“Grief is love not wanting to let go” – Earl A. Grollman
I decided to take a week off to help Lynda with the moving. It didn’t take too long to find out that she didn’t need my help. She had amazing skills to organize and manage not to mention her ability to do multi-tasking. She had everything under control. She got rid of the things we wouldn’t need in our new home and organized everything else the way she wanted it to be. The only two things were not done as planed – the drapes and painting of the house. Lynda was now reasonably happy with the house. She decided to give Adam a bedroom on the same floor where our bedroom was located. Maxine now had the privacy as her bedroom was not on the same floor. Lynda decided to use the 4th bedroom as guest bedroom which was reserved for mom who used to visit us frequently.
Lynda put ad in the newspaper to rent out our townhome and we rented it to a couple from South Africa with two teen aged kids who were migrated to Canada recently. They didn’t have any references in Canada to check it but they showed us their bank balance to make sure that they had enough money in the bank to keep paying the rent.
When I went back to work on Monday, my secretary brought my coffee and said to me that she had a call from the secretary of the VP on Friday afternoon, asking me to tell you that he would likes to see you in the morning on Monday when you have some time. I was surprised to hear that but I didn’t like my secretary to know that. Typically, all executives in the company always followed the etiquette by communicating to me through my boss and in this case, he should have spoken to George who was my current boss. In any case, I finished my coffee, cleared my incoming basket, and went to the computer room to tell them that they had done an excellent job of completing everything on time without any glitches while I was away and thanked them for not calling me while I was away.
I came back to my office, put my jacket on and told Linda, my secretary, that I am going to the executive floor to see Ron.
As soon as Ron saw me walking towards his office, he came out of his office and shook hands and said hope everything went well with your move. I said Lynda had everything under control I was just there to pretend that I was helping her. He said that’s what happens with him, too. I said what’s up, Ron. He said, before I answered your question; let me see if the president had a few minutes to see you right after our chat. He didn’t wait for my response and went out and when he came back he said, yes he would like to see you, too. Now I was panic. There has to be something more important than I thought. If my memory serve me correctly, essentially Ron said:
- They were in the market for finding somebody to replace Gord Scott and finally they selected a guy who’s starting to work next week;
- In the meanwhile, instead of firing George because he wasn’t qualified for the job, they decided to demote him to his previous position which meant my current position; and
- However, he wanted me to know that George is not qualified to run the show. He said we are hoping that you will continue to do what you had been doing for a long time without any interruption from George.
I was totally stupefied and didn’t know what to say.
His secretary knocked the door and said the president is ready for Mir. I went into the president’s office. He got up from his chair to shake hands. If I remember correctly, he said:
- I never met you before Mir but I heard wonderful things about you;
- I thank you for the help you provided to Gord and George; and
- It wasn’t an easy decision for us and hope you understand it.
Essentially, I told him that I just came back after one week holiday, it’s difficult for me to comprehend everything going on and I need some time. He said no question about that Mir. Take some time and let us know how you feel. I thanked him for seeing me and went down to my office. I told my secretary not to panic. I also told her that just tell the folks on the floor that I had to go home for some personal reason and will be back first thing in the morning for sure.
I didn’t like to surprise Lynda by just showing up, therefore, I called her to let her know that there’s something wrong at work and I am coming home to discuss it with her. When I got home, Lynda had kids playing in the basement, coffee was ready, and she was all ears. When I finished summarizing my conversations with those two, she said:
- They picked the most vulnerable time to do that;
- They knew that we just bought a house and had some additional expenses which we didn’t anticipate and they thought we will be desperate to accept their pronouncement;
- She asked me how I felt. I told her that I am not worried about our financial situation but felt like affronted;
- She said I don’t blame you;
- They knew that they made a mistake to get rid of Gord and they combined that mistake by offering that job to George; and
- Go tell them what they can do with that job and if I have to, I will go to work as the mall is close by and there are numerous stores in the mall.
I called the kids up and asked how they like having early lunch today. I took them to a nice restaurant in the mall and we all enjoyed our lunch. It was a beautiful day in August of 1979.
I went to work quite early in the next morning and gathered all my personal stuff from my office and packed it in a box. I drafted my resignation letter and as soon as Linda showed up I asked her to type it. I went to Ron’s office around 9:00AM and explain to him that while I understood the reasoning behind your executive decision, nonetheless, on a personal level I was totally disillusioned. Hence here is my resignation. As soon as he started reading it, I left his office. He followed me to the elevator and wanted to talk for a minute and I said to him, it’s done and dusted, Ron.
