Chapter 21: Storm Clouds

Posted: May 31, 2011 - 09:21:56 am

Several months had passed since Janet had had her appendix removed. Dexter had not had any contact with his family since that horrible Monday night. He was still angry at Sarah. He hadn’t appreciated being ambushed like that.

The website continued to gain viewers. Business programs on the cable news stations started talking about the increased number of lawsuits filed by employees against the companies. The employees were winning their lawsuits, and the executives were stunned.

Companies were swamped by demands for corporate credit cards for use when traveling. A lot of companies stuck to their policy that only people above a certain level in the company got company credit cards. Then came the expense vouchers for interest charges. Then came the lawsuits.

Having expensive lawyers defend the company in small claims court was costing a fortune. Not being able to float loans on the backs of their employees started costing companies a lot of money, also. All of a sudden, the travel budgets of companies were hurting.

Reimbursements for cell phones and home offices poured in. One success in a company was followed by hundreds of additional requests by other employees of the company. Often times, a quick trip to small claims court forced the company to revise its corporate policies. It simply wasn’t cost effective to fight it.

People stopped answering work related calls on their cell phones after working hours were over. Executives and a few managers stood in empty office buildings on weekends waiting for people to show up for work. Few people showed up.

Managers at all levels started demanding secretaries. Executives rejected the demands. Tensions mounted inside offices across the country. Business leaders turned to academics for advice on how to deal with the situation. Arguments over the economic benefits of support staff arose in business schools around the country. Those arguing for support staff pointed to the data on Dexter’s website. Those arguing against it claimed Dexter lacked the credentials to collect data of quality.

Dexter’s articles on delegating responsibility and authority downwards, were met with the same level of resistance. He argued that while delegating responsibility downwards was a long standing tradition, failure to give the authority to the responsible individual cost companies millions of dollars. Dexter maintained that it all came down to a matter of trust, and it was obvious that the companies didn’t trust their employees.

Dexter’s website was often blamed for cases of extreme violence between employee and employer. Several knockoff websites suddenly appeared. There were radical websites that promoted destruction of company property. When something horrible happened, his website was often blamed. This was unfair, since his website promoted a passive aggressive approach to dealing with things.

There was a measurable effect on a lot businesses, and not all of it was negative. Theaters, which had been sitting empty because of online movie services, suddenly found lines at the ticket counters. People now had time to take in a movie, and they wanted the full theater experience, complete with overpriced popcorn and soda drinks.

High end restaurants saw an increase in business as well. Young couples without children, and older couples whose children had left home, were taking the time to have a nice evening out. They wanted good food, outstanding service, and to enjoy a leisurely intimate conversation. They were willing pay for it. Complaints about bad food and poor service forced restaurants to increase staff and improve cuisine.

With all of the conflict boiling in companies across the country, some of that anger was bound to get directed at Dexter. It happened on a Wednesday when Dexter entered the office to find Eric sitting at his desk looking worried. Actually, Eric looked afraid.

Concerned, Dexter asked, “What’s wrong, Eric?”

“I’m getting worried about the threats being made against you. You’ve made a lot of enemies. There’s one guy who looks like he’s really serious about hurting you,” Eric said.

“I wouldn’t worry about it. I’ve been getting threatening e-mails ever since I started the website,” Dexter said.

He dismissed the concern out of hand. He had basically stopped reading the threatening e-mails.

“This is a little different,” Eric said.

“Why?” Dexter asked.

Eric pulled up an e-mail and said, “This guy is threatening to kill you. He says that he wants to see your corpse lying in the street in a puddle of blood. He actually knows where we are. I think he’s serious.”

“I guess we’d better call the police,” Dexter said.

He had never expected to be the subject of real death threats. Those were for politicians and other public figures. He was just a guy running a little website. It was making money, but it wasn’t making that much money.

Eric frowned and said, “I’m thinking we need to do more than that.”

“Like what?” Dexter asked.

“I think we need to stop coming into the office. Maybe we should move from place to place for a while,” Eric said.

“You think it’s that serious?” Dexter asked, surprised by the suggestion.

Eric clicked on the e-mail to open an attachment as he said, “This guy included a photo of you coming into the office building.”

“Oh, shit!”

“Yeah. ‘Oh shit’ is right,” Eric said.

“We better call the police, right now,” Dexter said.

“Once they are finished here, I’m leaving the office. I won’t be coming to the office for a couple of months. I figure that guy doesn’t know that I work for you, and I’m not going to let the bastard learn that I do. I’ll work from home, from now on. I don’t want my wife to become a widow,” Eric said.

“I can understand that. Truthfully, I don’t blame you,” Dexter said. “I think I’ll do the same thing, despite the fact that no one would miss me.”

“I’d miss you! You’re the best damned boss I’ve ever had,” Eric said.

“I’m not that great of a boss,” Dexter said.

“Four day work weeks? No supervision? No phone calls after hours? I’ve got a debit card for office supplies? I don’t waste time on bullshit, anymore? I can’t tell you how much I love this job.”

“That’s the way it should be,” Dexter said.

It had never made sense to Dexter to hire people to do a job and then get in the way of them doing the work they were hired to do. To have two levels of management sitting in every meeting was absurd. If you didn’t trust someone to manage their staff, you shouldn’t put them in that position.

He didn’t see why a company would pay someone more than eighty thousand a year and not trust them to spend a hundred dollars a year on office supplies. It was insane to think it was cost effective to have someone who made over a hundred thousand a year dispense pens and pads of paper to sixty people working for him. The lunacy didn’t stop there. It first required a vice-president’s approval, for that individual to purchase the office supplies that he was going to hand out.

“So you would be missed,” Eric said. “Now call the police, and then let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Good plan,” Dexter said, in total agreement.

It was two hours before a policeman, Detective Kingsley, showed up at the office. He browsed through the e-mails without demonstrating much concern, until he saw the one with the photo attached. Suddenly, he started taking the threat a whole lot more seriously. Even his body language changed.

Detective Kingsley said, “This looks serious.”

“That’s what we thought,” Dexter said.

He really wasn’t very pleased to hear the detective say that. He’d rather have heard that they were worried about nothing. Eric nodded his head in agreement with the detective.

“The problem is, I don’t know much about the internet. I mean, we don’t have an internet crimes division,” Detective Kingsley said.

“That doesn’t sound very encouraging,” Dexter said, as the only clue they had was the e-mail.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to find this guy from these e-mails. Maybe when we catch him, we’ll find copies on his machine to support a conviction. At least we know he was physically in the area and we can work from there,” Detective Kingsley said.