She Left Me Breathless (12 page)

First thing I need is a strong cup of coffee
, Rachel thought as she left her office and headed down the hallway toward the break room. She was surprised to see that most of the tables and chairs were taken and the occupants all seemed to be immersed in deep animated conversations. Usually by this time of the morning, the break room was nearly deserted.

“I wonder who brought these in,” she said to herself as she looked at several boxes filled with all sorts of pastries and donuts. She finally settled on a plain glazed donut. She poured herself a cup of coffee and took her donut over to the table where her assistant Lilly, along with Helen and Mary from purchasing were sitting. The three women were leaning over the table, talking in hushed voices.

Rachel pulled out a seat next to Mary and sat down. “What’s all the hubbub about?” she asked. She couldn’t remember when the last time the atmosphere at EMCOR was filled with this much electricity.

“Didn’t you get the email?” Lilly asked excitedly.

Rachel took a bite of the donut. “What email?” she asked after she wiped her mouth off with a napkin.

“The one that said we were having a meeting in the large conference hall at nine on the dot,” Helen answered. “Oughta be a real doozy,” she said, nodding her head to the point that a normal person would be dizzy.

Rachel found it amazing that no matter how violent the shake or nod, not one bleached blonde hair on the woman’s head ever moved. She had been telling herself for quite awhile now that she really needed to ask Helen what kind of hairspray she used. “Who’s meeting in the conference room?” she asked.

“You really should read your emails in the morning, Rachel dear,” Helen sighed as she used a bejeweled hand to pat down her bouffant-do.

Mary cupped her mouth with both hands in a conspiratorial fashion and leaned forward. “I heard from Jeff in shipping that he overheard young Amos talking to someone on the phone about a hostile takeover,” she whispered.

“That’s just nonsense. You of all people should know better than to listen to office gossip,” Rachel teasingly scolded the young brown-haired woman who was just one year older than Caitlyn. It wasn’t too long ago when the local gossip machine had Mary dating Ernie, the sixty-year-old mail clerk. The idea wouldn’t have been so hard to believe if it weren’t for the fact that Ernie was actually Mary’s great uncle.

“How do you explain the donuts and the fancy smancy breakfast buffet that’s set up in the conference room then?” Helen asked.

“It did say that the meeting was mandatory for the whole company,” Lily added, shyly.   

Mary nodded. “Yeah that makes you wonder all right.”

Rachel snapped her fingers to get the women’s attention. “Will one of you please tell me exactly what the email said?”

“It said that everyone was to meet in the main conference hall at nine for an important announcement,” Helen volunteered.

“You three are a mess. Maybe the breakfast was Bill’s way of saying Merry Christmas and maybe the meeting is so he can announce the wonderful Christmas bonuses we all get this year,” Rachel said, trying to look on the bright side of things.

“Yeah right and I’m Cleopatra,” Helen said with a wave of her hand.

Mary glanced at the clock hanging on the wall by the coffee maker. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. It’s eight fifty-five, we should be going,” she said, pushing her chair back.

Rachel tossed her half-eaten donut in the trashcan and then followed the women out of the break room.

Sydney was unusually nervous. She had checked the bathroom stalls beforehand and finding them empty, she had locked the door. She needed a few minutes to herself without any interruptions. She looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. It was important for her to exude confidence and to pull that off she had chosen a black pantsuit with thin white pinstripes, accented by a white silk blouse buttoned at the collar. The two-inch heeled half boots brought her eye level with most men.

Caitlyn referred to this outfit as Sydney’s vamping power suit. The name fit the clothes well and when Sydney wore it, she did indeed feel powerful. She wasn’t what you would call an extreme femme yet she wasn’t exactly butch either. She liked wearing makeup as long as it consisted of a small amount of blush and black eyeliner, and maybe a little mascara. She had Rachel to thank for the eyeliner. She had told Sydney that she loved the way it brought out the tiny black specks surrounding her brown eyes. She used her hands to brush her hair back away from her face, not quite tucking the strands behind her ears.

“Time to get this show on the road,” she said as she unlocked the door.

Bill Amos, his grandson Andrew as well as Caitlyn, Allen, Kenneth, Maureen, and Bev were waiting for her in the small room located near the front of the main conference room. “Thank you,” she said, taking the file folder from Maureen.

By the time the women from the break room reached the conference hall, all seats except for three in the back row had been taken. Helen and Mary quickly took a seat and when Lily offered Rachel the third one, she shook her head and walked over to the table where the buffet bar had been set up. She refilled her coffee cup and leaned her back up against the wall. The entire room buzzed loudly with jumbled conversations. She caught bits and pieces and could tell that most centered around speculation regarding the meeting.

Just as she took a sip of coffee, the door located at the front of the conference hall opened. She nearly choked, spitting coffee everywhere when Sydney, followed by Caitlyn, Bill Amos, his grandson, and the Welsh executives walked into the room. If she thought the conversations couldn’t get any louder, she was mistaken.

