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On my aforementioned business trip to England, I was an experienced UK driver. My first time in England I drove from Gatwick to the Midlands while feeling very jet-lagged behind the wheel on the “wrong” side of an Austin. I narrowly avoided having an accident on a roundabout, but somehow I adjusted and arrived safely at my destination. By the time of that later trip, being stuck on the M25 motorway felt the same to me as Route 128 traffic did outside of Boston.

It was the first trip to England for my very lovely traveling companion, so I rented the car and did almost all of the driving. She wanted to give it a try, and we had fun with her practicing around the village, near the inn where we were staying.

Several years earlier, Ted had returned from his site visit to Canada. He submitted his expense report and worked on his site report. Ted’s car rental was for at least several hundred dollars, I don’t remember the amount, but the contract/receipt didn’t look quite right for Canada. My little internal warning bell began to ring again. Given the circumstances of Ted’s probation, I didn’t question him. Rather, I dutifully completed my review of Ted’s expense report and forwarded it to Accounting, with a note questioning the car rental receipt.

Some days later, Accounting called me. I was told they had an expense report from someone else for that same week. They called her and she explained that, as the senior employee, she had rented the car and did all of the driving, with Ted as a passenger. The rental agency was contacted, and the serial number on Ted’s agreement was traced to their counter at Logan Airport. Ted’s receipt was an inside job, being both genuine and fraudulent.

The news hit me hard. That was it for Ted. He had attempted to defraud the company, and in turn the customer. I didn’t know exactly how he got hold of an official, properly printed receipt, but Ted had to be fired immediately. I went to my boss’ office, closed the door, and explained the situation. He called the administrator who had provided us with the probation form that Ted signed, and we waited for him to come over and advise me on the termination process.

PART II: Lo and Behold, Ted got back on track right away. As far as I could tell, his private life was no longer interfering with his work. Yay! What a relief. I would have been very reluctant to terminate Ted’s employment on the basis of the hours he kept. I am a night owl myself, and not a natural early riser.

As I mentioned in an earlier installment, members of my group rarely traveled with another employee. We’d finish an installation and move on to another. With e-mail not yet being an option, further contact with customers was limited to the phone and, later, an occasional fax. We’d jump between airlines, depending on the destination, making it difficult to accumulate redeemable frequent flyer miles.

This contrasted with the consultants who followed us, who would return to a site again and again. They were able to build relationships with customers while collecting frequent flyer miles they were allowed to keep, rather than turning over to the company.

Ted went on a site visit to do software installation in Canada. I made many trips to Canada myself, and two years ago I wrote about one of them. (A passport wasn’t yet needed to cross the Canadian border.)

Bonners Ferry ’88

On one of my business trips to England, a group of consultants I was supposed to meet at the Logan international terminal turned out to be one woman. She was a gorgeous, very smart and capable professional, with an engaging personality. Although I assure you nothing happened, I have rarely enjoyed the casual company of a woman as much as I did with her that week. A woman who brought to mind the question, “What part of Heaven did you come from?” I’ve said too much.

When Ted left for Canada, I didn’t know that he was traveling with a woman who was a consultant in another group. Based on my week in England, I would have been understanding (retroactively) if Ted’s resulting trouble had been what you’re thinking, but I promise you it came from an entirely different direction.

There came a day when Ted was a total no-show. It may have been a day other than Friday by that point. That’s a bit of detail I don’t recall. I gave up waiting for Ted and I called his apartment (no cellphones in 1987). His roommate said Ted wasn’t there, and he didn’t know where Ted was. I told him that if he heard from Ted, he had to get to the office ASAP.

Meeting with my boss, he said enough was enough, and that Ted needed to be put on probation. There was a formal process for doing that, and we met with the manager in charge of personnel-related matters, who gave us a form that Ted would have to sign.

When Ted finally showed up that afternoon, I sat with him for a very uncomfortable meeting, to find out what happened. He came up with an excuse that I was forced to at least consider might be true.

Ted claimed he didn’t come to work, and wasn’t at his apartment when I called, because he’d been with his parents, whose house had been defaced with a racial slur. He didn’t have an answer when I asked him why he hadn’t left a message for me. I told Ted that I used to be a reporter, and I knew that if what he said was true, it would definitely be a top story on the news that night.

Given the serious nature of Ted’s claim, he had to be given the benefit of the doubt, but there was nothing on the news that night or in the Boston Globe the next day, about a house being defaced with a racial slur. So I was left with no choice but to have Ted sign the probation form.

Ted seemed genuinely surprised and hurt. I sincerely liked Ted, and I wanted him to succeed. I felt bad making him sign a document acknowledging if there was any more trouble he could be fired.

Everything I’ve said so far is merely context to ensure a full appreciation of the upcoming plot twists. Consider this post to be the end of Part I.

The image at the moment says the video was been taken down for violating YouTube’s terms of service. Which is nonsense, because it was posted officially by WCVB-TV in Boston, with the approval of the Boston Athletic Association. Maybe the station was supposed to take it down, but didn’t bother, and left it there for YouTube’s software to do it for them.

In 1983-84, I took the redeye from San Francisco to Boston often enough to remember it was United flight 66 aboard a Lockheed L-1011. There’s a related story about AIDS politics from one of those business trips, that I may tell another time.

After landing at Logan, if it was a workday I’d take the MBTA to the office, briefcase and carry-on bag in hand, to write up my site report and fill out my expense report. If it was okay with my boss, I’d leave early and take the T home to my $600/month studio apartment with a stove that didn’t work, that the landlord never fixed. I relied on a hot plate and a toaster oven.

My monthly income was $1200, or about $3500 today. Enough to live on, but with half of my pay going to rent, it wasn’t enough to save up for a more expensive apartment while owning a car. So when my old car was beyond repair, I didn’t replace it.

In 1984, three years before the events of the Ted story, I came very close to quitting over money. If the senior VP I met with to discuss my dissatisfaction knew I had a job offer in my pocket for a much better salary, I undoubtedly would have been fired on the spot. Fortunately, his boss came through with more money for me, and I stayed. Good thing too, considering this was the guy who offered me the other job.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/baycitynews/article/ex-mckesson-chairman-gets-10-year-sentence-3324989.php

The point in telling about my own situation is to say that after the boss who started the group quit, and I took it over, I was very sympathetic to the concerns and complaints of the team members. My former boss had set the precedent, that if someone had a late landing at Logan, they didn’t have to show their face at the office right at 9 the next morning.

So did I extend Ted more slack than I would have anyone else? I was going to say no, but in hindsight nobody else put me in the same spot that Ted did. Then came the day when he was a no-show. No phone call, no message, and no Ted.

Tomorrow will be the running of the Boston Marathon. This is the 100th anniversary of the race distance being 26.2 miles.