What You Need(106)
Archer nodded. “Thank you. How did all of this come to your attention? I’ve never heard of you getting mixed up in personnel matters, Brady.”
“After I became CFO, Anita was my admin for a few weeks until Jenna got up to speed. She’s used that to her advantage too. She overstepped her bounds, claiming she had the power to fire two of my junior staff members from Finance if they refused to run oversight in her investigation. Now she’s trying to permanently move them from their respective departments. I wouldn’t have heard anything about this, including the audit, except for the fact I’m dating Lennox Greene and, as you know, she works in the temp department that was under investigation.”
“Lennox spoke to you about a departmental audit?” Uncle Monte asked me with an edge.
“No, sir. Her coworker mentioned it to me. And that’s a moot point, because knowing that a department is undergoing an audit is not a confidential matter. Normally I see only the end recommendation as far as the potential financial impact. I kept an eye on the process this time, initially because I was ignorant about the duties of that subdepartment. After Lennox and I became involved, I continued to get updates—but not from Lennox. I was blindsided by Anita’s recommendation to eliminate that department entirely. I conducted my own investigation and found contrary evidence.”
“So these incidents have nothing to do with you protecting your relationship with Lennox?”
“My relationship with Lennox has not affected my decision in any way and that will continue since Lennox will be working for Annika in PR starting next week.”
Ash and Nolan exchanged a look that wasn’t lost on me.
Archer sighed. “I hate this shit. Hate it. We place qualified people in these positions so we don’t have to deal with this inconsequential crap that has no bearing on what we do in running the company. Fire Anita. Immediately.”
I was about to open my mouth to argue, but my father beat me to it.
“I hate to disagree with you, Archer, but if Anita buried evidence of her wrongdoing within the company, what’s to keep her from wreaking havoc with our competitors? If we fire her, she’ll go to them and we’ll have lost any ability for damage control.”
Smart man, my father.
Archer looked at me, then Ash, because this was Ash’s area of expertise. “Ash?”
His voice was so low and so deadly we all strained to hear him. “I’ve thought about this. I’ve thought about little else since this came to light. If we fire Anita, I expect she’ll take us to court even though she knows she’ll lose. But she has nothing to lose because of union rules. She will continue to collect a paycheck during litigation, no matter how long it drags out. We won’t dick around with her pension because we’ve never been that kind of a company. But we obviously cannot fire her or leave her in her present position.” He smiled nastily. “That leaves us no choice but to reassign her to the Duluth office.”
Silence.
Nolan laughed first. “Absolutely brilliant. If I remember correctly, the last contract we came to terms with the union provided for mobility within the company with no penalties—the employee’s position change could be management led or employee requested. But if the employee refused the managerial decision and resigned their position, they give up any right to future litigation, and they’re prevented from working for a competitor for a year.”
“She can put whatever spin she likes on it. She’s only—what, two years from retirement? If she quits and has to sit out a year, no company will hire her. Sad fact of life.”
“You’re certain she’ll take the job?” Archer said to Ash.
“Relatively. If she does, she won’t have autonomy. She’ll answer to Zosia.”
A collective groan sounded.
Our cousin Zosia Lund defined hard-ass—and she wasn’t even thirty. She and her brother Zeke had come to us a decade ago when their father had put their fishing and shipping company in Duluth close to bankruptcy. We’d bailed them out and brought them under the Lund Industries banner. They’d rebuilt the business and were back up to one hundred employees. I wished I could see the look on Anita’s face when she took in all five foot nothing of our Ojibwe and Norwegian cousin. Answering to a woman three decades her junior, and dealing with personnel in what amounted to a glorified fishing shack, would be the worst sort of punishment for Anita.
“Well, I, for one, am happy to see how well all of you have handled this matter,” Archer said. “Any other issues I—we—should be aware of?”