“Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.” — Unknown
I decided to meet with Mrs. Benda to discuss my resignation in the late afternoon on May 30th. I thought this would give her enough time to get mad at me on the weekend when I was not around. Close to 5:00 PM we managed to get together and she was in a good mood. I started saying that a friend of mine needs my services desperately and Lynda and I decided to help him. She said what are you talking about? I said I don’t want to sound ungrateful Mrs. Benda but I need to resign and go to Fredericton. She said where the hell is Fredericton? I said it’s in the province of New Brunswick. She said let me understand this. You are going to leave me and go work in a stinky place I never heard of before. It’s a government job Mrs. Benda. My friend’s a big shot in the government over there and he needs my help. I worked for him here when I was working for Beaver Lumber Company and like you he was very kind to me. She said you are making a mistake Mir. Lynda will never be happy in a small place like that. She comes from London.
I know it’s going to be hard for her but she’s prepared to sacrifice for me. Mrs. Benda said has Lynda been there before. I said yes. Mrs. Benda said so you have been cooking this plan for a while. I said we were in Fredericton for our holidays before I started working for you. She said what would you say if I offered you more money and lease a brand new car for Lynda. I said Mrs. Benda I am taking a cut in salary to go there to help my friend. She said I don’t understand you, Mir. She said did you tell Lynda that you have accepted a job with less salary than the money you are making with me. I said indeed I did. She said I want you to go home and discuss with Lynda my offer of more money and a car for her. Maybe she’s a better business person than you? I said Mrs. Benda we made up our minds and nothing‘s going to change it. She said do me a favour and do what I am asking you to do. If you come back on Monday and say that you’re going, I will accept your resignation. I said it’s a deal.
When I went home, I went up to our bedroom to get changed before we headed out for supper. Lynda popped in to see me and said how did it go? I said not too well. I told her the offer Mrs. Benda made to seduce us. Lynda said I could use a brand new car. I said you will be living here in Ontario by yourself. She said she was just kidding.
On the weekend we went around town to visit the used car dealerships to trade both our cars for one reasonably reliable car. We had a couple of offers but there was no rush and we wanted to think about those offers.
When I went back to work on Monday, I was doing something in the computer room and Sandy came to see me and said if you have a few minutes, Mrs. Benda would like to see you. I said I will be there in a minute. When I went to see her in her office, Mrs. Benda was anxious to know what Lynda had to say about her offer. I said Lynda was totally flattered with your offer and to be totally honest with you we also could use some additional money but we made a commitment to our friend and we would like to go there.
However, before I go I will make sure that I hire somebody to look all the necessary things. I also told her you don’t need to spend the kind of money you were spending on me or offer a company car as I have almost every process documented in a way that other people will not have any problems following through on a daily basis. Plus the current staff in the computer room and in the control room are better equipped now than they were before I joined your company.
Nevertheless, you need to stop taking stuff from the warehouse whenever you feel like it. I said I also have set up an account for you on the computer. All you have to do is give Sue a list of the things that you want and she will get them ready for you ASAP. She will process the list as an order for you and she will put it through the computer to maintain the accurate inventory for each item. All you will have to do at the end of each fiscal year is write off the total amount for all the items you have taken as “Public Relations Expenses”. So please stay away from the warehouse.
She said you have no idea how much I appreciate what you have accomplished in such a short period of time. So she said you have somebody in mind to hire. I said I spoke to the folks who do maintenance on our computer and key-punch machines. They knew a young woman they thought could be a good fit for us. I said I have known these people since 1974 when I started working for Beaver Lumber Company as they used to do the maintenance for their computers, too. She said it would be nice if you get that woman to work for us before you leave here. I said that’s what I am trying to set up.
When I got up to leave her office I took the letter of resignation out of my jacket pocket and said would it be okay if I left this with you. She said give it to me. By the way she said I almost forgot. Would you like to bring your family to our place on Friday for dinner? It was quite an unexpected request and I was perplexed for a minute. I said what’s the occasion? She said nothing special just a dinner. Nobody else’s invited. I said Lynda and the kids would love it.
I had so many things on my plate to keep me busy for the rest of the week including hiring the person I spoke to Mrs. Benda about. The person who came for the interview had resigned recently and she was available to start working any time. When I interviewed her she sounded okay and when I checked her references her last boss said she’s a smart lady but she didn’t have the patience to wait for her turn to be promoted. The job I offered her indeed was a promotion for her and I told her that she was going to be the number one person in the department and there would be other opportunities for her to be promoted further. She said that was okay. I told her to go home and discuss it with her family and let me know as soon as she can.
On Friday I went home early. The kids were almost ready and Lynda was getting ready for the big night. She said to me I decided to wear the beautiful blouse that Mrs. Benda bought me in Paris. I said she would love to see you in that blouse. I got washed and put casual clothes on before we got into the car. We didn’t have any problems in finding her place. Her apartment was located in a nice building. When we went up to her apartment she opened the door and welcome us into her beautiful home. I was staggered to see the decoration. The drapes, paintings on the walls, and the colours of the walls were all eye-catching. I said it’s a huge place. She said they bought two three-bedroom apartments side by side and reconfigured everything to meet their requirements. Their son who was between Maxine’s and Adam’s age was standing there to meet us. Mrs. Benda said to him David take Maxine and Adam to the game room and show them your collection of stamps.
