Commencement

by Lawrence Cherry

“Wow, nice ride, is this new?” asked the second-shift parking attendant at Herns and Marshall’s onsite parking facility as he admired Tim’s car.

  “Yep. So you got to be careful with her”, smiled Tim as he handed him the keys.

  “No doubt, man. What happened? You got a raise or somethin’?”

  “Nah. Just thought I’d treat myself.”

  “I wish I had it like that.”

  “Maybe one day, dude”, said Tim walking away towards the elevator.

  Tim loved the way his new car was able to make people’s jaw’s drop. He had just brought the Mercedes home from the lot yesterday, and it seemed to bring him a lot of attention and respect. Tim liked seeing the admiration and envy on the young parking attendant’s face. It made everything he went through at Herns and Marshall worth it.

  And he went through a lot at Herns and Marshall as their President of Business Services. As Tim got in the empty elevator and pushed the button to the 30th floor, he reflected on his tenure with the firm. When he was first hired, he thought the position was as impressive as it sounded. “President of the Business Services Department” seemed to be at title of high renown and significance. Tim thought it meant meeting with major businesses and overseeing their investment portfolios, however, it turned out his duties would not be so challenging.

  Most of the time, he was filling in supply request for various departments, and making sure that the company stayed within budget for those request. Not much different from an office manager. Tim was one of the lowest ranked people in his whole division. The only people he was superior to were the admin, the receptionist, and the other business managers in the other departments, who incidentally were also people of color. The day-to-day realities of the job were enough to knock the wind out of Tim’s sails for a time. He was often ignored and/or left out of meetings and socials or served as a scapegoat for some crisis or controversy at the moment. Sometimes he went for weeks without important memos and notices, which sometimes left him underprepared for staff meetings and monthly reports. None of his superiors seemed to warm to him, or take him under their wing like the other associates on his floor, and he didn’t have a lot of close allies. But even in the face of this, he decided to stay. After all, his salary was excellent, and the possibility of moving up through the ranks to a more responsible position may make itself apparent, eventually. Not to mention, he got a kick out of being able to tell people where he worked. The name Herns and Marshall lent him a certain prestige that opened many doors for him when he went to restaurants and parties. And at least he had his own office, so when all of the craziness was just too much, he could just shut himself inside and everything else out. This made all the missed memos, slights, and aggravation worthwhile. And sometimes there were small victories like the one he had just celebrated.

  Tim had just had lunch with the executive director of sales for a major supplier, Brill Corporation, and had miraculously wrangled a deal that would allow the firm to get 30% off of all paper products. This would allow the company to reduce overhead cost by as much as 7%. This was a really big victory for Tim, especially since they just had a meeting about the ways they could cut the firms expenditures. He couldn’t wait to get the e-mail from the vendor and finalize everything. Tim hoped the Brill deal would prove to his bosses that he was truly a valuable player with a brain in his head. When he came to his floor, he noticed that Frank and Jason, who worked in the brokerage trading department on the other side of the floor, were loitering about, talking in hushed tones, but the conversation ceased as Tim moved closer to them. This piqued his curiosity, so he decided to try to glean the import of their gesture by engaging them in some friendly small talk.

  “Hey, Frank. Hey, Jay”, greeted Tim.

  “Hey, Tim. How was lunch?” replied Jay forcing a smile.

  “It was okay. I tried the sushi place everybody’s been raving about. The tempura is amazing.”

  “I know. They’re awesome, right. And it’s great if you’re on a budget.”

  “Anything happen while I was out?” asked Tim innocently, hoping one of them would bite. Tim always felt that he was the last to know about things in the company. Sometimes he would try to tap his other co-workers for information in order to keep up with things.

  “Not much, really”, answered Jay.

  “I’ve heard that before”, Tim thought to himself.

  “Yeah. Kinda dead here today. We’re not getting a lot of calls from upstairs, and no e-mails”, replied Frank.

  “I guess no news is good news. I’d better get back to my desk, check my messages. I’ll see you guys around.”

