of nasty stuff that went on at Giant Networks but it had to be managed in a very pleasant way to keep down the stress factors and get through the long hours. “Sounds like there are a lot of difficult people working around this project,” Robert had responded. Will couldn’t block out this preacher image from his mind and he imagined it would carry over to the project meetings with threats of hellfire and brimstone and warnings about adhering to the master plan. This just wouldn’t do. Will became a bit anxious knowing that this preacher man was his number two choice at the moment and the deadline beckoned tomorrow.

Bruce Warner was the next candidate. Will was initially put off when Bruce showed up at the café patio wearing dark sunglasses. Will had decided to meet outdoors as a way to shake things up a bit. It had only been a couple of hours before when he’d encountered the preacher man and he really needed to purge that image. Bruce began in dangerous territory by asking a couple of pointed questions about the work environment and whether ‘travel is involved”. It made him appear standoffish.

But things changed when Will discovered that Bruce was quite adept in explaining how he might organize a theoretical schedule and how he might interact with the various people involved . Will liked the way that Bruce listened closely and asked questions to help understand what would motivate people and how to balance their priorities with his own. He was also very honest in detailing his recent work experience. He’d been working as a Project Manager at a small start-up Human Interface Design company in San Francisco which had very promising technology for touchscreens. They had unfortunately ran out of cash in a down economy and were forced to sell out before they could go to market. Bruce had been unemployed for six months and admitted that interviews were very scarce these days. “I’d really appreciate this opportunity to show you what I can do. I promise you we’ll be engaged with that Support transition by early next week and we should be able to get a first pass task list ready by the end of the week. Then we can catch Fast Access on the following Monday and get some names and dates.” Will knew he was taking some risk but considering the tight deadline and the preacher man, this guy looked good to him. He and Bruce spent the last ten minutes of the interview in casual discussion about plans for the weekend, which was supposed to be a nice and mild one.

Will hurried to arrange Valerie’s interview schedule for the next day with her admin Kim only to find that the busy Program Office Director was now unwilling to meet in person with the candidates. “Valerie told me to have you send their resumes over and make sure they are available all of Friday afternoon. She’ll call them when she can.” “Ok, she should have the resumes for Robert and Bruce in her inbox now and I’ll supplement with an email with my impression of their skills and background.” “Sure” Kim answered knowing it would be fruitless to set any expectations for Valerie. Whatever happened tomorrow would depend on her mood and circumstances of the moment.

Will wrote up a good contrast and comparison of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two candidates along with his “strong” recommendation in favor of Bruce and sent it along to Valerie and Kim with a reminder of the need to finalize before close of business Friday.

Friday morning came and went with no response from Valerie, so Will called and left a message to find out what was going on. Late afternoon and still no response, so Will stopped by Valerie’s office. Kim stopped him at the door and explained that Valerie would do the interviews after 5 pm. Later that evening Will logged in from home to look at email. To his surprise there was a message from Valerie to HR copying him and asking them to offer the job to the preacher man.

That evening Bruce Warner received a call from his agency informing he had not been selected for the “opportunity at Giant”. Bruce decided to go out and get a drink and ended up staying at the bar quite a bit longer than planned. On Saturday he got up late and called his girlfriend to explain he wouldn’t be starting a new job after all. He had felt good about the interview but his hopes had been dashed again. He spent the rest of the day telling the same story to a few other friends. He found it very difficult to retract his optimism from the previous day and wondered what everyone must think of him now. On Sunday night he traveled over the hill to Santa Cruz and stayed out late drinking again. It was embarrassing enough that he had nothing positive to say to anyone, but even worse that he had to borrow money to get drunk. He’d gone through three packs of cigarettes over the weekend and now there wouldn’t even be enough money left to buy more smokes.

Big Iron Communications – A continuing series of divestments, outsourcing, offshoring, downsizing, and strategic mergers eventually brought the company to such a state that it was acquired on the cheap to become the Support and Services arm of a large Contract Manufacturer based in Singapore.

The Six Contractors – These men took their incentive bonuses from Project Offshore and took their wives on extended vacations. After they returned, their wives urged them to stay out of the house during the day, so the men decided to form a small Engineering Consulting and Services firm.

Gordon – When he discovered the fate of the six contractors, Gordon offered his services to help get their new company up and running. With their combined resources, the men were able to purchase a small Victorian home near Santa Clara University and opened up their business which was called 7X Engineering Consulting Company. Gordon looked after day-to-day operations and lived on the premises. He had his own private bedroom upstairs.

Ray – After being impacted in the very next RIF after Will left Big Iron, Ray managed to come back to the company as a contractor. He was re-Riffed six months later after which he decided to get a realtor’s license. When Ray got his license, he found the valley in the midst of down real estate market with low demand and falling prices. Unable to make a living in this field, Ray took a job as a customer service representative with Dinky’s Document Services Company where he languished for the better part of a year. Ray finally made his way back to the high tech industry when he was hired as a contractor by Giant Networks.

Salvador - The hard working security guard continued to work shifts totaling as much as 18 hours per day, six days a week. Salvador subsequently saved his money and found a partner who was willing to launch a Landscaping and Gardening Service. The little company is now well established, serving the communities of Saratoga and Los Gatos. Salvador now lives right off of De Anza Blvd not far from the old Big Iron headquarters. His children go to school in the Cupertino School District and college funds have been established for them.

Arthur Rockson – After presiding through several years of decimation in the Big Iron Hardware Development group, Arthur decided to retire. He sold his home in Portola Valley and cashed in all other assets to purchase a yacht and fulfill a dream from his pre-graduate days to go sailing around the world. On a fine spring morning, Arthur sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and was never seen nor heard from in the valley again.

Marco Riccardi – After hanging around Big Iron a few months after Project Offshore Go Live, Marco gave his notice and joined Giant Networks. A couple of years later, Marco rose to prominence at Giant as the VP in charge of their Home Entertainment Division. The employees who worked for Marco were affectionately and otherwise referred to as the Broad Band of Idiots.

Rama – After immigrating to the US, Rama began a long climb encompassing the better part of ten years in which he went from being contract worker to Chief Technology Officer at Giant Networks.

Ravi – The young engineer came to the US but suffered a series of setbacks and became disillusioned while working for several of the big marquee technology companies of the valley. Ravi found his true calling when he partnered with some other Indian immigrants to form a start-up called Green Life Technology. He often calls Rama to tease him about glad handing that goes on at Giant Networks. Rama, a determined investor, is hoping for the day when Green Life Technology goes public so he can retire and return to India.

Will – After spending the better part of six months in a failed attempt to find a secure position in the tech sector, Will decided to give up the effort and instead signed on with a California state program to expedite teaching credentials for Technology professionals affected by the downturn. Will graduated in less than a year and a short while later settled in as a Math and History teacher at a small public school in Pacific Grove. Alas, during the next downturn in the economy, funding for California Education was cut to the bone and all non-tenured teachers including Will were released. Will then decided to make another career switch and applied for entry to Columbia University as a post-graduate in the School of Journalism. Will watched with interest as one major daily newspaper after another announced cut backs in staff and scope of news coverage. During this past summer, Will took a job as a contractor at Giant Networks. He is currently considering withdrawal of his application to Columbia U. in favor of applying for a full time position as a Program Manager at Giant Networks in Marco Riccardi’s organization.

Go Live for the new European and Far East production hub came without incident and was pronounced successful. Near the end of the day, Arthur contacted Will and asked him to stop by before leaving. “Hello Will” Arthur greeted him. “I just wanted to offer my thanks for the work you’ve done. Marco told me that you were the glue holding this process together.” Will fidgeted for a moment but finally accepted Arthur’s offer to shake hands. “Have you firmed up plans for what happens next?” he asked. Without letting Will answer, he continued: “Please send me over your resume and keep in touch. We’re having a little celebration with the rest of the team tonight. We’d love to have you there.” Will had not responded to an email invitation he received earlier for that event.