Joe wanted to take our orders for drinks and we proceeded to the bar. They wanted us to go to their living room where the drinks would be served. As soon as we sat down, Joe brought our drinks and Mrs. Benda said thanks for coming. She said the dinner will be served at 7:00 PM and kids will be dining separately. We said it sounds just fine. She looked at Lynda again and said that blouse was made for you. Lynda thanked her for such an expensive blouse. She said I asked our cook to make fish for Friday dinner as I understood that Lynda loved fish. Lynda went red when she heard that. She said how did you know that I like fish. She said it’s just bits and pieces that I pick up when people talk to me. Lynda was totally captivated. It didn’t take too long for her cook to come and say the dinner’s ready.
The white wine was served with the fish which was quite appropriate. After dinner Mrs. Benda asked Lynda if she wanted to see the rest of the apartment. Lynda said I would love to. I went along with them but Mrs. Benda’s focus was on Lynda.
When we got back to the living room, Joe said we have some after-diner Italian liqueurs like: Limoncello; Amaretto; Sambuca; Grappa or Amari. He said what would you like? I said I am driving and Lynda said I already had enough to drink. Mrs. Benda said don’t worry about the kids they all are taken care of.
Mrs. Benda said we would like to share some good news with you both. We said wonderful. She said we finally bought a house much bigger than this apartment. We said that’s wonderful news. She said but we wanted to talk to you about something. I said we are all ears. She looked at Lynda and said how about if you accept this apartment as your home and come and live here when we move out. I knew exactly what she was talking about but Lynda was confused. Mrs. Benda explained it to her very carefully. She said we will put some files in one of the closets and declare it our corporate storage place which will allow us to write off all associated expenses and you can live here with your kids for nothing. We have good schools in the area and not too much crime in this neighbourhood either. Lynda was absolutely dumbfounded. She had her mouth opened unintentionally. She had no clue what to say. Mrs. Benda said you don’t have to answer right now. Take your time and discuss it on the weekend and let me know on Monday.
I said Mrs. Benda it’s a very generous offer. We never had anybody in my career as generous as you and we are utterly grateful to you. We will discuss it on the weekend and I will let you know on Monday.
Saturday we took our cars to the used dealership and traded for a Ford Thunderbird. We were reasonably happy with the condition of the car that we bought but we wanted to test it out when we would drive long distances on our way to Fredericton. I had to give the Buick back to Mrs. Benda on my last day at work.
We both avoided going back to discussing what Mrs. Benda had proposed but it was bugging us like heck. Finally, Lynda asked me if I had any thoughts on the subject. I said to Lynda to be totally honest with you, I am still shocked at her proposal. She’s definitely very creative minded but one of these days she will be sorry for her ingenuity. Lynda said what are you talking about? I said I was referring to how she proposed to justify the expenses associated with the apartment. Lynda said another thing, when you went to use the washroom she asked me if I can do anything to change your mind and I told her, not in so many words, that once his mind‘s made up, it’s very hard for anybody to change it. Lynda said I knew that she was very disappointed with that statement. She said I am totally convinced that you will never find any employer more generous than Mrs. Benda for sure.
I had to take a minute or two to organize my thoughts before I opened my mouth. I said to Lynda that I knew that Mrs. Benda was devious but I had no idea about the extent of her deceitfulness. She said what do you mean? I said let me tell you a couple of things about Mrs. Benda which I never shared with you before. She said I am all ears.
I started saying that you know Helen who works with me? She said, yes, I met her. She seemed to be a very nice person. I said the story is that Helen’s husband is the bank manager where Eletex does its banking and Helen used to work for the same branch. Believe it or not, her husband approved the initial loan for the company and since then he became the financial advisor for Mrs. Benda which’s not uncommon for a bank manager. What’s not common is that Mrs. Benda persuaded Helen to work for her by offering her more salary than she was making with the bank and by offering her a brand new leased Corvette car. Helen looks after Accounts Payable as well as Accounts Receivable. Furthermore, some accountant recommended by the Bank Manager was hired to do annual financial statements every year for Eletex.
Lynda said is there anything wrong with that approach if they are doing their jobs? That’s a million dollar question, I said. Nobody knows the answer to that question only because nobody has a clue about what’s goes on between Helen and Mrs. Benda. When they both were away the other week, I tricked Sandy to borrow the keys for the cabinet and I was utterly astounded to learn that Mrs. Benda had no hesitation to charge anything and everything on her expense account including the garden furniture and expensive paintings whereas Lew, the other VP, had charged hundreds of dollars on his expense account for various shows when he was in London, UK, on his way to visiting his parents back in South Africa. Better yet, I also found out that Mrs. Benda’s mother had a corporate credit card which she used every month for hundreds of dollars without any hesitation. Would you believe that it took me only a few minutes to find out those things as Sandy wanted the keys back as soon as possible. Just imagine how long it would take for the auditors, if and when she get audited.
I looked at Lynda and said, it’s neither safe nor sustainable for me to continue to work there and she said “Fredericton here we come”.
The time I left Eletex, everything was under control. The new person was getting used to the environment. I was grateful to Mrs. Benda for the way she treated me as I never thought that I would ever be able to work for a woman. It had to do with my male chauvinistic background where we Indians are known for keeping women barefooted and pregnant. Nevertheless, I was sad for Mrs. Benda.