  This exchange did nothing to alleviate Tim’s feelings of apprehension. He knew there was something going on. As Tim walked down the corridor to his office, he thought he heard a familiar voice coming from its direction. As he came closer, Tim noticed the president of his division, Jacob Standoff. Standoff was also the CFO, and one of the four “big cheeses” that could make or break Tim’s career. Standoff, noticing Tim, called him over.

  “Oh, Tim. There you are. Just in time. I know this is sudden, but I’m having a meeting with your department in conference room C. There’s some business we must discuss that requires immediate attention”, said Mr. Standoff with an air of gravity to his voice.

  Tim could feel the perspiration running down his back and leaking under his arms. Good thing he had kept his jacket on. “This couldn’t be good”, he thought to himself.

  “Is there anything you want me to bring? Like our monthly flow sheets?” asked Tim hoping to elicit more information from Standoff.

  “No, just bring yourself. It shouldn’t take long. Don’t worry about Vera and Clara, they’re already there waiting for us”, answered Standoff as he vanished away.

  Tim felt a bit relieved. It couldn’t be that serious if he didn’t have to bring anything. Yet he was still a little unsettled at the fact that he was, yet again, the last one to know. Once again his co-workers, who obviously were in the know on this, gave him no warning. “Thanks a lot Frank, Jay”, Tim thought bitterly to himself. It made him wonder why people treated him this way. He did everything he could to be a team player. He greeted people often, engaged in polite small talk, but for some reason he didn’t seem to fit in. He knew Jim would say it was because he was black. Half black anyway. But sometimes Tim felt the same way around some African-Americans, albeit to a lesser degree. Tim then walked out of his office and down the narrow hall to the elevator. As Tim waited, he wondered what this meeting could be about. In any case, maybe he could use this opportunity to talk about the big deal he just scored for the company.

  Upon his arrival to conference room C, Tim saw the familiar faces of his subordinates, the Admin, Clara Mendez, the only Latina in the company, and the receptionist, Vera Watts, a middle-aged African-American woman. The other three business services officers of the other departments were missing. Mr. Standoff and one of the sycophant cronies from the human resources department, Brian Manx, were talking with another gentleman who he did not recognize. He was a deep mahogany-colored African-American man, who seemed to be about average sized. He was clean-shaven and he wore expensive looking round wire-framed glasses. His clothes weren’t shabby either. Tim immediately recognized the fine tailoring of his Sea Island cotton twill suit and jeweled cuff links. One thing in particular that caught his attention was the annoying way the guy bobbed his head up and down and smiled at everything Standoff said. It gave the man an air of utter obsequiousness, a quality that Tim despised, despite the fact that he himself possessed a similar disposition on occasion.

  “Afternoon, everyone”, said Tim quickly taking his seat.

  “Good afternoon”, replied the ladies.

  “Oh, good. Now we can get started”, added Standoff hastily.

  “What about the other business services officers?” asked Tim a bit hesitantly.

  “That’s what we’re here to talk about. I know this is a bit abrupt, and you all have a lot of wo
rk to do so I’ll make it brief. In the next few months we are going to be doing a bit of downsizing…”

  “Oh my gosh! So that’s what happened!” thought Tim, trying to cover his shock.

  “You know that we have four business services heads here for each of our four divisions, but we’ve decided to merge all of the management positions into one so that interfacing with accounting and human resources will run much more smoothly. Tim will remain with us as our business services man and we will have an additional assistant with him or a vice president that will help him manage and organize tasks.”

  Tim breathed out a sigh of relief. “Maybe they do respect my work after all, if I’m the last man standing” he mulled cheerfully to himself.

  “Everyone I want you to meet Preston Scott”, continued Standoff “He’s going to be your new vice president so to speak. He’s got a lot of experience and drive. We managed to steal him from Wells Farber.” At this Standoff laughed to himself a bit. Everyone else smiled or chuckled kindly, patronizing his attempt at humor.