Will had been thinking about this moment for a long time. Now it was nearing the last hour of the last day and he preferred not to drown himself in memories nor did he want to pretend that he felt himself to be a part of the team at Big Iron any longer.

Sensing his reluctance, Arthur tried to persuade him. “Its just the core team celebration. Marco was hoping to speak to you before you leave anyway, but I told him to go over there to get a table for us.”

Putting aside the emotion welling inside, Will spoke clearly and evenly. “Yes, I’ll see if I can find Marco, but I’ve got some packing to do now if you’ll excuse me.” Will turned and walked out without waiting for an answer. As he walked out of the building, he dug inside his pocket and pulled out his phone. He dialed Marco’s cell and waited. “Hey, Will. Listen I was just getting ready to head over to BJ’s. Are you coming? Want ride over with me?” Will didn’t want to explain how he felt, but there was simple truth of the moment he could share. “Well, actually no. I’ve got a few other things I need to do right now.” Marco laughed. “That might be a career killing decision!” he said. “But I can’t blame you for wanting to tell those insensitive bastards to stick it.” “Well, Ok then” Will answered, “I’ll take your word that you won’t blame me. Goodbye Marco and thanks helping me get the extra time to deal with things here. I really appreciate that.” Marco was quiet now and couldn’t think of anything to say but finally “oh, alright Will just take it easy. Take some time to blow off steam if you need to. I’d do the same.” “Yeah, bye.” Will answered and that was all there was to it.

Will decided to take a walk and look for a place to eat dinner. He’d come back later to pack his stuff after he was sure that everyone had gone home.

7 pm on 6×6 Go Live Day at BJ’s Brewhouse in Cupertino

Arthur Rockson walked into the room looking for his party. He glanced around the large open room to no avail. Finally, he spotted Marco sitting by himself at small table near the bar. “Marco, what happened? Couldn’t get a spot? Where is everybody?” Marco’s lip turned downward in response, something approaching a sneer. “You bastard Rockson, you’re late” he said. “You said you were coming over at 6:30.” “Well, I was busy, but where are the others? Should have been a no brainer to get them out for a free drinks.” “I guess they decided to go for Friday Beer Bash instead.” Marco responded. Rockson pulled a bar stool out from the table and took a seat next to Marco. “Well Marco, you must be a happy bastard anyway or you will be soon enough” Rockson pulled an envelop from his coat pocket and handed it across the table. “Maybe this is the best way to communicate with you?” he grinned. Marco took the envelope and started to open it. “Well I wouldn’t know for certain, but I’d have to say you look like the happiest bastard in the bar right now Mr. VP” Rockson didn’t mind Marco’s posturing. He smiled broadly. “Just open the fucking envelope Marco and then you can buy me a drink.” Marco pulled a small folded letter from the envelope and inside of the letter was a check. He read from the letter “In appreciation for your outstanding effort….” and then tossed the letter on the table and held the check up while he reached in the shirt pocket for his glasses. “Holy freaking Sunday!” he said. “Yeah, I’ll buy you a drink. For 75 G’s I’ll buy enough drinks to help us forget where we parked our cars.”

Indeed, Marco ordered drinks and Rockson kept quiet until the drinks came. “Ok, Marco, I want to offer a toast. To you! For bringing this tagalong group of contractors, Riffers, short timers, cowboys, and Indians…ha! For keeping these people together long enough to get Project Offshore off our asses. Thanks Marco!” Arthur downed half a glass of beer. Marco’s eyes glistened. He was thinking about the money and the prospect of a bottomless draught glass tonight but he was also thinking of the men he’d been working with for the last three months. Finally, he raised his glass. “Rockson, its my turn. You bastard, you got it right for once. So lets do have a toast for all the phantom employees of Big Iron!”

8:oo pm @ The End Of The Day – Reliability & Safety Engineering Building (Loc 48)

Will called this girlfriend and asked her to join him for dinner at Fontana’s on Stevens Creek Blvd. “We’ll celebrate my new life that starts now,” he had told her. Afterward, the two of them came back to Will’s office to pack his things.

They came in the building at the front entrance and when they walked down the hall, they heard a noise in the breakroom. Someone was buying something from the vending machine. Then a man came out in to the hall, walking toward them. Will was startled but recovered enough to stammer out “Hi Gordon”. The older man nodded at him and walked on down the hall toward the lab. When he was out of sight, Will turned back to his girlfriend and whispered, “That guy was supposed to have been walked out of here in the RIF, but he is refusing to leave. I think he lives here now.” The two them exchanged a look but went on about their business without comment.

The project teetered on the brink with a small staff of engineers and a determined Project Manager in Cupertino trying to carry the weight. The entire system test specs needed to be redrawn and a complete new set of failure analysis examples worked up and sent to India.

The VP Rockson was up for the challenge and put his reputation on the line. He convinced the executives that they needed additional resource support to keep their original schedule. “This is no time for blame, we have no more than a week to get this back on track and we need to bring in some experienced people.” Requisitions were drawn and sent for approval requesting twelve contractors. They received approval for only six of them. Rockson gathered the recruiters together and told them he wanted to see resumes with Old School experience from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, IBM Almaden Research and IBM Storage Division on Cottle Road, Intel, Lockheed, and Varian Associates. “I want the the kind of person you can just hand a badge and they will start working!”

Rockson had told Marco they could have six men for duration of the project which meant for the next six weeks. Thereafter, the project was renamed as the 6×6 project to honor the six contractors who were brought on to insure success within six weeks. Rockson saw to it personally that the men were identified and brought in to work before the end of the week.

Will was amazed by the intense focus yet friendly demeanor of the Six. They apparently did not feel pressure and were not disturbed by the prospect of carrying around a badge with a bright orange stripe. The orange badge signified they were part of the lower class citizens of Big Iron along with janitors, security, food and other service personnel. A contractor receives no job benefits beyond base pay and is not permitted to be in the office after 6 pm or before 6 am without special permission. Subsequently, Will had spoken with a couple of these men who had explained their presence here in terms of a “failed retirement attempt”. The men were apparently happy to be back in front of test instruments and monitors for ten or twelve hours a day. Besides the economy was currently in the tank and their retirement savings had taken a big hit.

A rumor had begun circulating from Ray and gawkers in Loc 48 that Gordon had returned to work and could be seen in the lab from time to time both at night and even in broad daylight. Many of them assumed that Gordon was one of the six contractors and didn’t question these sightings which seemed more legitimate when Ray said he had personally observed Gordon having a conversation with one of the new guys.

Before long, the 6×6 Project was back on track and Marco was actually whistling when he walked the hallways. If Gordon were on the team as a stealth member, that would be one rock Marco was not willing to turn over. What made the schedule click was good enough for him. It was different for Will though and he found himself more and more drawn by curiosity to the lab at loc 48 in hopes of catching a glimpse of the man he knew was not authorized to be on the premises.

By now, Will was more or less certain that it was Gordon who had cleared out the large backlog of material that needed to be analyzed back at the beginning of this project and it was also highly likely that it was he who recalibrated those test fixtures, thereby causing them to be out of synch with the East Labs. This latter circumstance proved to have particular significance as they now knew. If the East Labs had gone operational with those specs, the whole of the new production hub supporting Europe and the Far East would have been compromised. Will wondered what obscure fidelity had prompted Gordon to stick to his craft and continue to work long hours with no pay while at risk of being arrested as a trespasser.

