The Good...

My crew worked fairly well together (even though they were fiercely competitive) and some became close enough to become business partners in later years. These were really excellent times…we were selling and installing large telephone systems for hospitals, county governments, the Federal Government, and some very large banks. In order for the jobs to get finished the way I wanted them done and on time…I made a deal with the Operations Manager (he was 63 and didn’t really like to leave the office), I would run the jobs from both the sales and operational aspects (and he would get the credit for anything that went well, and I would take the blame for anything that didn’t). He thought that this was just swell!! It meant a lot of traveling for me…but I was going through and divorce and didn’t really mind. It was a helluva lot of fun…but good things don’t usually last too long and the company was “swallowed up” by and even larger company. I was odd man out!
A “head hunter” called me and asked if I would like to interview with a German telecommunications company that was moving into the area…and I became their Branch Manager for Minneapolis with both sales and operations reporting to me. It didn’t take me very long to figure out that I didn’t fit into this corporate culture. I was the renegade that was used to running my own show and they expected someone to “click their heels and say Ya-vol!” The issue became a major problem when I asked for the resignation of a male employee for sexual harassment…Corporate decided that I had overstepped my authority and wrote me a letter of reprimand. I did not know that my married boss had gotten his secretary pregnant. I said that there was no way I would accept a letter of reprimand and they allowed me to leave with six months severance pay.
I had already lined up a position with a private telecommunications firm that was one of their distributors…I started there two weeks later. It was a fun atmosphere, I had freedom and could basically “run my own show again”, and I got a $20,000 boost in salary.


Again, this is the absolute truth…give or take a lie or two.


…more later