Blue Days Calmes, Nowe MM
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//-->Blue Days |Mary Calmes2Chapter OneIHADfailed.Epically.But the upshot was, I was now free to go. I was never meant to sitbehind a desk in an office and look at spreadsheets anyway. My dreamsincluded sun and wind and hopefully still high-stakes sales or evennumber crunching––because that was the part I loved––but without theglass-walled office. It was time to take a chance on my real dreams insteadof dealing with the fallout of my last career decision. I hated facing thejudgmental looks every day, hearing the snickering, and knowing thatevery person there, even colleagues who had become friends, thought Iwas a screwup.As I sat in the large conference room along with the entire firm,waiting to have an emergency meeting on a cold, dreary Monday morningin January, I contemplated my future.We had all been sent an urgent e-mail the night before that informedus to report to work at seven sharp to hear about the “new direction” thecompany would be taking—and we all knew some kind of shakeup wascoming—so we convened and waited to learn the future of SakuraLimited, the real estate development company we all worked for. I hadstopped on the way to get coffee for the two people from my old team whowere still talking to me, Shawn Ferris and Liza Cho. I was still beingthanked for the caffeine when Mr. Conner Troy, CEO, came through aside door and walked directly to the podium.“Good morning, everyone, thank you all for coming on such shortnotice.” He glanced around the room. “The reason I called you here is toannounce the immediate resignation of Managing Director EverettConnelly from the staff of Sakura Limited.”The gasp from all corners was audible, but I was not surprised. Thecompany hadn’t lost any money in the last two quarters, but neither had itmade any. We were absolutely at a standstill, had been for the past year.But that couldn’t have been the problem; the important thing was keepingthe clients we had, not looking for new prospects. That was what had beendrilled into me when my deal fell through, that I was overreaching.“I wonder who they got,” Shawn asked, turning to look at me.“You know I don’t know.” I sighed. “I’m just lucky to have a job,right?”“Don’t be bitter, Dwyer,” he told me. “You tried, you failed huge,but at least you gave it your best shot.”“Mr. Connelly felt,” Mr. Troy continued, “that the direction hewanted for his career and the direction that Sakura would be taking wouldnot be complementary paths.”“Which means what, exactly?” Liza asked under her breath from myright as she nudged me in the ribs.“Just because I was inner circle once doesn’t mean I am anymore,” Iwhispered back.Mr. Troy cleared his throat. “With that being said, we must also saygood-bye to Ava Palmer and wish her the very best as she takes on hernew challenges with Myer Coffman.”“Oh ouch.” Liza groaned softly. “I mean, I hated her, but I wouldjump into Lake Michigan before I wentthereand died of shame.”Everyone knew if you couldn’t make it in Chicago with one of thebig three—Sakura, Sutter, or Ryerson & Wolf—you went to work at MyerCoffman.It was painful to even hear she went there. I had told myself when Iwas almost fired that if I was let go, I would fall back on my minor fromcollege and go teach art in junior college or something. No way I wentfrom Sakura to Myer Coffman. I had too much pride.Maybe that was bad, though. It hadn’t served me all that well.“I wonder if—” Shawn began.“Furthermore, several members of Ava’s team have also beenreleased from their contracts.”“Oh shit.” Shawn’s voice edged high and Liza grabbed my hand,clutching tight.Blue Days |Mary Calmes3Lots of layoffs this morning was why the conference room looked alittle light. But again, it made sense—Everett had been the managingdirector, Ava was his right hand, and she had led a less-than-ambitiouspack of development reps. They had been more interested in keeping whatthey had than in going after something new, because it was safe. Safe wasgood. Safe kept you in business. But safe didn’t get you any infusion ofcreativity, or funds, or excitement. Safe did not show investors you werethe company to watch. We showed no growth without new projects, atleast in my opinion.But after my flop of faith, I had been educated about how importantit was tonotrock the boat.“Holy shit,” Liza whispered.“We could contemplate our losses, but instead we look to our future.As a result of these changes, Mr. Kurofuji Ryouta from our corporateoffice in Tokyo will be taking over the position of managing director,effective immediately. He has brought with him several key members ofhis team, and we could not be happier. Let’s give them all a round ofapplause to welcome them aboard.”We all clapped and Mr. Kurofuji took the podium, the six otherpeople he had brought lining up next to him. There were three women andthree men all in suits, all looking polished and professional and perfect.“Good morning,” he greeted us. “This, of course, is only a portion ofmy team; the others are already at work and have been for hours.”Of course they were. His people were at the top of their game.