1:30 am Monday Morning (6X6 Go Live minus one week), Reliability & Safety Engineering Building (Loc 48)

Will crossed the parking lot and entered the building from the west side by the loading dock. From there, he took the stairs up to his office and grabbed his lab book. Next he came all the way across the building through the reception area and then down the long hallway toward the lab. The lab was dark but he thought he heard voices and then the unmistakable sound of a dial tone. He crept up close to a window and looked inside the lab. There were three men seated at a table near the phone console. Two of them he recognized as 6×6 contractors and the third, could it be? Yes, Gordon! Then Will heard a familiar voice. “Ravi here” Gordon leaned back in chair and spoke. “We’ve got the midnight crew assembled again. Can we go over some red flags?” They were going through the hard failures! Will was trying to decide if he should stay or leave when suddenly a light appeared down the hall and then a security guard was pointing a flashlight directly at him. “Stay there please. Can you show me your badge?” Salvador had a very grim and nervous expression on this face. Will was startled but quickly composed himself and brought out his badge. Salvador came to him and shined the light on the badge. Then he pulled out his mobile phone and called the command center. “Check on employee 100,001 please?” The name matched and Salvador thanked the operator and hung up. “So, tell me what you are doing here? This is a private meeting and you could be in a lot of trouble.” Will sensed that the security guard was more nervous about this situation that he was, so he decided to probe. “You could be in trouble too”. “What are you talking about?” “Well, that man, for instance. I know he is not an employee. What is he doing here?” Will wasn’t really interested in pushing this but he wasn’t going to stand for being pushed around either. “He has a guest pass”. Will smiled. “Relax, I know Gordon. I just want to understand what has happened to him and what he is doing now. I won’t make any trouble for you or for him either.”

Salvador felt more at ease with this. “I’m from Guatemala, with my wife and daughter, we’ve been in this country for almost two years now. Very difficult to make a living and I’ve been with three, no four different security companies. When I came to this Big Iron about six months ago, it was the first assignment to give me stable hours in one location. With a family to take care of, there are not many easy decisions”. The security guard motioned toward the reception area and the two men walked away from the lab to continue the conversation.

“So, ok Salvador, please tell me something about Gordon. What do you know?” “He’s a good man. He used to eat his dinner here, always invited me to have a beer. He keeps a six in the refrigerator in the lab.” Salvador went on to describe the circumstances when Gordon’s mother had passed. “I noticed that things had changed for him. Now sometimes I might find him asleep on the cot in that lab and he was here very late at night. You know we’ve been told to discourage employees from staying in the building at night, but I didn’t have the heart to bother him. He’s not hurting anyone, right?” Salvador became very quiet. Will urged him. “Please go on.” Salvador’s face became contorted and Will realized this situation was causing a great strain on the older man. “Salvador, I told you I won’t cause trouble. I promise I won’t tell anyone what we are talking about today.” Salvador began to speak again but in a noticeably lower voice. “On the day when all the employees were let go, Security were given a list of people and told not to allow them back in the buildings. I was so surprised to see Gordon’s name on the list. No one works harder than him. And he was my friend, so I did what friends would do for each other. You see I didn’t have the heart to say anything when I noticed he had come back to the lab at night. It was on the first weekend after the RIF and I called out to him from the hallway. He came outside and just stared at me without saying anything. I asked him what he was going to do and that’s when he reached in his pocket and brought out his wallet. He handed me a wad of bills and asked me to count them. It was $700. He told me he was giving me that money for my family and that he would be happy to keep giving me that money every month in exchange for helping to keep him safe. He told me that he had received more than a year of salary when they cut him off. Don’t worry, he told me. I don’t have any worries about money myself. I knew that we could both get in trouble but I took the money and since then I’ve done all I can for him.”

Will had heard enough. Whatever else there was to know about Gordon would probably not be something that Salvador Rameriz would be able to explain. He shook the man’s hand and walked away. “We should all have friends like that,” he thought. On his way out, he passed room 1101 and was immediately reminded of Ray and the other gawkers and how they had acted on that day when his world had been shattered.

About midnight local time, Big Iron East Labs, Bangalore, India

“Not a good morning Ravi?” A portly man of about 30 years with a mustache and wavy black hair had just entered the lab area. The man he was addressing was very tall and thin, and somewhat younger than he. Ravi was seated on a tall stool near a test bench. “We are getting thirty percent failure rate” he answered. “So what!” said the other man. “Rama, do the math. This is seventy percent NTF versus expectation of twenty-five, that’s what!” Rama smiled broadly and shook is head. “It’s only the second week, give it some time. Ten weeks to synchronize with Cupertino and these are all billable hours!”

These two men were representative of different sides of the continuum. Rama dreamed of coming to America and making a fortune before returning to India to live a life of leisure. Ravi dreamed of coming to America to experience the development of technology at the cutting edge. Big Iron was a choice assignment and proof of concept that engineers in India could perform at the highest levels in the world. The first challenge given to them was to duplicate the failure rate result of material that had been analyzed by the engineers in Cupertino. The first milestone would be achieved when the result was exactly the same between the two labs.

“Never mind this now, its time to for lunch and we can go for a walk” Rama announced. A reluctant Ravi trudged out of the lab, still struggling to get used to time difference and the ubsurd situation of working Cupertino time zone hours in Bangalore.

About an hour later, same day at 1 pm: Reliability Lab in Cupertino

There were only a few of them left, these hotshots representing the Hardware Development at Big Iron. Marco Riccardi was the Project Manager who led the charge to accomplish the Go Live for Offshore within twelve weeks. Will was one of them, at least for the duration of this project, and he worked an average twelve hour a day to move material from the other labs to Reliability for final analysis and documentation of test process and test stand spec. The Reliability area had become the bottleneck in the process and lately Macro himself had rolled up his shirtsleeves to help drive down the backlog. In the project meeting that morning, Marco had been furious when looking at the first set of performance metrics. They were behind schedule by at least a week! The night before, Will had delivered a fresh batch of matrial to the lab and made arrangements to meet with Ray and a few engineers from the other groups to participate in a “group think” on how to reduce the backlog.

Will was the first to arrive in the lab. He had a plan on how to distribute the material but immediately discovered something very strange. All the material now lay neatly stacked in the board trays and on carts. Each item was tagged with FA results and a green (pass), yellow (fail intermittent), or red (fail hard) sticker. “Who could have done this? Why didn’t someone speak up in the meeting?” Will thought. “But my god, how could they have done this much this fast?” he wondered aloud. Ray and the others arrived a few minutes later and no one among them could explain their unexpected good fortune They checked the system logs and found several different user ID’s associated to analysis work. Many of these ID’s belonged to “former” employees. “They brought the old guys and worked ‘em through the night” said Ray laughing. It was a good joke but afterward he leveled a serious accusation that the materials had been inappropriately stored. Did Will check inside the containers before bringing them to the lab? Perhaps the work had already been done. “This would explain why they think we’re behind schedule” Ray told them whereupon the others nodded in agreement and the meeting broke up. Will knew there had to be a better explanation, but he was a short timer now and his ideas were no longer taken as credible anyway. “Whatever helps get me through this, brings me one step closer to something better,” he told himself.

Twenty-four hours later; around 1 pm Big Iron East Labs, Bangalore

“Ravi here” said the man seated at the head of the table in the conference room. “Rama is with me.” The men settled in for the conference with Cupertino. “Hello guys, this Marco. We need to come to terms with what is going on here. Your failure rate is off target by fifty percent. Can you tell me why?” “Sure Macro, this is Rama. We need time to go through the units a second time. Maybe there was some step missing in the FA process.” Back in the conference room in Cupertino, Marco rolled his eyes and pushed the mute button on the console. “These guys are idiots” he said aloud though no one was in the room to hear him. He punched the mute button a second time. “We had a walk through and you guys signed off,” he shouted. “Marco, this is Ravi. I have a theory but need some time to prove. We need to compare test scripts between what you provided us and what is present in your lab right now.” Marco punched the mute button and rolled his eyes again. “Jeeze, they are trying to screw me. Anything to get the some more billable hours. Fucking idiots!” He punched the mute again. “Ok, how long will this take? I’ll give you until end of day on Friday. Ok?” Ravi knew that he’d have to work on Cupertino plus Bangalore time to accomplish this feat but he had no other recourse. He knew that the process established in his lab was exacting and that there had to have been something new introduced in one of the environments to explain this issue. “Ok Marco, this is what we’ll do. To have it done by Friday of next week.” Ravi punched the mute button on his console and looked to Rama to see his expression which at that moment was serious enough to be comical. No one had dared push back on Marco until this point.

