The last three months had been hell. Eighteen hour days, seven days a week for almost three months. It was crazy. But let me start at the beginning.
This project had blindsided me. I had expected to plod along, picking up this and that. Most of the group had been together for years. I had bounced from team to team before landing with this one. They were all nice, but not really anyone I'd call a friend. Paula was the friendliest of the bunch. When I first started, she took the time to get to know me. For the first few projects, she fed me stuff to keep me busy and when I showed her I could handle things, she pushed to get me more. Soon I had become a part of the team, but still the junior member. I still remember when Mr. James announced that I'd be the new team lead.
Tom had just lost his mind and had completely cursed out the IT director for our client. Mr. James had somehow saved the account and suddenly announced that I was to be the new project lead. I was completely shocked. Actually, the only one in the room who wasn't shocked was Paula. She just sat back and smiled to herself. Of the people on the team, I had assumed Chris or Patrick would get the lead position. Apparently, so had they. They both quit the next day. So now we were down to six people instead of nine and had an angry client to cope with.
After a week, I understood what had set Tom off. The Director of IT for our client was a moron. He changed his demands daily and the project just couldn't move forward. Apparently each department in the firm wanted a say and their IT guy just forwarded everything to me. Finally I decided to do something a bit different. I requested a meeting of all the department heads and left the IT director out. After three days, we finally had all the details we needed. Apparently the IT director was one of the partners son's and he had no idea what he was doing, which is probably what got them into their mess.
My next crazy suggestion was to have one large room for us to work together in, rather then our individual offices. I made sure it was big enough to have a lab so that we could actually lay everything out. Mr. James agreed and a week later, we were working in a large part of the cafeteria, which was quickly walled off. We each still had our office for quiet time, but it turned out we mostly used the lab. By the end of the month, Chris and Patrick had come to me and asked for their jobs back. I just told them they'd need to talk to Mr. James. An hour later, they were back and trying to get caught up with the rest of us. Through the grapevine, I had heard that they liked my ideas and decided they wanted to be part of the team.
So, now back up to eight bodies, we really started to move. There were seven guys and one lady. Paula was sixty and was working because she liked to work. She became our den mother and was invaluable. Not only did she know her stuff, but she looked after everyone. If someone needed a break, she made sure they got one. If we were working late, which was most of the time, she made sure everyone got dinner. She also paid attention to individual needs and came to me with suggestions. If someone needed time out of the office, I arranged for them to work remotely. Under Tom, you only worked in the office, which led to a lot of tired people.
Three months after starting this project, we were done. Not only done, but under budget and three weeks ahead of schedule. The client was thrilled and Mr. James was even happier. We were hanging out in our make shift conference room making idle chatter. It felt kind of strange. After three months of hectic activity, we had nothing to do. The door opened and Mr. James entered. "I can't tell you guys how happy the client is right now, which by default makes me happy. I didn't tell anyone about this, but because we finished three weeks early, you earned the company $750,000 bonus." We were stunned. We didn't know about the bonus. "You will all be finding quite a bit more in your next checks. Plus, tonight, dinner will be on me. We have reservations at the finest steak restaurant in town. The reservation is for twenty, which means each of you get to bring your significant other and the tab is on me. Be ready at 7 o'clock. A car will be ready to pick each of you up to take you to the restaurant and drive you home. I can't have anything happening to any of you. See you tonight." Mr. James left the room and we just all sat there, most of us with our mouth's hanging open. Nothing like this had ever happened as far as we knew. Then the entire team turned to me and let out a huge roar, got up and left. I was left alone for a while, then finally headed out myself.
Before I got to the door, Mr. James found me and called me into his office. He shut the door and went over to his desk. When he turned back to me, he tossed me something. I caught it and saw a set of keys. I couldn't figure out what they were. Mr. James was just smiling at me. "I knew you wouldn't let me down. That was the best job of leadership I've ever witnessed. The board of directors is making the promotion I gave you permanent, plus making you our top guy. That means an extra $100,000 per year, plus bonuses. You'll see that in your next paycheck. Those keys are to the company's resort in St. Maartin. It's yours for the next two weeks. Charge the tickets to your company card and have fun." I was completely shocked. "I'll see you tonight, then I don't expect to see you for two weeks. We'll have a new project for you when you get back, so rest up."
I thanked Mr. James till he kicked me out of his office. Now here I was, getting ready for an great night. I realized I still had about thirty minutes before the car arrived. As crazy as the past three months had been, I hadn't really had time to date, so I was going stag. I've been divorced for five years and my three boys were off to college. My ex-wife had gotten remarried two years ago to some guy who had "swept her off her feet." He seemed like a nice guy and the boys liked him enough. I had dated, but nothing serious and usually my work had gotten in the way. I certainly didn't have problems meeting girls. At 6'1, 185, I kept myself in good shape. Most girls loved my eyes, a deep blue.
The car finally arrived and I was taken to the best steak house in the city. The valet opened my door for me and I headed inside. I'd never actually been here but had heard amazing things about it. Mr. James was standing right inside the bar and saw me enther. "Here's the man of the hours." He introduced me to his wife and asked what I wanted to drink. I ordered a bourbon and he had the bartender pour me a big glass of Wild Turkey. "So, how does it feel to finally be free of the client from hell."
"Great. I got home and actually got more then three consecutive hours of sleep." Mrs. James laughed at that and then I was directed over to a small table where all the others were already sitting. Introductions were made and I was finally able to put faces with voices that I had heard and even spoken to over the past three months. Oddly, Paula was without a date, or so I thought. Everyone was feeling pretty good with the completion of the project and it was almost as if they were out of control. A few minutes later a gorgeous girl walked up to the table, saw Paula and said "Granny, there you are. I didn't think to look in the bar."
Granny? Paula brought her granddaughter to this boring event? But then my thought turned to her granddaughter. She stood just slightly shorter then me, dark hair, brown eyes. I tried not to be obvious, but I gave a quick scan up and down. She was certainly an athlete of some kind, but with the dress and shawl she had on, it was hard to really see her body. I looked up quick and saw that Paula was looking at me with an odd smile. "This is my granddaughter JC. She came to visit this weekend and we were supposed to go to dinner. But I didn't want to miss this, so I decided to invite her." I started to do some math and figured she couldn't be older than 20.
Shortly after Mr. James came over and told us our table was ready. We were ushered into a private room at the back of the restaurant and we all took our seats. It turned out that JC was seated next to me with Paula on my other side. I told Paula I could move so that she could talk to JC, but she just waved her hand at me and told me not to bother. They'd have plenty of time to talk. "Just behave yourself." Then she winked at me.
I turned to look at JC and saw that she was studying my face. I made some idle conversation with her and found out she was actually 28. Her mom had gotten pregnant when she was just 18. She was a school teacher and was supposed to start back in a few weeks, so had decided to visit her grandmother for the weekend. When her grandfather had announced he was going fishing, she decided to come. The rest of the evening was pretty much a blur. I remember Mr. James standing and congratulating all of us and especially me. He also announced that the entire team had two weeks paid vacation, which earned a huge cheer. Most of the team had gotten up to say a few things, although most of it was just thanking Mr. James for the opportunity. I had gotten up to say a few things and thanked each member, pointing out a few things each of them had contributed. Then the evening was winding down. Mr. and Mrs. James had left as had Chris, James, Robert and Mark. Patrick looked on the verge of exhaustion when his wife nudged him and they made their way to their car. Jeff took that as his cue and he left with his wife as well. That left me with Paula and JC.
"What a whirlwind, huh? Sorry it's over?" Paula said to me.
"Kind of. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the next two weeks, that's for sure. And you?"