“I’m so fired,” I groaned.I got hit in the ribs with elbows from both sides.Blue Days |Mary Calmes4IWASsitting in the office I shared with Peter Goodman a couple of hourslater when Mr. Kurofuji and two other men walked in. I had never seen theother two Japanese gentlemen, but the man in front was my new big boss.I got up, Peter got up, and remembering what I’d learned in culturaltraining the year before, I bowed low—since I was low man on the totempole—and waited for Mr. Kurofuji to return the gesture.Both he and the others bowed back, and once they did, Istraightened. “Ohayo gozaimasu,” I greeted, using the formal good-morning I’d been taught.Every one of them spoke the words back to me. I couldn’t help butsmile.Peter walked forward, hand out. When he was stopped by one of theminions putting an envelope in his hand, he looked confused.“The layoffs will proceed throughout the day,” Mr. Kurofujiinformed him. “We appreciate your tenure here at Sakura, but your timewith us has drawn to a close, Mr. Goodman. Please gather anynoncompany possessions and be prepared to be escorted out in half anhour.”The other assistant handed Peter a banker’s box to put his stuff in,and as he stood there—stunned, mouth open, his last check in hand—alleyes turned to me.I smiled then and waited for my own envelope.“Mr. Knolls, would you step out into the hall, please.”I followed, and once we were out, I realized a lot of people wereleaving, trudging toward the elevators, boxes in their arms.“Mr. Knolls,” Mr. Kurofuji said crisply. “You will report upstairs tothe small conference room, where Ms. Shiga Ayumi, who is the newDirector of Client Services for Sakura here in Chicago, awaits you. Yournew partner, Mr. Hiroyuki Takeo, is there as well.”I was confused, but I also knew that asking questions was a reallybad idea. “Thank you, sir,” I said as I bowed.When I reached the small area where everyone was waiting to get onthe elevators, I was getting looks. I was the only one who pressed thegreen Up arrow instead of the red Down one. When Liza and Shawnjoined me, nothing in their hands, also waiting to go up, I was relieved.“What the fuck?” Rob Lambert growled as he got on a car todescend. “The fuckups get to stay? How does that make any sense?”Shawn flipped him off as the doors closed.“Are you getting a partner?” I asked Liza.“Yeah,” she told me. “Are you?”I nodded and looked at Shawn. “You?”Blue Days |Mary Calmes5 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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//-->Blue Days |Mary Calmes2Chapter OneIHADfailed.Epically.But the upshot was, I was now free to go. I was never meant to sitbehind a desk in an office and look at spreadsheets anyway. My dreamsincluded sun and wind and hopefully still high-stakes sales or evennumber crunching––because that was the part I loved––but without theglass-walled office. It was time to take a chance on my real dreams insteadof dealing with the fallout of my last career decision. I hated facing thejudgmental looks every day, hearing the snickering, and knowing thatevery person there, even colleagues who had become friends, thought Iwas a screwup.As I sat in the large conference room along with the entire firm,waiting to have an emergency meeting on a cold, dreary Monday morningin January, I contemplated my future.We had all been sent an urgent e-mail the night before that informedus to report to work at seven sharp to hear about the “new direction” thecompany would be taking—and we all knew some kind of shakeup wascoming—so we convened and waited to learn the future of SakuraLimited, the real estate development company we all worked for. I hadstopped on the way to get coffee for the two people from my old team whowere still talking to me, Shawn Ferris and Liza Cho. I was still beingthanked for the caffeine when Mr. Conner Troy, CEO, came through aside door and walked directly to the podium.“Good morning, everyone, thank you all for coming on such shortnotice.” He glanced around the room. “The reason I called you here is toannounce the immediate resignation of Managing Director EverettConnelly from the staff of Sakura Limited.”The gasp from all corners was audible, but I was not surprised. Thecompany hadn’t lost any money in the last two quarters, but neither had itmade any. We were absolutely at a standstill, had been for the past year.But that couldn’t have been the problem; the important thing was keepingthe clients we had, not looking for new prospects. That was what had beendrilled into me when my deal fell through, that I was overreaching.“I wonder who they got,” Shawn asked, turning to look at me.“You know I don’t know.” I sighed. “I’m just lucky to have a job,right?”“Don’t be bitter, Dwyer,” he told me. “You tried, you failed huge,but at least you gave it your best shot.”“Mr. Connelly felt,” Mr. Troy continued, “that the direction hewanted for his career and the direction that Sakura would be taking wouldnot be complementary paths.”