Marco began speaking with his voice raised at least two notches. “Rama, you are responsible for operations performance and this is your schedule. Do you guarantee me that this crap will be straightened out by the end of next week?” Words were caught in Rama’s throat and he sputtered in his first attempt to answer. “Well, we can go back to our management team….” He stopped to clear his throat, not really sure what to say. Then he slumped back in his seat, clearly worried about where the discussion was headed. Suddenly the tall, thin man beside him rose from his seat to speak. His eyes were blazing and his chin thrust forward. He was eager to take up the challenge. “Ravi here. Sorry, but I need to speak for this schedule now. This is my work and I’ve already given the guarantee. I said you’ll have it done. End of the day, next Friday, if not sooner.” Marco and Rama, from the space of nearly nine thousand miles apart, each shared the same expression of admiration for the chutzpah of their colleague. “That’s the right stuff Ravi. I’m going to trust you to deliver on it too. I’ll send out the updated schedule this afternoon showing this new validation piece and a checkpoint to confirm that we are back on schedule. Goodbye guys.” Marco had an intuition that this was the best course of action anyway. “I can’t count on those clowns in Reliability. They are a band of idiots for sure. I’ll take the new guys.” Before leaving for the day, Marco had gotten in touch with Will and the two of them managed to download a test configuration from one the lab units. Marco was quite pleased when he punched the Send button to forward the message. “Hey Ravi, here’s a sample from the Processor bed of current configuration. You can get started. Good luck buddy. Your Pal, Marco”

1am Saturday Morning, Reliability & Safety Engineering Building (Loc 48)

A security guard was holding a flashlight and pointing it down the long hallway toward the lab. “Security! Is anyone there?” There was no answer and he reached quickly for his mobile phone to call the command center. “Is someone watching the monitor on Loc 48? The back entrance near the labs! Send back-up immediately, I think we have an intruder”.

This sequence of events had begun when the regular security guard for Loc 48, a man named Salvador Rameriz, had reported that he would be late for work that night due to a family issue. His replacement, a new guy, had made the rounds of the building as required on the security chart. There were bathrooms near the elevator on the ground floor and he thought he’d heard water running on the men’s side. When he came in to investigate, he’d found water dripping from the shower head in the stall in the back of the room. The guard started checking the other rooms including the test chamber and the lab. While in the lab, he thought he’d heard footsteps in the hallway. It was strange because the whole area was dark excepting the red and green flashing LED’s on the computer systems.

While the lone security guard waited impatiently in the hall, a couple of SUV’s from Big Iron Security were dispatched to Loc 48. The command center was only a couple of blocks away and the SUV’s arrived quickly. The floodlights from the SUV’s were focused on the back entrance and surrounding parking area.

The one they were looking for certainly did not consider himself an intruder. As a matter of fact, he’d actually been living in this building for several months. Before that, he would go to a small cottage where his elderly mother lived and he would stay there at night to assist with her care. It had cost a fortune to pay for a live-in nurse and financial resources were dwindling at an alarming rate. Gordon’s mother insisted on staying in her home but inevitably the day came when this was no longer possible. An ambulance had come to take her to the hospital and a week or so later she was released to the care of a nursing home. The next day she died peacefully in her sleep as though the whole matter had been planned this way. Gordon hired a realtor and a lawyer who promptly settled the remaining affairs of his mother’s estate. Every penny of the estate was subsumed in payment of care and medical costs or other outstanding debts. Gordon was left homeless.

Gordon knew every inch of the labs and the test chamber room as well as the offices inside the main building. When an unfamiliar guard had come in the building, he had thought of running out the back entrance, but realized there wouldn’t be enough time to get through the parking lot before additional security forces arrived. Instead he made a noise in the hallway to create a diversion and then quietly crept up the stairway that led to roof. From this relatively safe spot, he watched and waited until the security crew completed their investigation and concluded that perhaps an employee had simply finished up with work, taken a shower, and left the building.

About 2:00 pm same day Big Iron East Labs, Bangalore, India

Ravi was delighted when he arrived at work and found the message from Marco. After a couple of hours of intense scrutiny, he managed to find examples where test calibrations on this machine in Cupertino were different from the ones originally provided. He picked up a phone. “Rama, you need to come in this afternoon. I have the evidence we’ve been looking for. The US is working with a different spec.”

Rama came down to the offices immediately and the two men took a break to go for walk and get something to eat. Along the way, they discussed implications. “Ravi, you are saying we need to compare all the test stations?” He knew the answer but it would be entirely more exciting to hear it from his colleague. “Yes, the spec issue I found could be present elsewhere and that would explain performance variation between here and US. More over, if I’m right, we’ll need to start over with a new test set.” “Oh my God Ravi, the logistics will cost a fortune and we’re sure to lose a week or two on the schedule.” Ravi now spoke with increased confidence. “A problem like this one could have destroyed the Offshore Project and hurt our credibility. The good thing is that we discovered their error and pointed it out for them. At the end of the day, we have proved they have hired some good engineers. Come on, let’s go back to the lab.”

Will only really heard two words from Jake which were “job” and “eliminated”. Jake was still speaking and but it was painfully obvious to everyone that Will was not being attentive. “Do you have a question, Will?” asked the young HR rep. Jake’s monologue had come to a stall and clearly they needed to try some other tactic. “What?” Will almost whispered, “Did we do wrong?” Will was embarrassed to find that his voice had cracked and his eyes were near tear stage. The older woman shifted her posture and stared at Jake. Here was an opportunity to prove that all the training sessions they had been through were not wasted! Jake shook his head resolutely and cleared his throat. “This isn’t about you at all” he said. “As I was saying, the circumstances have changed and we’ve decided to go in another direction. But we’ll need your help.” The two HR reps nodded approvingly and smiled. Stanley leaned forward, consciously trying to portray the kindly observer, ready at the moment to step in and offer assistance. Will glanced around the room at their hopeful faces but remained dumbfounded. “They need my help?” The HR manager handed a folder to Jake which he opened and then pulled some forms out. “Will, this is a contract. It contains a Project Letter and some other legal documents we want you to consider. We are offering you a three month contract to stay on at Big Iron and help us manage the transition of the Engineering Failure Analysis effort.. The work will occur in two phases, the first being Documentary and the next called Offshore Readiness Training.” Jake put the form back inside the folder and pushed it towards Will. “Now here’s the thing, Will. Arthur Rockson will be appointing someone to manage this project. My group is gong back to focus on Reliability forecasting and measurement. So before I turn this over to Diane…” At this point Jake sat back in his seat and took a deep breath. “I’m going to let Diane explain your post exit benefits, but before I leave, do you have any questions?”

Will had never heard of anything remotely like this but was instantly pleased to consider that no matter what was going on, he wouldn’t be reporting to Jake any longer. “How many people are involved in this? Are other people from our group affected?” Will waited patiently as Jake considered what to tell him. Finally, Jake got up from this seat and glanced quickly at the HR people and then back to Will. “There were some other people who work for me that were affected by this and they walked out of here today. You are one of a few people we’ve given this opportunity to stay on. Someone has spoken up on your behalf and asked that you be included in the project.” Will nodded towards Jake, anxious to get it over with now. “Anything else Will?” Jake’s eyes twitched and looked at the door as though someone might be calling him from outside. “Ok then, I need to get going. If you think of anything else you might want to ask me today, give me a call. Diane will take over and after this is done, I’d suggest you go home early today.” Jake’s eyes were twinkling with triumph now that is role in the RIF was completed. “Well, OK then” was all Will could muster in response and just like that Jake walked out of his life for good.

