Betrayal In The Boardroom - A Personal Journey |
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By: Melissa Vokoun Posted: 2007-03-24 11:27:46 |
| 23 years of loyalty and dedication - and what did I get for it? Fired! Yes, I am down - struggling to start a business, ostracized from a field that I was a leader in for over 20 years and financially on the edge, but do not count me out! Yes, I am trying to pull my life together and move on, but you can't move on without clearly understanding the past. If reading my story today compels one person to go into their office tomorrow and request that any and all promises of equity, stock, options, or promotion or compensation plans be verified in writing, then I will have accomplished my goal. If your requests are turned down - start making plans to cut the cord and find another career opportunity, for you have just become expendable! I myself shook off the suggestions of good friends, advisors and family members when they questioned my unbridled loyalty with the lack of ink on a page. I shook them off for years, but I am telling you that in the end you will have nothing to show for it. I am sure I am not alone, but I am hopeful this elicits a response of others who have lived through the experience like I have and are glad to find a "kindred spirit" out here.I ask myself how could this have happened and now in looking back, obviously this was the only way I was ever going to extricate myself from the narcissist that I worked for - who was more interested in finding a scapegoat for the failure of his business than he was in taking his share of the responsibility.Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers, move over! Have I got a guy for you. His name is not important - actually nothing about him is. He is a small man, with a small mind but a large ego. I was in business with him for 23 years. And when I no longer served his purpose or his ego and he had found another "handmaiden" to believe that he was an industry visionary and brilliant business man, I was thrown overboard.Of course, he did not do it alone - he had allies. There were backstabbers in the company that took every opportunity to gain favor with him during those tumultuous last weeks. I thought many of them were my friends. Silly of my to believe the staff that I personally had hired over all those years would stand up for me as I had for them countless times in the past. There were one or two bright spots, those who stood by me and stood up to him and left when they realized his stories made no logical sense.He hired a firm to help him get rid of me and find a scapegoat for his financial problems. Could I have been so blinded with emotions and loyalty that I actually could not see what was happening until I was being walked out of the building by his hired "hatchet men" in front the employees that I had hired and trained and nurtured? I don't know if the word is immature or trusting - but in retrospect, I would have to call it emotional blindness. I never wanted to see it, so I closed my eyes.But what this all comes down to in the end was that I believed in his words. And I found out the hard way that words have no meaning when the Almighty Dollar - or long-term loyalty is involved. For 23 years I was told I would receive part of the business when it was sold - but now that it was sold over a year ago, I am forced to sue for my share. And in order to prove that two years of telling people that I stole millions of dollars from him was his way of shining the spotlight of deceit and fraud away from his own actions, I am suing him. In order to be repaid $100,000 for products purchased on my personal credit cards in order to "help the company" stay afloat, I am suing him.He smugly thinks he has ruined me. The truth is he could never ruin me. He is the one who is ruined. He has threatened employees, vendors, customers and even friends in order to make himself look like a victim. I am sure to most people, he looks like a buffoon. By and large, I have chosen to remain silent for the past two years. I will now speak for myself and hopefully my words will ring out for the rest of my days. I will speak for myself and hopefully people who had thought to give him the benefit of the doubt will understand that I was not able to see the forest for the trees during that terrible time. I will speak for myself but realize that never again will words be enough for me to believe in empty, verbal promises of the future.I will actually take no pleasure in watching him squirm. After all, I did trust him and care for him like a brother for almost half of my life. People ask me if we had an intimate relationship. Yes, we co-founded a business and worked together daily for over 23 years. It does not get more intellectually and emotionally intimate than that? You are wondering was there more between us? Yes! I considered his wife, his children, and extended family part of my family. Believe me, betrayal in the boardroom is just as devastating as betrayal in the bedroom!As my case is making its way through the courts, people always want to know what I am looking to gain from this. Since I have come to the realization a narcissist is incapable of empathy, I am not looking for apologies, but what is rightfully mine. As those who know him would attest, money is all that matters to him. Being forced to give money to me is the only way he will feel any of the pain I have felt. I want what is rightfully mine and for him to pay for the consequences of the lies and the financial consequences his actions have cost me. I want my compensation earned, a severance package for the years I gave the company, my share of the profits from the sale of a company that I built, the loss of earnings I may have realized due to the fact that companies, colleagues, and co-workers I worked with for years will no longer speak to me because of his threats and lies.I want those who felt there are no consequences about perpetuating the lies for him to be exposed as petty and shallow people. I want them to have to face me during their depositions and later in court. I want them to know what their words and actions personally cost them and how it affected their professional reputations. Will they be able to lie under oath? Doubtful, now that they no longer work for him - but that is not an excuse for their behavior. I wonder where has personal responsibility for speaking and spreading the truth in this culture gone. Most people feel they can hide behind their phone, their computer screen, their own survival needs. This public procedure may be a rude awakening for this group of cowards.Too often we get caught up on the business of doing business and forget that we must protect ourselves and our family - first and foremost. Take the time to think if you are compromising your ideals, your values, or personal integrity to keep your job. Summon up the courage to ask for what you have been promised. Do not take "the word" of someone who knows how to manipulate you rather than the real commitment that a written document secures. I wish you success and hope the people you work for are honest and ethical! If they are not, find new ones, or take the plunge and finally start your own business. If you are being told you are going to share in the riches of the company in the unidentified future, you are probably smart enough to start your own business being the type of boss that you want to be? Truly, that is the type of company we all deserve to work for? |
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