Other Side of the Mirror: Who’s the boss?
It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.
Julian was sixth in seniority in his company, of no great consequence in the egghead department, sort of soft boiled level but one of the nicest guys going. Everyone loved him, the juniors, the top brass, even the customers.
Life was fun. No striving ambition, no debt, three kids, no desire to be a buck stopper, tennis every second day, pleasant enough evenings with friends.
Then, over three months things took a strange route. The boss quit and so did number two. Number three resigned unhappily because of ill health and number four received an excellent offer from abroad which he could not resist since he wanted to settle in Canada anyway and the papers came through about the same time as the offer making any doubt totally pointless.
The fifth contender was only technically senior and he was a finance man so he had no hands on experience. The board wanted a mainline man and so they went hunting. In the interim, the mantle of command fell on Julian and before you knew it, he was being congratulated and patted on the back and everyone said it couldn’t have happened to a nicer man, a bit lightweight but a good fellow and he was at least an inside man.
Julian said, look, don’t get too serious about my promotion, they are looking for someone, it is only temporary. So while it was transient in nature everyone pulled along and helped Julian look good. In fact, there were three or four almost announcements of people but each one failed to be the chosen person and Julian finished eleven months as the boss while morale rose and so did the profits. It was sort of ‘lets give Julian a hand, he is one of us’ thing.
The evening sessions continued, office politics fell to a low and everyone felt they were part of the experiment.
The Board, in a surprise move, announced a two year term for Julian and stopped hunting for a replacement, he was good, he was showing results, why hassle him.
Almost immediately, a frost fell over the relations between him and his colleagues. Being a stand in temporary boss was one thing but this was for real, this was different, he was now number one. The all round support stopped. That was the enemy.
It was now him against the rest. At the same time the social cool disappeared. Julian found himself being left out. Friends from office became self conscious and backed out of tennis appointments and the noisy dinners Julian gave were now polite, formal awkward affairs. Even the wife and kids were isolated. The others, once part of the gang, now began going out as usual without inviting the first family. Not just that but Julian and co. were the main subject of conversation.
He felt the loneliness and was confused. Actually, bewildered would be a better word for he was not to the manner born. His attempts to be pally with the gang were thwarted. He had no idea how to be the boss so that didn’t work either. Things had been great so far, what was going wrong. Office politics were now rife, there were half a dozen cliques, the unions were making restless sounds, rumors were that senior and middle staff were making cvs and the Board was getting visibly upset.
Julian got dismissed a few days ago. Just a call to him at home to say not to return to work and there would be the usual compensation. His things would be sent to him.
None of the old friends came to commiserate. No one called. No contact. It was as if he had, in some way, betrayed the friendships by becoming the boss, walked out on the rest. Now, he had his comeuppance so serve him right.
Even his closest friend just called and said, it was for the best. Already, the new chap from outside who was being inducted was being checked out and the jostling had begun.
Julian, the boss who never was, left town one morning with his family.
No one noticed.
