Читать книгу Elmo Eveings - Gregory J. McKenzie - Страница 5

This was the start of Elmo's golden era of his place of work. He was given many more assignments as a junior negotiator. But now his boss made sure that Elmo was only ever part of a negotiating team. Still he seemed to shine at every sales meeting. Elmo was on his way to becoming sales negotiator of the year for his firm. As for romance, Elmo was now dating Fran Upjohn. They needed only one more coffee outing to realize that the attraction was mutual. Lunch dates were followed by other outings to the city zoo, the skating rink, the latest exhibition, the book launch event of the year and finally the cinematic event of the year.

When taxi drivers looked at these two customers, they saw a couple in love. Waiters nodded to them in restaurants to indicate their 'love birds' status. Fran's mother started asking her to 'bring him around for dinner so I can see him'. But they were in the indulgent phase of their romance. They did not want to share their tender moments with anyone. Fran knew that she was in love. But she had had some bad romances in the past. This time she was determined to take it slowly. Elmo was slower to realize the inevitable.

When he did, Elmo surprised himself. Normally when women got this close to him, the 'devil's advocate' side of Elmo's psychology took command. No woman in the past could withstand the picky criticisms of this side of Elmo's mind. But now, when this 'little devil' tried to voice its criticism, it was ruthlessly silenced by Elmo's caring side. Simply he would not hear a word against Fran. Not from acquaintances, not from peers and certainly not from his own darker side.

But there was more than one woman after Elmo. Henri Hunt had not 'moved on' as Elmo's boss said she would. Every time she wanted to negotiate a new contract with Elmo's firm she insisted on dealing with Elmo and ONLY Elmo. This frustrated Janet Elsebrook because she was powerless against the express orders of the firm's principal owner. In fact she had been forced to promote Elmo to the next level. Elmo was now a senior negotiator.

Elmo's golden glow began to attract more followers. But it also brought him more workplace enemies. Some of these enemies sought ways to undermine Elmo. To their mind it was nothing personal. Elmo was simply in their way when promotions were offered. So to their mind he simply had to go. Not least of these enemies was Janet Elsebrook. She knew that a top management position was coming up very soon. Determined to make this jump up to management level, Janet Elsebrook was going to use anything and anyone to get that new position. If Elmo now had a powerful mentor then she would pretend to admire his work. Reflected glory was a useful addition to her resume.

When he got a bonus in his monthly pay Elmo was stunned. In ten years at that firm he had never got a bonus before that date. Then Elmo found himself to be the preferred negotiator on every sales negotiation team. Team leaders fought to get him included into their group of negotiators.

Another lucky break came Elmo's way. His former nemesis was finally promoted. Janet Elsebrook was moved to a junior management position. The position of Head Negotiator was fought over by many applicants from both inside and outside the firm. An insider got the job. Her position as negotiator leader was now vacant. She insisted that Elmo apply for her old position. When Elmo faced the selection panel he found that this woman helped him impress the other panel members. In a split decision Elmo got the job. He was now on a much higher pay scale.

Best of all the new Head Negotiator now saw herself as his mentor. She brought him in for his first assignment as team leader. Elmo did not recognize Gerald when he saw him in the reception area. Gone were the haunted looks, the put upon frown and even the hangdog expression. All this was now missing from his suddenly smiling face. Gerald looked confident even contented. He greeted Elmo like a long lost friend,

"Mr. Eveings come in please. The Head Negotiator will see you in a few minutes. How are you? By the way congratulations on your promotion. I always knew you would do well after all the hugely successful Hunt deals went through to completion."

Overwhelmed by this burst of positivism from such an unlikely source, Elmo was lost for words. All he could manage was a tentative

"Is Ms. Applegate in a good mood today?"

Gerald laughed boisterously. Elmo was shocked to realize that he had never heard him laugh before in all their meetings. Then he was further taken aback when Gerald said in a light tone of voice

"Eloise....Ha sorry I mean Ms. Applegate is always in a good mood. You don't know what it's like to have such a great boss. She supports ever decision I make, never criticizing but always goes out of her way to praise my smallest efforts. The 'Dragon lady' is dead...well at least gone to join all the other dragons in management...My new boss is called 'The Good Witch' by us assistants. She can work wonders with your morale."

Just then Gerald's smartphone ringtone was heard by both of them. He listened with a smile on his face once he recognized the voice. After the call ended he looked straight at Elmo before saying in a happy tone of voice,

"Mr. Eveings you can go in now. Ms. Applegate is ready for your first meeting."