  “But enough of me, I’ll let him do some talking, too. Preston why don’t you tell them a little about yourself.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Standoff. Well, as Mr. Standoff said, my name is Preston Scott. I graduated from Yale, and in a few years I plan to enroll in the Columbia University business school, to work on my MBA. For the past two years, I was with Wells Farber as the head of customer service, which gave me a lot of experience in business services. Now, I look forward to working with you all to improve business services here at H & M.”

  “Using acronyms already and he hasn’t even started working here yet. Obviously arrogant. And the nerve of him to think his trifling experience as a customer service rep is going to prepare him for the duties he’ll have here. This guy is way out of his league”, Tim scoffed inside himself. Tim just knew Preston would be a groveling butt kisser. Not to mention competition. And how could Standoff just make this guy his assistant and not even consult him during the hiring process? Allen’s experience was way more credible than this guy’s. If Tim had known, he could have gotten Allen an interview and they could have worked together, just like they did at Harvard. But then, on second thought, he knew that Allen looked up to him. Allen admired Tim for the fact that he had “made it”. If Allen worked at Hearns & Marshall, he would see just how marginal his job was, and well….well he didn’t have to worry about that now. Still, he felt insulted, and it made Tim boil on the inside, but he dare not show it.

  “Thank You, Preston. Now if you all would briefly introduce yourselves, so he can get to know the other members of the team. Tim, we’ll begin with you”, said Standoff.

  “Okay, I’m Tim Russell. I have a BA from Harvard and an MBA from Columbia and I’ve been with Herns and Marshall for two years as the president of business services for the Investment Securities division. I look forward to working with our new team player and sharing my expertise.”

  That’s right, brief and to the point. As the others introduced themselves, Tim was thinking about how to position himself against this new enemy. Then part of him chastised himself for feeling this way. After all, wasn’t Preston a “brother”? At that moment, he thought about his friend Allen. Allen always talked about how African-Americans should always try to help each other out in the workplace and have each other’s backs. Deep down, he knew Allen was right and he began to feel guilty about his negative feelings toward this brother. The guy seemed just as optimistic and as naïve as he had been when he had first started. But then, looking at this Preston again across the boardroom table, his self-confident attitude, his smugness, Tim could not help but to see him as some cut-throat Uncle Tom. After much deliberation, Tim decided that he should protect himself rather than good old Preston. Only the voice of Standoff taking the lead again in the meeting would bring Tim’s mind back from his silent musings.

  “Preston will be starting next week. I’m assigning him to your office Tim, so you may have to move things around a bit in order to accommodate the new furniture I had Vera, order.”

  “There’s no way in Hades, he’s getting into my office. I’ll just talk to Standoff later about getting Preston a cubicle adjacent to Clara’s”, Tim thought.

  “In the first few days, I expect you all will help Preston get acquainted with the responsibilities of the department. And then Tim can let him get his hands dirty with orders and tracking. Oh and Tim, I expect to see your time table and preliminary plan for the reorganization on my desk by the end of the month.”

  “Of course, sir. In fact, just today I met with one of the managers of the Brill Corporation…”

  “Just put it in the report, Tim. And if there’s no questions, I’m off to another meeting, and this one stands adjourned.”

  “If I may sir, I wouldn’t mind showing our new associate around right now, if he’s got some time”, offered Tim disingenuously with an ulterior motive.

  “That won’t be necessary. Mr. Standoff and I have already familiarized him with the physical grounds, and he has an appointment this afternoon to fill out his paperwork. At that time we will acquaint him with our bylaws and policies”, one of the human resources guys interrupted, taking on an imperial tone. The human resource guys were the worst. For the most part, they thought they were gods because they were so involved with the hiring, firing, and salary decisions.

  “Then, I’ll see you in a week, Mr. Scott.”

  “Yes, see you then”, replied the ladies.

  “I’m looking forward to it”, said Preston confidently.

  They all rose and left the conference room, with Standoff, Scott and the sycophant ahead, the rest of them hanging at the back. As the others were heading back to their office, Tim bent forward a little, taken off guard suddenly by a sudden wave of nausea.

  “Tim, are you okay?” asked Clara in concern.

  “I just need some air that’s all.”

  Or maybe it was his gut warning him about Preston Scott.

  Eight