“Which means what, exactly?” Liza asked under her breath from myright as she nudged me in the ribs.“Just because I was inner circle once doesn’t mean I am anymore,” Iwhispered back.Mr. Troy cleared his throat. “With that being said, we must also saygood-bye to Ava Palmer and wish her the very best as she takes on hernew challenges with Myer Coffman.”“Oh ouch.” Liza groaned softly. “I mean, I hated her, but I wouldjump into Lake Michigan before I wentthereand died of shame.”Everyone knew if you couldn’t make it in Chicago with one of thebig three—Sakura, Sutter, or Ryerson & Wolf—you went to work at MyerCoffman.It was painful to even hear she went there. I had told myself when Iwas almost fired that if I was let go, I would fall back on my minor fromcollege and go teach art in junior college or something. No way I wentfrom Sakura to Myer Coffman. I had too much pride.Maybe that was bad, though. It hadn’t served me all that well.“I wonder if—” Shawn began.“Furthermore, several members of Ava’s team have also beenreleased from their contracts.”“Oh shit.” Shawn’s voice edged high and Liza grabbed my hand,clutching tight.Blue Days |Mary Calmes3Lots of layoffs this morning was why the conference room looked alittle light. But again, it made sense—Everett had been the managingdirector, Ava was his right hand, and she had led a less-than-ambitiouspack of development reps. They had been more interested in keeping whatthey had than in going after something new, because it was safe. Safe wasgood. Safe kept you in business. But safe didn’t get you any infusion ofcreativity, or funds, or excitement. Safe did not show investors you werethe company to watch. We showed no growth without new projects, atleast in my opinion.But after my flop of faith, I had been educated about how importantit was tonotrock the boat.“Holy shit,” Liza whispered.“We could contemplate our losses, but instead we look to our future.As a result of these changes, Mr. Kurofuji Ryouta from our corporateoffice in Tokyo will be taking over the position of managing director,effective immediately. He has brought with him several key members ofhis team, and we could not be happier. Let’s give them all a round ofapplause to welcome them aboard.”We all clapped and Mr. Kurofuji took the podium, the six otherpeople he had brought lining up next to him. There were three women andthree men all in suits, all looking polished and professional and perfect.“Good morning,” he greeted us. “This, of course, is only a portion ofmy team; the others are already at work and have been for hours.”Of course they were. His people were at the top of their game.“I’m so fired,” I groaned.I got hit in the ribs with elbows from both sides.Blue Days |Mary Calmes4IWASsitting in the office I shared with Peter Goodman a couple of hourslater when Mr. Kurofuji and two other men walked in. I had never seen theother two Japanese gentlemen, but the man in front was my new big boss.I got up, Peter got up, and remembering what I’d learned in culturaltraining the year before, I bowed low—since I was low man on the totempole—and waited for Mr. Kurofuji to return the gesture.Both he and the others bowed back, and once they did, Istraightened. “Ohayo gozaimasu,” I greeted, using the formal good-morning I’d been taught.Every one of them spoke the words back to me. I couldn’t help butsmile.Peter walked forward, hand out. When he was stopped by one of theminions putting an envelope in his hand, he looked confused.“The layoffs will proceed throughout the day,” Mr. Kurofujiinformed him. “We appreciate your tenure here at Sakura, but your timewith us has drawn to a close, Mr. Goodman. Please gather anynoncompany possessions and be prepared to be escorted out in half anhour.”The other assistant handed Peter a banker’s box to put his stuff in,and as he stood there—stunned, mouth open, his last check in hand—alleyes turned to me.I smiled then and waited for my own envelope.“Mr. Knolls, would you step out into the hall, please.”I followed, and once we were out, I realized a lot of people wereleaving, trudging toward the elevators, boxes in their arms.“Mr. Knolls,” Mr. Kurofuji said crisply. “You will report upstairs tothe small conference room, where Ms. Shiga Ayumi, who is the newDirector of Client Services for Sakura here in Chicago, awaits you. Yournew partner, Mr. Hiroyuki Takeo, is there as well.”I was confused, but I also knew that asking questions was a reallybad idea. “Thank you, sir,” I said as I bowed.When I reached the small area where everyone was waiting to get onthe elevators, I was getting looks. I was the only one who pressed thegreen Up arrow instead of the red Down one. When Liza and Shawnjoined me, nothing in their hands, also waiting to go up, I was relieved.“What the fuck?” Rob Lambert growled as he got on a car todescend. “The fuckups get to stay? How does that make any sense?”Shawn flipped him off as the doors closed.“Are you getting a partner?” I asked Liza.“Yeah,” she told me. “Are you?”I nodded and looked at Shawn. “You?”Blue Days |Mary Calmes5 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]