Elmo left behind an assistant who was humming to himself. As he walked over to the Head Negotiator's desk she came out to meet him. Shaking him warmly by the hand she said in a friendly manner,

"Come let's sit over here on the couch. I want to outline your very first assignment as lead negotiator."

Then she steered Elmo ever so gently to the large couch. Sitting at either end of the couch they began their meet and greet. With Elmo's mission brief lying open in front of both of them, Eloise Applegate began the briefing in a quiet tone,

"As you can see from this brief synopsis page, our client is represented by a negotiator called Mrs. Hilary Sommersby. Now she is one tough cookie. I have had some real barneys with her in past negotiations. In this current round she has already driven one lead negotiator into a nervous breakdown. Poor Mr. Matters has had to book himself into a rest clinic. Mrs. Matters rang me with the bad news yesterday. His therapist says he will need two weeks complete rest. I need you to take over his team. They are rudderless at the moment."

Overwhelmed by this unexpected opportunity, Elmo could only mouth vague generalities. In a confused tone of voice he said,

"I hope Bill Matters will be okay. He and I started at this firm on the same day. His wife is a very nice woman. They have had me to dinner on more than one occasion. They have both tried to introduce me around socially. I must go to see Amy Matters very soon."

Eloise Applegate beamed her smile into Elmo eyes when she said in an encouraging tone of voice,

"That's what I want to hear from my people. Cooperative teamwork does not begin or end in the office. You are a credit to this firm Mr. Eveings. Now lets try to work out some strategies and tactics to get around Hilary Sommersby's objections. I like your use of the tactic of trading clauses. There are a few clauses that I know from personal experience annoy her in the extreme. We can be very flexible here as this is a very large account."

Elmo was glowing with the aftereffects of the praise he got from this remarkable woman. So he came up with a lateral strategy to blindside this difficult negotiator. He said in a tentative tone of voice,

"Supposing..just supposing, we first come at her hard....like pretend that the contract is set in concrete like the Empire State Building....You know old fashioned playing hard ball...then when she is ready to walk away we pretend to cave into her demands...But not all of them if you get the idea....That just might work."

At once Eloise Applegate saw the genius behind this negotiating strategy. She said in a glowing tone of voice,

"Brilliant! That's is pure gold Elmo. You make her angry deliberately then pretend to let her to walk all over you. Only she is too busy gloating over her victory that she won't notice the hook in that bait. Are you into recreational fishing Elmo? Its just that my Dad uses a similar ploy to catch ocean fish off our beach at Malabar."

Elmo smiled as he recalled his lonely beach fishing trips. He always looked for any deserted beach. Then he would spends hours fighting for the fish that came in close to feed. Sharks would take his line, seaweed would twist it into a terrible jumble but Elmo would persist. He caught the big ones by letting them think they had escaped but he never quite let them go free. When they had exhausted themselves in triumphant shows of strength Elmo would reel them in slowly. So ye,s Elmo knew exactly what his boss was suggesting. He replied in a slow steady tone of voice,

"Well I do a lot of fishing off beaches on my holidays. So I guess that is where this idea came from like you suspected."

Eloise Applegate was glowing with goodwill. She said in a forward tone of voice,

"You must come down to fish off my Dad's beach. Our beach house is big enough for lots of visitors. He has the biggest parties in the Bay. Come this next holiday weekend."

Elmo nodded before replying in a happy tone,

"Love to."

Eloise continued as she warmed to the presence of this man,

"Until then I think your idea to circumvent Hilary Sommersby is a winner. It will serve her right to be outwitted like that, so go ahead. You have my full support. Now let's look at each clause of the contract to see what bait we will use. This may take some time so let's go to lunch at my club. Gerald can come too and take down our ideas. He may even have a few of his own ideas to contribute. What do you say to my two offers Elmo?"

Elmo had to reflect on what she said only for a few seconds before saying in a happy tone of voice,

"Well I would love to fish off your father's beach. So yes to the weekend party invite. Can I bring a friend? As for the lunch I think that brainstorming over lunch is a great idea so yes to that too with bells as you Americans say all the time."

His boss smiled weakly before saying,

"Bring your friend down this weekend. Gerald can give you the address and directions over lunch. Now let's go and nail Hilary Sommersby with some killer ideas."

With that they left the office only stopping to collect Gerald on their way to lunch.