Glass Ceilings (6 page)

Verity gave a lop
-
sided grin. ‘Just telling it like it is.’

Claire blushed.

Verity went on thoughtfully,
‘
I
wish you
and I
could
work closer
together
.
I
t would be so good to have someone
I can
trust
near
by
.
There’s the executive assistant position, but
Kerry
would
be hard to shift
. She mig
ht consider a straight job swap
, though—’
Verity caught sigh
t of Claire’s appalled face and
hastened to add,
‘B
ut Kerry in a public relations
role? I don’
t think
that would work
.
I’ll have to be satisfied in
offering you, PR
Officer Extraordinaire Claire Vincent, the additional role of Loyal Confidant and Advisor
to the CEO
.
Goodness knows I’m going to need you more than ever.
M
y supporters
are
a little thin on the ground righ
t now.
’

With a rueful grin
,
and before Claire could
say anything
, Verity reached over
and gave
her a quick hug. Drawing back
,
she added, ‘I know you’ll always be my friend Claire, and tha
t’s even more important to me.’

Claire’s eyes misted over, and she could only
give a watery
smile and
a
nod. W
atching her, Verity wished everyone could be a
s generous. B
ut she kne
w it would take more than wishes
to conquer
the barriers
lying
ahead of her.

* * *

‘This jus
t arrived
for you
.’
Kerry han
ded Verity a
one page facsimile
. Before turn
ing to leave, she collecte
d
the
items from the out-tray
and ran her eyes over them as she left the office.
Among them were documents she’d only just submitted
for signature that
same
morning. Kerry
found herself thinking
begrudgingly
that despite being new to the job, this
CEO was shaping
up to be more prompt and thorough than some of
the previous incumbents
.

Ver
ity scanned the fax
before sitting
back
in her leather office chair
, deep in thought.
A
short while later, a
friendly knock disturbed her.
When she
looked up
,
she saw Claire standing
in the doorway.

‘I wondered if
…
um
…
have you had morning tea yet?’

Verity smiled warmly at her friend.
‘No, and I’d love
a break right now.
Let’s grab a coffee.’

Claire smiled broadly and
came in. She settled herself i
n one of the comfortable easy chairs around the
meeting
table.
‘No grabbing required.
I took the liberty
...,’
and s
he opened the
brown paper
package she
’d brought with her. Out of
it,
she
extracted a small
container
of homemade Anzac biscuits and two sealed mugs of coffee.

Verity hurried over to sit beside her
, licking her lips. Claire’s homemade cookies were legendary
.

‘The coffee’s f
reshly brewed I might add,’
Claire said proudly, as she
pulled off the lids and
passed a steaming mug
to Verity.

‘
Mmm, y
ou
sure
know
how to get on my good side.’

‘Always!
T
hough
things are a bit different
now you
’re CEO.
Should I
be having morning tea with you
, or is that presumptuous of me?
Your guard dog wasn’t at her desk when I got here, so I couldn’t check with her.
’ She opened her eyes wide.
‘
Am I crossing
a
line
here
?’

‘Oh come on, it’s still me.
Just because I’m the boss
doesn’t mean I’ve stopped being
human.
Sure, there’ll
often be days when I’m
busy or away from the office, but the rest of the time
I’ll
be looking for
ward to seeing you darkening
my door.
’ Verity
grinned.
‘
E
ven if y
ou’re not bearing yummy gifts, chatting to you
make
s
a nice change from
the
dull facts-n
-figures discussions with the company bean counters!’

They both chuckled, and Verity leant
over her mug to inhale the rich coffee aroma.

Claire took a generous sip from hers.
‘So, how’s life in the ivory tower?’

Verity gave a low laugh.
‘O
h, you know....
’

Claire smiled at the
non-committal re
sponse before saying
, ‘
Seriously
Verity, how are things going?
I’m in PR, we’re supposed to work together
on corporate communications and reputation management. Y
ou can tell me
stuff without it
going any further. You know that, don’t you?
’

She was greeted with a tired sigh.

