Author: DOuG pRATt

PART II: Lo and Behold, Ted got back on track right away. As far as I could tell, his private life was no longer interfering with his work. Yay! What a relief. I would have been very reluctant to terminate Ted’s employment on the basis of the hours he kept. I am a night owl myself, and not a natural early riser.

As I mentioned in an earlier installment, members of my group rarely traveled with another employee. We’d finish an installation and move on to another. With e-mail not yet being an option, further contact with customers was limited to the phone and, later, an occasional fax. We’d jump between airlines, depending on the destination, making it difficult to accumulate redeemable frequent flyer miles.

This contrasted with the consultants who followed us, who would return to a site again and again. They were able to build relationships with customers while collecting frequent flyer miles they were allowed to keep, rather than turning over to the company.

Ted went on a site visit to do software installation in Canada. I made many trips to Canada myself, and two years ago I wrote about one of them. (A passport wasn’t yet needed to cross the Canadian border.)

Bonners Ferry ’88

On one of my business trips to England, a group of consultants I was supposed to meet at the Logan international terminal turned out to be one woman. She was a gorgeous, very smart and capable professional, with an engaging personality. Although I assure you nothing happened, I have rarely enjoyed the casual company of a woman as much as I did with her that week.

When Ted left for Canada, I didn’t know that he was traveling with a woman who was a consultant in another group. Based on my week in England, along with that alleged pass a woman made at another woman, I might have been understanding (retroactively) if Ted’s resulting trouble was what you’re thinking. I promise you it came from an entirely different direction.

There came a day when Ted was a total no-show. It may have been a day other than Friday by that point. That’s a bit of detail I don’t recall. I gave up waiting for Ted and I called his apartment (no cellphones in 1987). His roommate said Ted wasn’t there, and he didn’t know where Ted was. I told him that if he heard from Ted, he had to get to the office ASAP.

Meeting with my boss, he said enough was enough, and that Ted needed to be put on probation. There was a formal process for doing that, and we met with the manager in charge of personnel-related matters, who gave us a form that Ted would have to sign.

When Ted finally showed up that afternoon, I sat with him for a very uncomfortable meeting, to find out what happened. He came up with an excuse that I was forced to at least consider might be true.

Ted claimed he didn’t come to work, and wasn’t at his apartment when I called, because he’d been with his parents, whose house had been defaced with a racial slur. He didn’t have an answer when I asked him why he hadn’t left a message for me. I told Ted that I used to be a reporter, and I knew that if what he said was true, it would definitely be a top story on the news that night.

Given the serious nature of Ted’s claim, he had to be given the benefit of the doubt, but there was nothing on the news that night or in the Boston Globe the next day, about a house being defaced with a racial slur. So I was left with no choice but to have Ted sign the probation form.

Ted seemed genuinely surprised and hurt. I sincerely liked Ted, and I wanted him to succeed. I felt bad making him sign a document acknowledging if there was any more trouble he could be fired.

Everything I’ve said so far is merely context to ensure a full appreciation of the upcoming plot twists. Consider this post to be the end of Part I.