Sydney walked up to the podium, which had been placed in the center of the room. She laid the folder down, picked up a wireless microphone, and clipped it to her lapel. She poured herself a glass of water while she waited for her executives to line up behind her. She turned back to the crowd who had suddenly become quiet. 

“Good morning and thank you for coming,” she said as she surveyed the crowd. “I know this meeting has caught most of you off-guard so I will get right to the point. For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Sydney Welsh. I am the President and CEO of Welsh Enterprises and these are my executives,” she said, turning and motioning with her hand at the people standing behind her. “Less than forty-eight hours ago, Welsh Enterprises became the full owner of EMCOR.”

“What does that mean for us?” an older man wearing a ball cap and blue Izod shirt yelled from the back of the room.

Sydney scanned the room to locate the questioner. She lost her train of thought for a moment when she saw Rachel leaning against the back wall.
Focus,
she told herself as she looked for the man behind the voice. She found him standing near the rear entrance. “What is your name, sir?”

“Carl Monroe, ma’am,” he said, taking off his hat.

“Well, Mr. Monroe, I’m going to tell you exactly what Welsh owning EMCOR is going to do for you.” She stopped to take a drink of water.

“Are we going to lose our jobs?” asked a matronly looking woman sitting in the front row. “Oh, and my name is Edith,” she added with a smile.

Sydney could not help but smile back at the woman. “You won’t lose your job unless you want to, Edith.” Sydney made a sweeping gesture toward the crowd with her hand. “And that goes for the rest of you as well.”

Another man in the front row started to say something but Sydney held up her hand to stop him. “I have several things to tell you and when I’m finished, I will open up the floor and try to the best of my ability to answer all of your questions.”

She came out from behind the podium and walked to the left side of the room. She stopped within two feet of the people in the front row. “I understand how change can be a scary thing for some people but I want to tell you that not all change is bad. In most cases, it’s for the best even if we don’t believe so at the time. Without the constant of change, things will stagnate and die. Take a fishing pond for example. Without the movement of ripples in the water, everything in the pond will die. It starts with the microorganisms that feed the algae. Without them the algae dies, once the algae dies the fish have no food and they die and the cycle goes on and on until nothing is left. The same can be true for a business. EMCOR is the pond and Welsh Enterprises is now the ripple.”

She turned and walked back to the podium. She took another sip of water and looked out at the faces of her new employees. She could tell by their expressions that they understood what she was saying. She was in her element. The one thing she knew how to do was work a room and in the process, hopefully her enthusiasm became contagious and it had nothing to do with being a good con-artist, it was because she believed in what she was saying.

She refilled her glass and walked over to the right side of the room. “For the next month or two, it will be business as usual while several of my executives evaluate the business plan and processes here at EMCOR. They will also be evaluating specific job functions and the employees who fill those roles. No one ... and I repeat, no one will be terminated or laid off if after the evaluations, it is determined that they are not the best candidate for that particular job. All of you are important to the success of EMCOR and you may or may not be utilizing your full potential and that is what we want to find out.”

She paused for a few seconds to allow her comments to sink in before continuing. “I know some of you are still skeptical and that’s okay. You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t. Believe me when I say I want this transition to go as smoothly as possible for all of our sakes. My philosophy has always been that if you respect and take care of your employees, they will take care of you. I would not be where I am today without hardworking, loyal employees. Without you, my businesses wouldn’t exist and I also believe that my employees should share in the wealth they help to create.”

She stopped to clear her throat. “Since EMCOR is now part of the Welsh family, you will be receiving the same courtesy’s and benefits that all Welsh employees get and that starts with your Christmas bonuses. I’ve had the opportunity to review the standard bonuses here at EMCOR, and by Welsh standards, it’s just not acceptable. In this week’s paycheck, every single employee will receive a $10,000 bonus.” At this news, the entire place went nuts with whooping and hollering and a couple of hell yeahs. Sydney had to smile when she overheard an elderly man ask if he had heard her correctly.

She held her hand in the air to quiet them. “In addition to the bonus, you will also be given the Thursday and Friday off before Christmas and none of you are to return to work until the third of January and before anyone asks, yes it is all with pay.”

“Wow, I never expected this in a million years,” she overheard a young man in the second row whisper to the woman sitting next to him.

So far, so good,
she thought as she turned and went back up to the podium. “Okay, does anyone have a question?”

Several men and women stood up from their chairs. As she pointed to a young woman near the back of the room, she locked eyes with Rachel and felt her heart skip a beat.

Rachel pushed away from the wall and walked over to the doorway. She stopped and turned to look back at Sydney. She shook her head and then slung her coffee cup into the trashcan before storming out of the room.  

Sydney looked back at the young woman. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Can you please repeat the question?”