‘
Of course I know that
,
Claire.
But
thanks
for the reminder that you’re my
trustworthy
colleague as well as my
trustworthy
friend
.
’
Gratitude shone from Verity’s eyes
.
‘
Well,
since Clyde left
,
it’s
been
OK I guess.
There are a lot of
decisions
I’m confident to make, and other
issues
tha
t, well, I need advice on. N
ormally that advice would come from members of the executive team, but
....
’

‘But some of them have decided
not to play
nice
with their new CEO,
am I
right?’

Verity nodded wearily
.

‘Don’t worry, they’ll eventually come around.
After all, they need yo
u more than you need them. And w
hen they remember
that
, they’ll come a-crawling
like the bottom
feeders
they are
.’

Claire’s down-to-earth
counsel
won her an amused grin from
Verity
.

‘I know, but it doe
s make things
hard
er than they should be
, especially while I’m still
coming to terms with
my new responsibilities.
Speaking of which,
this
landed on my desk
this morning
...,’
and
Verity
g
ot up
to grab the
fax she’d been
study
ing when Clair
e arrived,
‘
and
I
’d like to run it past you. I
t might have PR implications.’

‘Sure, what is it?’

‘A
fax from a
real estate
colleague of mine
, letting me know
there’s been
an expression of interest
in purchasing
a parcel of land containing three properties, all
bordering
RCL’s overland conveyor. T
he
only
neighbouring
prope
rties
the company
doesn’t already own.’

‘
OK,’ Claire took a slurp from her mug,
‘s
o
wh
at does that mean
?’

‘Basically, it’s a land grab.
I
know the
purchaser
. He has
a reputation among the mining community, and
I’ve witnessed his
modus operandi
in
previou
s dealings
with the bauxite mine
.
He and his wife own a
nother
property
,
behind
these ones, and he’s already tried complaining to the Environmental Protection Agency about the noise from our conveyor. Luckily for us, the EPA deemed their residence too far away to be affected. But i
f he
succeeds in buying this
new
piece of
land
,
it’
ll
spell
trouble for RCL.
’

‘
How much trouble
?’

‘
Quite a bit.
This
is
one of
the closest
privately-owned properties
to the conveyor corridor. It’s
used for
grazing
at present
, but if new owners took up residence there, they’
d be
close enough for their noise complaints to be legit
.
And
I’m certain
that
resolving t
hose
complaints w
ould cost the comp
any dearly
.
Our attempts to reduce the noise, all at significant expense, would be thwarted, or deemed insufficient.
And then, f
ollowing the company’s “failure” to correct the problem,
he
’d
“
generous
ly”
offer
t
o accept compensation by way of a large pay-out. Of course
this would’
ve been his
goal all along
.’

‘Well, now we
know
his
intentio
ns, couldn’t the company pip hi
m at the post by making
the
current
owner a better offer?’

‘T
hat would be prudent in
the circumstances, but the joint venturers have
indicated
they do
n’t want to tie up more
funds i
n non-productive purchases
.
Conversely, t
hey want to pur
sue opportunities to clear the
company’s less viable a
ssets, including land holdings.
Which will only
expose RCL to more risk.
’

‘
Oh, great.
So, what are you going to do?’

Veri
ty sat back for a moment, pondering
the
question. H
er face
grew
determined.
‘I’m
certain
that
if RCL owned all the neighbouring land,
and the
JVs
were made aware of the
practically
limitless
, ongoing expense of
resolving noise complaints, they would regard that ownership
as a position of strength worth maintaining.
Buying the land would not only
foil the plans of these current
money-grubbers
, it would provide long term benefits and protection against other claims
.
As long as RCL has an exposed underbell
y, these types of problems will
keep raising their ugly heads.
So I’m going to ask my “contact”
to suss out
the
current
owner
,
about the possibility of
RCL
buying the property
.’