“Will, I want to bring your attention to a very important document in this packet.” Diane opened the folder and pulled out a contract. “Provided you agree to the terms of this contract and complete your project in a satisfactory manner within three months of today’s date, Big Iron will be providing you with a severance allowance equal to one month’s pay. There is a stipulation that you agree not to take part in any legal proceedings or claims of liability against Big Iron Communications. You have twenty-four hours to sign this document here, here, and here” Diane motioned to several pages that had been highlighted with signature lines for his benefit. If you decide not to sign, you will be dismissed from the company tomorrow and would need to turn in your badge and company issued equipment. Please consult your attorney to understand your rights.” At that moment, as though synchronized, Diane and her manager took out business cards and handed them across to Will. “Call us if you have any questions. Please get in touch with Diane tomorrow to advise on your decision. Now I’d like to introduce Mr. Clark of Webberly & Associates.” Stanley Clark stood up and proffered a firm handshake. He took the next ten minutes or so to explain why his company was the best in the business at helping people “land on their feet” after having experienced a “displacement” such as this one. He urged Will to get in touch when his project was near completion to initiate a relationship with Webberly and move on to the next step in his life.

Will was busy thinking about pairing the expression “land on your feet” with its natural (though unsaid) precursor “thrown out the door”. It was amazing to think how much time, effort, and most ironically money must have been spent to plan this event. The amount of information they were throwing at him was overwhelming and the whole experience seemed to teeter between shocking and mundane. By the time it was over, Will was completely tired but made sure to tell them not to worry, he would bring back the forms signed tomorrow as requested. Everyone except Will had become awful chirpy at the end. Will finally managed to shut them up by telling them he was “glad he’d made someone happy today”.

Arthur Rockson had been chosen by execute management and HR to perform a special function for the RIF. He must be the one to inform Gordon that his job had been eliminated and must leave by “close of business today”. Arthur had strenuously objected to this decision until presented with the nasty alternative to lose two or perhaps three more of those young hotshot Engineers he had picked out during recruiting excursions to college campuses. Arthur was convinced that Big Iron could be saved only if people made gutsy decisions and he decided it was time to lead by example, so he agreed that he would take care of the Gordon matter. .

Rumor had it that Arthur had initially been reluctant to accept a promotion to VP, instead preferring the more “hands on” role of Director of the Hardware Development group. Along with the RIF, there had been a major shake-up among the executives and Arthur feared what might happen if a newcomer attempted to take the reigns over “his” engineers. There were many changes coming and Arthur was convinced that his old buddy Gordon would not be the kind of “team man” to help execute at the pace they were looking for. Besides, Gordon’s continuing influence on some of the young engineers could potentially have negative implications for morale. Arthur needed “tasks, owners, and dates” with a day by day execution plan. He had chosen Marco Riccardi as his “execution arm” and Marco had been adamant that a critical and immediate factor for success would be how soon they could find a way to “take Gordon out of the picture”.

Arthur had tried to contact Gordon all through the long morning without success. He’d hoped to arrange a meeting offsite but the plan was not working out and HR was now pushing hard to get everything done. With great reluctance, Arthur finally agreed to assemble the “notification team” from HR and Webberly to make a contingency plan for a big showdown with Gordon.

9 am Wednesday Morning, Reliability & Safety Engineering Building (Loc 48)

Will had come in to work but found himself unable to sit at his desk for any length of time. He decided to walk around the building and find out what had happened to everyone in the past 24 hours. He passed by a couple of people in the hall but they appeared to be trying to ignore him. A call to Ray about “having lunch” went unreturned. There was an email from Arthur Rockson requesting that get in touch with Marco, who would guide him on his new “project”. Will was unable to find Marco and decided to go home early.

9 am Thursday Morning, Reliability & Safety Engineering Building (Loc 48)

Will came in to work again. Marco came by and sat with him in his office to go over expectations for the coming “Offshore” project. When they were finished, Marco told him to go home early and take the rest of the week off. .

4 pm Friday Morning, Reliability & Safety Engineering Building (Loc 48)

A rumor went around the building that Gordon had been asked to leave. Ray added this one last name to his list and forwarded on to the Gawker Group via email.

9 am Monday Morning, Reliability & Safety Engineering Building (Loc 48)

Will was back at work again. There was a meeting with Marco on the calendar for early afternoon but nothing on schedule in the morning. He stayed at this desk and tried to sort out his feelings. Will’s former friends and associates at Big Iron studiously avoided him and if an encounter were forced, the RIF and his “project” would be the last thing they would be willing to talk about. Ray and his fellow gawkers believed that Will would be “better off gone” and talked about this openly among themselves. Will’s presence there was a continuing reminder of the RIF day since there was an end date on this “project”, he was no longer considered as one of them. He was like a zombie who haunted the hallways, busy with his appointed rounds. Marco had told him to “keep doing what you did before, only now you need to document the hell out of it”.

What exactly is a RIF? Will thought about his embarrassment the first time he’d encountered the acronym and had to ask what it meant. Someone has said there was a RIF at Gateway prior to the merger. So Will learned that RIF equals Reduction In Force and the acronym was enjoined in his brain along with the other killing spell terms like pink slips, axes falling, layoffs, mass firings, headcount reduction, etc. Will was speaking to one of his friends outside the industry and found himself trying to explain it thus: “It’s another one of those random and senseless acts of cruelty, good enough to be used for a lead in on TV nightly news.”

Will came to work on Monday filled with dread but instead found a delightfully uneventful day with lots of “business as usual” activity. Sure, there were bits of gossip, but Will found that there was work to do and it was comforting to think that this work wouldn’t likely just disappear even if someone had decided to remove a few workers. He met Ray for lunch in the cafeteria and then quickly excused himself when his friend started up the speculation about their relative job security again. Ray had become almost perverse about this subject and Will decided that it was probably his way of coping with the pressure. Some people believe that if they can invent imaginary terrors, this may somehow keep the real terrors at bay. Still “stay away from Ray” became Will’s motif for the moment.

So Will put his head down and trudged through like a good soldier, trying not speculate or look for hidden meaning in anything that happened. Jake was not in his office for most of the day and someone said they saw him walking over to the HR building. People were gathered around in small groups, whispering to one another in hallways. Someone said that many development meetings had been cancelled and there was a rumor that certain projects would be discontinued. Someone’s request for vacation had been turned down with a vague note back from the manager “let’s discuss in staff later this week”. Later that afternoon, Will noticed that he hadn’t received the report of system integration failures from Manufacturing that normally came on Monday. This was suspicious because the manufacturing guys usually wanted to push out this kind of information to get visibility to potential design flaws. The report provided the basis for bargaining with the Engineering Failure Analysis group on priorities for the week. “Were these guys affected by the RIF? Had something happened already?” Will was disturbed by this line of thought. He was becoming more like Ray than he cared to admit. He looked again at his email Inbox expectedly and as if to mock his thoughts, there was indeed a new message from Manufacturing. But closer inspection revealed it was only a system generated message informing that Will’s name had been removed from the meeting invite list.

“I better just squelch right now” Will said aloud and picked up the phone. “Hi Brad, how’s it going over there?” There was a long pause but finally, “Oh hi Will. What’s up?” The last “up” was voiced in more of a down tone. “I was wondering, ah, why I didn’t get your report. Now I have this meeting cancellation. So what’s going on? ” Will asked him, waiting like a prosecutor who’d just delivered the pivotal question to a key witness. “Jake called me right after lunch today and told me you’re off the project” retorted Brad defensively. “Ok, that’s fine Brad. Sorry to bother you.” Another long pause. “So Will, are you saying you don’t know anything about this?” “No, ah…nope, but Jake doesn’t usually get my input on anything either. So you guys are still meeting tomorrow?” “Yes. Did you need anything from me? I need to jump on another call now.” Brad was obviously fumbling for a way out and Will felt embarrassed for him. “Ok, Brad I’ll talk to you later.” He gulped in some air and exhaled, then he placed the phone down slowly as though it were some kind of hot weapon. “Sure, Jake is kind of a blunt guy but doubtful he’d be stupid enough to tip off a RIF in his own department”, Will was thinking but he was visibly shaken by the implication.

