Making A Choice, Part Four

 
I want to reiterate, this is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty (darn it!). Actually, I’ve decided that it might be easier to follow things, if I used a couple of names for the participants and for the companies, as it can be quite confusing. If you think all of this is difficult to follow, please remember that this was a relatively small corporate set up, so just think, when you’ve heard media reports and even investigators saying that they have had trouble tracing matters through corporations like ENRON, Tyco and Haliburton, they are telling the truth. So, here we go:

George: The owner and CEO of “George Enterprises,” which is the HQ corporation for O.L.D. Management Company. “George Enterprises” also contained a development company and a construction management company (names really unimportant to this story) and personnel from these various companies frequently worked in cooperation with one another, as all were under the same overall HQ, but the paychecks were simply drawn from one of the specific branch companies. George was a VERY egotistical, ruthless, cunning, conniving, deceitful, etc, etc, guy. He was relatively short, and a bit stout, and the way he strutted around, he reminded me of Mussolini, without the uniform, in the old news reels from the World War II era.

In fairness, he could at times have some compassion when others were able to point things out to him, but getting through that burgeoning ego wasn’t always easy to do. For instance, at another apartment building where he was part owner and one of the managing partners, the apartments were all subsidized units for elderly and disabled people. The subsidies were granted by the local housing authority, which didn’t always function in an efficient manner.* One woman, a quadriplegic, was approved by the housing authority, but we never received payments from them for her rent. Documentation was provided to prove her case, but the case went on and on, until the amount owed was very large. A representative of one of the other owners, a VERY hard line individual, informed George of the large amount owed. George called me into his office for an explanation, and after hearing the whole story, he said, “You’re doing the right thing. We don’t want to evict this woman. She has enough problems. Keep after the housing authority." That was the right thing to do!

Dan: President of O.L.D. Management and vice president of N.E.W. Management Company. He had a conscience and he helped stir a conscience in others, including George. When he was gone, any conscience in “George Enterprises” and the related companies went with him. See more about Dan in the continued story.

Art: President of “George Enterprises,” and later, simultaneously held title of president of O.L.D. Management. Basically a decent guy, but over time, George wanted him to follow his usual ruthless, tough approach to things, which he did, but his conscience seemed to bother him, at least on some occasions, although he seemed able to squelch any pangs of conscience after a little time passed.

Del: Later operations head of O.L.D. Management. An egotistical, cocky little guy, who also carried himself with that Mussolini strut, but without Il Duce’s girth. Absolutely ruthless and conniving. When I listened to him, I could tell that he spent lots of time thinking out his ruthlessness, he was so calculating. He was the guy who wanted the young student from Poland put out onto the streets. To me, he was out and out evil. He was like Eichmann was to Hitler and Himmler, a guy who carried out operations, but with his own personal evil stamp imposed on it. Unfortunately, both George and Art came very much to admire him, and turn a blind eye to his tactics. Interestingly, he said to me on several occasions, “I can’t understand why people don’t like me; I’m really a nice guy.” My thoughts were, “Maybe when you’re asleep.” But to be quite honest, I doubt that, as I think this guy dreamed in evil.

N.E.W. Management was set up with O.L.D. Management Company doing the accounting, handling the payroll, under the same insurance plan, the same employee handbook (“white out” was simply used to cover the name of the existing company in the various passages and the new company was then added), the same holidays, the same company Christmas party, the same 401 K plan and for me, with the same “seniority,” which mattered for the company vacation plan. George, the owner of George Enterprises, always acted as if he also owned N.E.W., and he never discouraged anyone from believing such. In fact, he told me that in a few years, N.E.W. would be abolished and blended into O.L.D.

The “boss” for N.E.W., Dan, was the president of O.L.D., but he had the title of vice president of N.E.W. Management (the president’s name is unimportant to this story). Dan was just a few years away from being eligible for Social Security and Medicare, and it was thought by all involved that he would retire at that time. Dan was a VERY nice guy, in fact, maybe too nice. It was and is my opinion that he was not really the executive type. He liked gathering information for various projects and putting together and “crunching” numbers, but he was not an every day operations guy and in other matters, like dealing with employees, he was weak. I say this without the oft-implied derogatory meaning; he was a bureaucrat, not an executive. Even though he was president of O.L.D. Management, it was more of just a title than a clearly defined position, as George was really the one and only true executive, and everyone knew it, the “King,” as Art called him. Dan provided a great counterbalance to some of the deceit and ruthlessness of others in the overall company set up. I’m not saying he was a saint, none of us is, but he basically played things straight up, which is difficult to maintain in the corporate world. After three years, George “released” Dan from his position as president of the existing management company, leaving him with substantially less income, only from the apartment building in question, and no medical insurance. I can’t recall exactly, but I believe he was just about to go on Medicare. His wife was about a year older and so already was on Medicare, but as he explained to me at some later point, they needed the company insurance for medications, as there was no prescription drug coverage for Medicare, at that point, and his wife had regular prescriptions that would have cost several hundred dollars per month just for her, and he had just recently had medical problems that also required regular prescription medication.

Now that these things are out of the way, I’ll take up with the actual story again in Part 5.

* Hey, I admit government entities don’t always function properly, but at times, too, they aren’t properly funded either. We all want government agencies providing help to people to get the money and services to those who are truly needy, but there IS a cost to do that. We can’t have it both ways; that is, have agencies investigate applicants to see if they really qualify for help, but then not hire enough people to handle the cases in a timely manner. My experience with the local housing authority wasn’t all good, nor was it all bad, but I can say that the caseworkers were pretty overwhelmed at times, and getting in to see them was akin to getting an appointment with Dick Cheney, when he’s in his “undisclosed location.” (This article was written during the time George W. Bush was President)

Word History:
Lull-This verb, meaning "to calm, to soothe, to help to rest, to make to feel at ease," began to appear in English "in writing," during the 1300s, thus some assume that "lull" was borrowed from another Germanic language, as Swedish has "lulla," meaning "softly sing a song," German and Low German have "lullen," meaning "sing a child to sleep, to lull," and Dutch has "lullen," meaning "to prattle/talk silly," Danish and Norwegian "lulle" (lull), Icelandic "lulla" (lull). I just wonder if this could be one of those words that had been used by the common people, which didn't make it into written English until later; especially since German and Dutch have forms of the word, and they are both closely related to English. It likely originated from the songs and sounds made to comfort a baby. The noun form, meaning "a pause, a break, a quiet time," came from the verb seemingly during the mid 1600s.