Better With Age: A Boomer's Tale

By John Lefevere

Baby Boomer Peter Barnes has fallen behind digitally at Catbird Technologies and is fearful that he’ll be RIF’d in a pending merger. Post-merger, younger incoming executives who are above Barnes in the new organizational chart load him down with work assignments clearly designed him up to quickly force him out. Even a long-time Catbird colleague who heads up the merged company has given subtle indications that he might not survive the next RIF. And everyone, including Peter, has their eyes on a pending IPO that will make them all wealthy.

Determined to save his job, Barnes learns to creatively use digital technology to start turning the tables on the incoming executives who have targeted him for elimination. Things start turning in Peter’s favor as one executive appears to be involved in a sexting scandal and another is secretly being enticed to leave his position for a startup. Then a deeper scandal surfaces and a shocking death throws CAT into turmoil. In order to keep his job, Peter must maneuver through the turmoil while proving his theory that successful executives get better with age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Lefevere
• Release date: Nov 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310010910

John Lefevere

John Lefevere is a retired corporate attorney whose life experiences include an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, playing golf next to the Giza Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt and recently appearing in a TV commercial. He has published professional/legal articles in the past and is transitioning to fiction, which is not as large a leap as you might think. After all, there is not much difference between the suspension of disbelief in fiction and “shading” the facts to make them more palatable to the reader in law practice. In either case, he finds the act of writing to be fun and challenging. When not traveling, John divides his time between Virginia and the Thousand Islands, New York, where his latest novel is set.

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BETTER WITH AGE

A BOOMER'S TALE

By John Lefevere

Copyright © 2014 Willow Pointe EBooks, LLC

Distributed by Smashwords

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This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents used in this work are either a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locations is purely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

About the Author

Chapter 1

As recurring nightmares go, it was remarkably similar from night to night. A few details changed, but most were exactly the same. Every night. And he knew it was a nightmare, but he couldn't seem to do anything to stop it or to force himself to wake up.

He was in a darkened conference room, overhead lights off, shades drawn over the large window panes, with just enough light seeping through for him to make out a few things. Seated at the enormous conference table, legal pad in front of him. That was one of the details that changed in the dream every time he dreamed it again: the color of the paper on the legal pad. This time it was green - green! Who would buy a legal pad with green paper? It just added to his confusion and apprehension.

The man looked down at his hands, which were shaking uncontrollably. A cigarette would be great now, although he hadn't smoked in nearly 30 years and he detested the smell of smoke now. He felt the sweat running down his forehead and thought of the two evil men now pursuing him. They might come into the room at any moment. He stared at the door, which stood out from the dimly lit features of the room. Thankfully it remained closed. Coming from the Octopus, although that wasn't the name of the sinister organization they belonged too. Damned if he could think of the real name!

He glanced at the legal pad again and was surprised to see that the pages were now pink. Staring at it as if it would contain instructions on how to solve all his problems, he realized that the scribbled notes were indecipherable. He looked up at the door again; still closed. Looking around the room, the man thought he saw something at the far end of the room; something that he did not remember being there before.

Rising quickly, he walked to the far end of the conference table and around the soft leather captain's chair that sat there. Yes, there it was. A small rectangular mirror on the wall. Never saw that before. Surprisingly, he was able to see well, despite the lack of light. He looked directly into it and immediately recoiled.

Although he could not remember coming into the room, he knew, just by looking, that he had aged considerably just in the short time he'd been there. The face staring back at him had drawn, fatigued features, with sunken eyes. And his neck was wrinkled way beyond the wrinkles that someone his age should have. He turned away.

What can I do about this? This is why the men from Octopus are after me. I've already started a self-improvement program just to impress them, but that won't stop me from being old. And it's probably too late anyway. In his nightmares, the man knew that no matter what he did, aging was the one thing that he could do nothing about.

Glancing back in the mirror again, he was horrified to see that he had aged even more than the first time he'd looked, just minutes ago. He stumbled back into the captain's chair and almost fell. A new thought raced through his mind, repeating and repeating: How can I save my job? How can I save my job? How....

And he'd wake up, soaked in sweat, breathing hard. Realizing that he'd have to find an answer to that question.

Chapter 2

In a large, airy office full of natural light, an intense young man put the finishing touches on his masterpiece. An artist in matters financial as well as in all things technological. In this case, the masterpiece was a merger of two companies, his and Sharon Tucker's. Synergies of technology and personnel; combining the power of two to create one powerhouse. And, of course, the inevitable riches from an IPO. Which Sharon was indicating would likely take place sooner rather than later. He grinned, pleased with himself.

Martin Richards sat at his oversized desk and lined up the personnel paperwork for review. The merger was scheduled to close in less than a week, so he was essentially at the tweaking and cleanup stage. He'd spent all of yesterday reviewing the technology transfers involved from Octothorpe's side and comparing them with what Sharon's company had to offer. This morning was devoted to a final run down of the financing part, although he knew that aspect the best and was satisfied that it would accomplish his objectives. Tucker's company, Catbird, was running on fumes, nearly out of cash and stretched in terms of available credit. His company - well, actually his and Barcroft's - which everyone called Octo internally, had plenty of cash but sketchy technology, when you got right down to it. But there was a reason for the cash surplus and Marty was relieved when it did not surface during the due diligence period.