Without his normal integration test review, Will decided to leave the office early. On the way out, he passed by Marco’s office and saw the light on and the door slightly ajar. He stopped and rapped on the door. “Yeah, come in” Marco said but when Will came inside the room Marco had an impatient look on this face. “Give it up man. I’m doing some stuff for your boss that has to be done tonight.” Will sat down in the chair across from Marco and quickly relayed the information he’d just discovered from Brad. Marco was rather impressed. “Damn, I’m putting Jake’s name in the Band Of Idiots now. You just don’t do something like that.” “So Marco, you think this means something is happening to me?” Marco looked away form him and back down to his computer screen and shook his head very slowly. He was clearly drawing conclusions between Jake’s latest work request and this new information from Will. “I’d say you are definetly hosed! And the bastard is already trying to give your work to me. What a guy!”

Will really wasn’t sure how to react. Marco had worked in New York City for a few years and sharpened his conflict skills in a world where adversaries wouldn’t hesitate to go straight for the jugular. He also was adept at summarizing any situation with a metaphor. More often than not Marco’s metaphors had something to do with inappropriate gunplay, consumption of alcohol, or somewhat vague or mysterious sexual references. “He shot himself in the foot; You just shot the messenger; That’s kind of like trying to find a bar in Salt Lake City; That’s like ordering pizza without beer; This place would be a Data Center Manger’s wet dream; He doesn’t have a clue what to do, kind of like a choir boy on a business trip to Amsterdam.” Repeated exposure to Marco made it obvious that some of his favorite activities including drinking, target practice, and going on business trips to Europe. Marco’s quick intelligence and outrageous sense of humor were admirable, especially to a guy like Will who’d rather take “bitter medicine without the candy coating”. Will decided that Marco’s “New York Minute” personality was not all there was to the guy. If Will pushed his ideas hard enough and showed confidence, he could sometimes found an ally.

Marco now sat there quietly appraising Will’s demeanor with the usual critical eye. Will measured his words carefully. “Do you think there would be anything worth doing right now?” “Yeah, go out and get drunk!” Marco answered loudly. “Or just give Jake a call and ask him to explain. Ha! Ha! But seriously, these Reliability guys are bastards and Jake is the chief bastard. Well, anyway, you got a resume ready? Send me your resume and I’ll take a look at it for you. You need to be ready.” Will turned and walked away while Marco sat there with a bemused expression that seemed to say “poor bastard” better than any words could.

Will felt like running down the hall screaming but eventually calmed down started trying to rationalize. After all, what did he actually know? He was feeling embarrassed about having spoken to Marco. He knew it would make him look weak and worse than that, he realized he had probably just helped feed the rumor mill. “Jake is probably not that stupid anyway to tip off a RIF like this” he thought again and then just as suddenly decided that “going by anything he’d actually witnessed, this guy Jake was completely, utterly stupid in one way or another.” As he drove home he began to feel more relaxed. It was weird how this act of calling someone stupid actually made him feel better about his situation. He guessed that maybe it was some subtle new way of coping with a world beyond his control. At some point Will told himself that he should pretend that nothing significant had yet happened, nothing had been substantiated, and there was really nothing to go with…nothing at all. His last conscious thought on the subject was concerning how completely inconvenient it would be to get caught in the layoff net.

10 am Tuesday Morning, Reliability & Safety Engineering Building (Loc 48)

Some guys were gathered in Ray’s office and they were all staring out the window at the parking lot. From where they stood, they could see a young woman in a business suit. She’d been waiting at the entrance for the last ten minutes or so. She looked nervous but she was joined by an older woman also in a business suit. Both women wore Big Iron badges. The gawkers in Ray’s office agreed they must be HR types. The older woman stood by for a bit, impatiently barking out orders while the other smiled back and took notes. Presently a small SUV came in to the lot and parked near the women. A man got out the car and came up and shook the hand of the younger one who he seemed to be meeting for the first time. She smiled at him of course and the man’s serious expression gave way to a weak smile in return. “Yes, I’m Jake” he told her.

Jake Rath was a short man with sandy blonde hair and upper body that indicated some serious iron pumping. The gawkers were very excited when the three figures finally walked into the lobby. Ray immediately left his office and the others fell in behind him, acting as though a meeting had just broken up.

Another man entered the lobby and waved at Jake and the two women and then stopped at the desk to get a guest pass. The older of the two women stepped up to the reception area. “Mr. Clark will be with me” she said. The man obtained his guest sticker and put it on his chest. It read, Stanley Clark, Webberly & Associates. Stanley handed business cards to Jake and the two women. The card identified Stanley’s job title as Career Counselor.

After completing introductions, the RIF crew walked down the hall and stepped into an unoccupied office. The gawkers began to get excited. “This is it Ray. It’s happening right here, right now!” Ray quickly took charge, assembling each gawker at a strategic location in a hallway or near the stairs. Ray retreated back to his office and pulled out a notebook. Then he quietly conferenced in each of the station guards. They were all set!

About five minutes later, one of the Junior Reliability Engineers was summoned to the office by Jake. The gawkers told Ray his name as he walked by and Ray scribbled it down. Some other employees, women from Purchasing and Document Control, happened on the scene by accident and were quietly whisked away to Ray’s office. “I have the List” Ray told them and the women were excited to know they were sitting in on a history in making moment.

After the first victim left Jake’s office, there was a short interval and then another man trudged down the stairway and came in to see Jake. “Mike Stanton, Safety” called out one of the gawkers. “He’s been here for ten years” said one of the women in Ray’s office. “I think he’s got a family, two children” she added. “Now he’s on the List” answered Ray, who was smiling sardonically.

A rising tide of pessimism was sweeping through the building as other groups had also begun the RIF notification process and word was leaking out that something was happening. After clearing out his Inbox, Will went over to the break room and fixed himself a cup of tea. He came back to his desk and took a sip of tea. A moment of blissful silence and then his phone began ringing. Will answered on the first ring, perhaps expecting to find some distraction to help get him through this long morning. “Will, this is Jake. Can you come down to room 1101 by the lobby? Don’t delay please. Thank you.”

“So this was it?” Jake was keeping in character both with his posturing and his absolute vagueness of purpose. Will said he’d come but instead got up and paced around his office. He looked out the window at the tall pine trees that grew along side the building. For a moment he remembered how he had once considered leaving the valley and had gone down south to visit Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. The next day he returned home and went for a drive on the 280 freeway and as he looked out the window, he suddenly realized that he had never seen anything so beautiful as these golden brown hills with the oak trees and little horse ranches near Woodside and Portola Valley. Right at that moment, he made the decision he would stay in the valley and put all his hopes in the applications he’d sent to Stanford and San Jose State. Now Will was looking out his office window toward the sky and once again let himself feel the pleasant sensation of being in a good place. He sat back down at this desk and then found a notebook and opened it up. He had a pen in his hand and a very determined expression as though he might have made a life changing decision that he was about to document. Instead he only scribbled meaningless lines and circles on the page. Finally the impact of the moment began to hit inside him both physically and mentally. Will sat at his desk frozen. To make Jake wait a few extra minutes was the only rebellion he could contemplate and a growing sense of injustice made rebellion absolutely necessary for him at this moment.

Will’s computer had been inactive for some time and now the screen saver program began introducing photographs one at time and each would slowly dissolve before revealing the next. There were musicians, sports figures, sandy beaches and rocky seashores, mountains and streams, movie stills, or just about anything Will had found interesting and thrown in his picture folder. Would this even be considered “his” computer within the next hour? Should he start deleting personal files and images? The tension seemed to make the skin around Will’s temples become tighter. He thought about what it would be like to get his RIF papers. A big stack? He realized he hadn’t even looked outside the company for new opportunities since he’d come to work at Big Iron. Who could he trust that would give him a good reference? Will’s pulse quickened and this throat felt constricted. How much had he charged on this credit card last month? The statement lay inside an envelope at home unopened. Could his savings last more than three months? Could he keep his apartment at least that long? He’d recently moved across town to a lavish new complex in order to be near work. Will hated traffic with a passion. Would he be forced to commute somewhere else? Will hesitated for a moment and then stood up. Looking back at this desk, he reached out and picked up the cup of tea and took another sip. Would he be packing his stuff within the next hour? Would he bother to say goodbye to anyone? There were many questions but no answers as he found himself unable to concentrate on any single thing.