The reason for Catbird's financial woes was readily apparent when you saw the army of people they had working for them. All those people produced great digital products, but drained the revenues quickly. And Sharon was already throwing going public at him before the ink was dry on the merger itself. So this afternoon Richards wanted to look at the personnel involved on both sides and try to formulate a reduction in numbers so that the merged organization would be slimmed down and ready to go in case she persisted in the IPO talk.

Marty knew how the final org chart for the entire merged company had to look. He'd try to bring over his own finance people and the high level tech gurus, led by Ken Barcroft of course, and jettison his own mid-level and lower level technical people, who by and large didn't have anything to contribute. On the Catbird side, he'd keep the sales force largely intact and the tech folks who, as a group, were outstanding. And, frankly, the other 60 to 70 percent of the people could be let go. He'd have to convince Sharon, but he thought he could do it through a charm and common sense offensive. Especially if she was serious about the IPO route.

He now pulled over one of the three Mac laptops he kept on his desk. One for travel, this one for business and one for a combination of business and his Hobby. Richards opened the Word folder which held his due diligence interview notes with Catbird personnel - every last employee except for Sharon Tucker. Hours and hours of interviews, but worth it. He'd known going in to the diligence period that he'd want to prune the ranks severely, so he conducted the discussions with an eye to finding fault with each of them and documenting it on the spot. Typing in comments as they recounted mistakes they'd made or criticisms they had about management made those employees self conscious and nervous he knew, but it also helped him line up solid reasons to get rid of them if and when it came to that.

More than 20 minutes later, Richards had finished the part of the Catbird list he'd marked as Easy. The obvious deadwood. The ones he'd never hire if they came in off the street. He marked a large X next to each one who'd be eliminated from the team post-merger, in the first right-sizing he would conduct. The Easy list had an 89% attrition rate, since he'd left several for the second round of cuts. He scrolled down to the next section, which was marked Problems?.

The Catbird Problems? list included mostly those who were in protected categories; ones he might not be able to get to because of their gender or age, or some disability or other factor that could lead straight to a costly lawsuit. Despite this apparent obstacle, Marty viewed the list as a challenge. What ways could he come up with to rid the company of these people without exposing the company, and himself, to litigation? And in several prior jobs as an executive, he'd always been able to do so, using what many would consider somewhat less than ethical approaches.

Reading down the list and noting his own comments on each, he stopped at the name Peter Barnes. A senior manager with the company since its inception, Barnes had really made an impression, although a bad one, on Richards from the outset of the interview. He read the notes he made to himself during the interview: "Clueless on our technology. On any technology!!! Can't figure out how he stayed with co this long or why??! Age an issue? Marty checked additional notes he'd made after the interview, when he'd had a chance to talk to Sharon about Barnes and several others. Maybe early 60's & divorced with kid. CAUTION: S.T. likes him a lot and thinks he does a good job. Is paid a lot, for what? Stock options too! WTF?"

He sat back in his chair. Barnes looked to be Special Project material. He remembered him now, greying hair, looked older than most of the others. So likely in the age protected class. But Marty could not for the life of him figure out what this guy did or what his value was. Especially at the level of salary and bonus he had been taking down. And if he lasted long enough after the merger, he got to cash out a bunch of stock options, costing the company a lot of money. But with enough encouragement, Richards was pretty sure he could send him packing without protest.

He typed in SP next to Barnes' name and continued down the list.

* * *

Five blocks to the east, in the building housing Catbird Technologies, Peter Barnes also sat thinking about the upcoming merger. More specifically, he was trying to figure out just what the hell he'd be doing after it took effect. He stood up to walk around his office and think. Stopped in front of the double window and watched the traffic below. Peter assumed he'd be permitted to keep the office and have duties in line with what he was doing now, which was a little bit of everything, across the board. But he was concerned about what the two highest-level executives coming from Octothorpe would want to do about job descriptions and duties.

He had endured interviews with Martin Richards and Kenneth Barcroft during the due diligence process. Barcroft had seemed odd in certain respects, but might be OK. Richards, however, had scared him. He appeared to have pinheads for eyes and they seemed to bore in on Barnes' forehead. Richards' interrogation - for it had seemed much more than a standard interview - had centered on technical knowledge, which was clearly not something that Peter had in abundance. Or, to be truthful, that he felt comfortable discussing. In fact, he'd give anything to be able to see what Martin Richards had typed into his laptop about him as the interview progressed.

Barnes moved back to his chair, picking up a picture of Melissa as he passed by his bookcase. She was so beautiful. And almost out of college. He just had to think of a way to keep his job and get her through school. And he'd have to figure it out before the merger. Like before the end of today.

Chapter 3

When he completed marking up the Hit List and Problem List at around 4:30, Martin Richards created a spreadsheet of the names and emailed it to his partner, Ken Barcroft, with a terse note: See what you think. Will call you later.

He then stood up and stretched, and took a quick break in his private bathroom. Refreshed, he walked up and down the hallway outside his office, and then sat down heavily at his desk. Richards took several deep breaths and then pulled over the large merger volume his lawyer had given him. Opening the front blue cover, he read the title page again, just to