Suddenly the phone rang again and it startled. Will gathered his reserve forces and managed to lower himself back into the seat at his desk. The phone was still ringing. He decided to let it ring through to voice mail and when it finally stopped ringing, he gently took another sip of his tea. He reached down and touched his keyboard and the monitor came to life. There was a new message in his Inbox from HR with the title “Important notice concerning your benefits” and Will smiled at the irony. The message indicator on this phone began flashing red and he smiled again to think what Jake must have said that would have bettered his original “don’t delay please”. Will felt calmer now that he’d asserted a bit of independence from whatever process they had in store for him. Now he was finally ready to go. As he started out the door, Will was thinking about something his father had told him “after you’ve done your best, there is nothing you change or need to change”. He paused in the hallway for a moment and with final resolve said aloud “It is what it is.”

Will’s pace quickened as he moved down the hallway. As usual he avoided the elevator and went down the stairs. As he passed the hallway near Ray’s office, he could not resist the impulse to look inside. He could see maybe five people huddled together and they were all staring at him. “As if they know what is happening” he thought. Will turned away and kept walking but swore he’d heard someone giggling. He picked up the pace and turned down the hallway that led toward the lobby. As he approached room 1101, he noticed a guy peeking around the corner and holding up a cell phone.

“Oh Will, thanks, just have a seat over here.” Jake’s eyes were stone cold fixed on Will. Will could tell that he was annoyed. Jake introduced the others to Will, who glanced around the room surprised because he had not noticed them at first. “As you know, the company has released earnings this week. We’ve tried to contain costs by working more efficiently but the company is still losing money, so we’ve decided to make some changes. This impacts your job which has been eliminated as we work with other organizations to support the failure analysis effort using alternative resources.”

At the very moment, the phone began ringing in the Reliability lab. A brief period of silence and then it rang again. Gordon had a system cabinet open in the back and was busy trying to pull out a power supply enclosure from the cabinet. The enclosure had been designed to be pulled along rails like a desk drawer but this one kept jamming. He removed the unit after a second attempt and then tilted it back on its side. “Ah, here’s the problem” Gordon said aloud and then thinking to himself: “The rail is bent. Only a blunt impact could have caused this and that’s not plausible for normal usage.” He placed a little sticker on the unit and wrote “handling damage”. The phone started to ring again but he still didn’t bother with it.

Will loved true things and was always accepting of truth and its consequences and firmly believed that this to be the best life had to offer. Just because something is true doesn’t make it interesting though, so it would be fair to say that Will truly loved those things that were both true and strange.   And this was precisely why he no longer felt the sharp edge of bitterness when looking back to how his burgeoning career in the high technology industry came unraveled and he felt the trees shaking.

Will had worked for a company called Big Iron Communications. Even for the Valley, Big Iron was special place that maintained at its core both the drunken swagger of success to excess along with the dream of infinite possibilities for creating the future.   Will joined Big Iron Computing as a Junior Test Engineer.  He had targeted this company form the beginning after graduating from San Jose State University, having been mesmerized by the prospect of life long employment in this company with the enlightened management style.  The company had a generous profit sharing program and the best overall benefits package in the industry.   On Friday afternoons, the company hired musicians to perform on the lawn near the company swimming pool and picnic area.   Beer, wine coolers, bottled waters, and soda were provided along with spreads of appetizers and entrees catered by local restaurants.    

“Big Iron Computin’” was what the President and CEO Bobby Spriggs called his company and the moniker gave a decent impression of what he intended it to be, which is one hard workin’, even harder partying, great big happy family.   Big Iron was born in good times, offering a technology of reliable, high availability and low cost (transactions per million) mainframe computers in the 80’s and then successfully transitioning its hardware and software offerings to capitalize on the desktop computer revolution and server market.   

Big Iron was not immune to the pressure to maintain a high growth rate and keep on top of emerging trends.  The company failed to see the opportunity involved with the explosive growth of the internet and the implications for a computer company.  The network became more of the focus instead the computer and Big Iron’s response was a matter of too much, too late.    A merger with a large networking company  (Gateway) gave it a new name (Big Iron Communications) but also an impractical business model that had grown larger in scope while losing focus.  Customer satisfaction ratings plummeted to a level on the survey compendium associated with “difficult to do business with”.  Internally, employees were a confused lot who seemed to be turning against one another in a struggle to integrate two incompatible corporate cultures.

“I never wanted to work for a fucking computer company anyway” was the way Marco verbalized the situation.   There were three people Will worked with closely day to day and Marco, a Senior Project Manager, was the only one to have come from Gateway Networks, aka LG or Legacy Gateway in the new Big Iron.  The others were Ray (Storage Engineering) and Gordon, the senior member (24 years at Big Iron) who was the Senior Reliability and Safety Engineer.   Ray had always been the person with whom Will felt most comfortable bouncing ideas with or talking about the world outside.  When Will was still trying to find his way around, Ray introduced him to Big Iron intranet site and directory of services.   “This place is like a small city.  You name the purpose and we can pick up the phone and find a way to get it done.  Laundry, Thai take-out, buy tickets to a Giants game, start a special interest group, get a financial advisor, or even find yourself a lawyer.”  Ray told him and with an unmistakable sense of pride.   “I was in the Navy and I often heard about those guys who were stationed on the big enterprise class carriers. They’d be talking about life at and spoke of their ship as a floating city.   Well, this place is even better.   It’s like having our own private little city and this badge gets through all the doors.”   Ray held up his company badge and pointed at his employee number.  “It’s a big deal around here.  What’s yours?”   Will had looked at his badge and saw Employee #100,001.    “Well, what do you know” he’d said to Ray.  “One hundred thousand people, yet still we felt the need to add one more.”  Ray answered, laughing.

One Friday afternoon the Reliability Lab doors swung open and Ray came in pushing a cart loaded with disk enclosures.    “Hey Will, Gordon, I brought you guys something for this afternoon” he said, smiling.  “Marco, why are you here?”   Marco raised an eyebrow and muttered a profanity under this breath but otherwise kept his attention focused on the spreadsheet printout lying on the desk in front of him.  “He’s hounding us about the inventory volume again” Will said, gesturing toward the stack of processor board trays and power supplies that were accumulating in the lab and blocking the aisles between the test beds and systems.  “Not volume idiot, its money” Marco answered while holding out his hand and making a motion with his fingers that was supposed to approximate a money grab.  Ray could not resist taking the bait. “All this material on some VP’s books until we move it back to Manufacturing.  Really just funny money, right Marco?”   Marco looked up from his spreadsheet and took off his glasses.  Slowly he rubbed his eyes and then he focused directly on Ray for the first time.  “Really? You don’t want me to go off on you?  Cause I swear I will…”  Marco stopped talking, leaving a hint of violence in the air.   “Come on Ray, we’ll go through this stuff right now.  It must be in the lab somewhere, right?”  Will was smiling, because he knew Marco would be content with status, names, and dates for what would happen next.   “Monday morning chump” Marco said over his shoulder as he walked toward the door. “Better have this shit in my inbox by 10 am!  There’s a meeting at 11 and the bean counters will need some status updates to prove we are taking this seriously.”    Neither Will nor Ray bothered to answer.  The two of them stood silently and the only sounds was the footsteps of the project manager walking away down the hall. 

Gordon didn’t care much for Marco’s pushiness or constant stream of profanity and he certainly wasn’t happy with these weekly inventory audits the bean counters are forced on them lately.  All that Gordon cared about was design and function.  He was the kind of guy who always tried to figure out “what were they thinking when they made this” and “does it work?”   Every once in while he would bring something back to the Development Engineers who worked in the pristine landscaped, two story building across the street.  “Let me tell ya something about this” he’d say and the Dev guys were more than happy to kick it around with him.  

In the back of the lab there was an old green canvas cot, the type with a collapsible frame.  There were many books and manuals stacked on top of the cot but there was also a pillow and a poncho stuffed underneath it.  Rumor was that Gordon actually slept there, simply exchanging the books for the pillow and wrapping himself in the poncho whenever he needed some rest.  Gordon didn’t have a car, so it was very difficult to determine when or if he ever left the lab excepting an occasional trip out to grab some lunch (or dinner) which he generally always took straight back to the lab to eat while watching test script or output flashing in green text across his monitor.

Gordon’s face was weathered and he always had a determined look in his eyes such as one might associate with the sheriff in some old Western movie. Some said that Gordon was born in Montana but there seldom was any opportunity to learn anything about his personal life.  For a man who could be anywhere from 45 to 65 years old, his hair was longer than you’d expect, reaching to the back of the neck and approaching the shoulders.   Gordon’s hair was somewhere between blond and gray and it was always clipped very straight which somehow gave even more emphasis to the length.   Most of the time he wore glasses with a large black frames and when he was involved in some deep technical discussion, he might let the glasses slip downward on his nose and look over the frames to address another person.   When he was really frustrated, he might remove the glasses and take a moment to clean them and compose himself before going back to his task or rejoining a discussion.  

To the average person, Gordon’s overall appearance might be considered a bit weird, but among the Engineering community at Big Iron you could find the greatest amount of diversity from the old fashioned geek with hair combed back and pencils in the pocket to the laid back look of the old/new/ex hippie and any manner of variation between the two among the company’s ethnic population or the new hire cool dude surfer types.   All this was to say that Gordon and everyone else for that matter operated with impunity when it came to matters of dress code or general appearance.   Most importantly, if you needed someone in your labs to chase down bugs, Gordon would absolutely be the right guy for the job because he lived a pleasant quiet life to do just that while never allowing himself to be distracted.

When it came to VP’s or bean counters, Gordon was practical enough to submit to their requests for information as best he could which in this particular case meant sharing a couple of hours with Will and Ray to go through the lab and a few others around the Big Iron universe to locate everything on Marco’s inventory sheet.  In the end, he bargained to allow his favorite “problem” units to stay in the lab while consenting to return just enough material to keep under the radar screen when it came to evaluating cost of inventory on Marco’s spreadsheet.  Gordon had always liked Will for the earnest way that the younger man went about performing what Gordon considered to be the “real” engineering duties related to system functional testing.  He felt a bit sorry for Will just now seeing him roped in to this inventory circus with Marco and the other bean counters.   When they’d finished their work, he announced gruffly: “Ok!  Now why don’t you guys move on”, intimating that he needed to set up a new test scenario and didn’t want any help. 

“The weekend is here now Will, let’s get over to Loc 50.  Already 5 o’clock and there may not be any good food left.”   Ray was referring to Friday Beer Days where many employees gathered promptly at 4 pm to unwind with some good drinks and eats.   “Weren’t we gonna run today?”  Will answered, referring to a basketball challenge they’d recently committed to.  “Sure, lets get the gear and go.   Might not be any good food but we can still get some drinks later” Ray opinioned.   “Drinks” was another way of referring to an endless well that was set up at Big Iron on Friday afternoons.  The company was never known to run out of beer or wine coolers.   Life was good here, but things were about to change.

Will was with Ray in the locker room adjacent to Loc 55 and they were involved in a discussion with some guys on a very troubling subject.  There had been a rumor that layoffs were coming, maybe as soon as next week.   Sometimes it seemed to Will that Ray lived for moments like this.   Ray was the guy who took on the trouble of laying out the worst possible scenario and then grinning from ear to ear as if the whole business didn’t matter to him.  “The Gateway merger is bringing us down.  They won’t let us tell them how to run their business and now we’re all losing money.  Tuesday is quarterly earnings announcement day and I heard they were going to show another loss and even worse, I think there is a warning already about next quarter.  They’ll have to cut some jobs or the stock will go on a free fall”.   Will looked at the others to see their reaction and unfortunately all of them seemed to be nodding in agreement with what Ray.   “My manager’s been in meetings constantly the past couple of days.  They are trying to figure out how many heads to cut and what to base it on” was another person’s contribution.   “Yeah, well it’s the same thing in my group.  I haven’t seen my manager since last Wednesday.   That really sucks, don’t it? To think about those guys sitting around in a conference room debating which of us should lose their job.” Ray answered.  “The RIF is coming” said a middle aged man who had been sitting quietly nearby.  He’d come in from jogging with his hair sweaty and his shirt hanging outside of his shorts.  He pulled the shirt off and threw it inside a locker and then turned to address the group again.  “I’ve seen this before.  No merger is ever successful until they are completely finished with the churn of killing out a few products and weeding out a few people”.   A couple of guys nodded in agreement.

Will was shocked by the frank manner of the discussion.  He felt like there was some vague superstition in play and most likely it was against the rule to mention your own direct fears.  He was thinking about his own manager Jake, imagining him sitting in a conference room somewhere and going over his direct reports one by one with some uncaring VP.   He remembered the last reorg when Jake became his manager and the first time they sat down to talk together.  “Hi Will” Jake stretched out his hand and the two shook firmly in a way that was supposed to invoke trust to his new report but the man’s attitude conveyed something entirely different.  “Welcome to Reliability.  We do very important work here.  You know I have a couple PhD’s on my staff?   Don’t bother them.  Don’t bother me.  You guys have some stuff going on with moving test inventory around.  I didn’t want to have this in my org, but they needed somewhere to put you and now they’ve given me some little budget to handle it.  As long as I don’t hear anything contrary, I’ll assume you are doing a good job and give you the passing grade on your review, got it? “   Will had been surprised by how meaningless his job seemed in this summation but he gulped air from his stomach and tried to say what was on his mind.   “Well thanks Jake.  I was wondering if….” But Jake interrupted immediately, sensing perhaps that the young engineer was not grokking him. “Let me be even more clear about this.   Your job is to make sure that whatever happens with the test inventory, it DOES NOT result in anyone coming around asking me for status or justification for what you guys are doing.   Your success depends on some simple things like keeping things under control and away from me and the rest of my staff.  Keep the bean counters out of my hair and if it comes down any other way you’ll know that you have failed and can start looking around for something else to do.  Now you get it?”  Will was silent.  “Ok, that’s all.  You won’t need to come to my staff meetings”.   This had been the most jolting experience and with the present circumstance, the memory cut more keenly. It was difficult for Will to reconcile that a person such as Jake might be allowed to have such control in deciding his fate.

Will’s brooding was interrupted only when they started the warm-up shoot around and began trading good natured insults with the other guys who had challenged them to a departmental basketball game.    Later, when the game was on, Will’s team moved the ball up court in a frantic pace and Will led the charge to attack the basket. On defense, Will expressed a manic determination to slap the ball away from his opponent.  If the other guys didn’t share his enthusiasm at first, they were quick to take it on.   Sometimes a high spirited run on the basketball court is just the thing to take one’s mind back from the brink of corporate strung out insanity.  

Late in the heart of the Friday night, Gordon worked on in the lab.   All the monitors glowed with green text and the system fans hummed their dull roar that Gordon had long ago blanked in his mind with other white noise factors.  Gordon had an idea about how he might remove some power units from this system that had failed intermittent in the last test and swap them with a unit in the Dev lab and continue testing over the weekend.   He was also thinking about Marco, remembering how the guy had once been a Comm Engineer at Gateway Networks and how when they’d first met, he spent a considerable amount of time sharing information about the network board set that had recently been recalled.  Marco had gone to Japan to visit a beta site at a large Telecomm company and had personally gotten behind the decision to pull the plug on that product. Lately Marco had seemed to have become one of the bean counters.  “Bean counters” was the provincial term belonging to all Engineers and was used indiscriminately to describe any persons seeking to establish some from of restraint or control over their activities.    Gordon slowly removed his glasses and gently rubbed at his eyes.  “Ego is what makes a good engineer brave enough to say what needs to be said.  But just the same, ego can derail a person from becoming a good engineer”.  Gordon put back on his glasses and starting typing on the command line to ready the system for power down.