Flip-chart Fanatic

Incredible as it may seem, a flip-chart fanatic cost me my job, my career as a technical writer, the biggest raise I ever earned,and very nearly my lifestyle. While this all happened in Seattle,it actually began some 3,000 miles away at Cape Kennedy,Florida. My going-away party got off in fine fashion. My staff toasted me into the wee hours. Then my boss, the deputy program manager, really outdid himself with plenty of compliments to tide me over for the return trip back to the Pacific Northwest. Out in the parking lot he extended his hand in genuine friendship." I've contacted your new boss," he said. "They'll treat you right up there. I can't thank you enough for coming down here to handle the over-run mess with Von Braun and his bean-counter troops, You not only saved our bacon, but you did it so all of us came out smelling like a rose with Corporate Headquarters. What a job!"

I started the car,then rolled down my window to catch his parting words."Well, Ivan, I've made good on five of the six conditions it took to get you down here and I've put in the paperwork to make good on the sixth, your big raise. Just give it some time to make the corporate rounds. It'll happen and when it does,call me, I'd like to hear your reaction!"

With Roger's high praise still ringing in my ears, my family and I took our time motoring back, stopping along the way to visit relatives and friends. Just as he had said,I had a great new boss and a challenging job to go along wth my new assignment. Then one day,Jim set foot in my office. He seemed a bit uneasy. "Suppose you've already heard the scuttle-butt about the big shake-up in Program Planning and Control (PP&C).

" I never put a whole lot´a faith in rumors."

"Well you better, this one is for real. I'm being transferred and you're being moved up to the fifth floor to work for a new man, a retired military honcho. Don't know much about him except I hear he's "flip-chart happy."So be on your guard, you've been warned!"

"Guess I'd better practice up on my flip-chart skills."

"Ever do much with them?"

"Yes, at Huntsville, Alabama and New Orleans on the Saturn Program. I was an editor with a PP&C audio-visual unit back then. Before the handtruck from Facilities arrives to move you out, I need a favor,"

"Sure, what's on your mind?"

" My boss at The Cape put me in for a pretty hefty raise... know anything about it?"

He smiled."Sure do. Roger called me last week to check on it and I did! Must be a whopper 'cause it's making the rounds with upper management. Say what the heck did you do at The Cape? Walk on water?"

I laughed, "Not quite, but I sure gave it on heckuva try."

Two days later,I was in the midst of unpacking my moving carton, at my desk, when my new boss asked me to step inside his office. For one solid hour, Greg lectured me on the immeasurable successthat ex- military men, like himself, have brought to the aerospace industry in general, and to our company in particular. He then spent all of three minutes glancing over my file,apparently saw something he liked, and looked up at me."Flip-charts! I see you've done them! Good! From now on you're in charge! You'll be my drafter, editor and coordinator. I'll tell you what I want and you see that's it gets done. There's an audio-visual group on the first floor next to the printshop. Get acquainted with them 'cause you're gonna be spending a lot of time on the first floor."

Some way, some how,a half-year dragged by! How, I'll never know because I lived,ate and slept flip-charts until I was ready to scream "uncle!" Now I'm the first to admit that a good flip-chart presentation has its place as an effective informational tool. But we did flip-charts on about everything that could possibly be put on those charts. Believe it or not but I actually helped Greg put on a presentation about, you guessed it! FLIP-CHARTS! It had reached the point where absurdity now ruled the roost! Enough is enough! It was also about this time that I accidentially learned where and how Greg had spent his entire military career. He'd spent every waking day of twenty years AirForce duty in The Pentagon. And he'd done all his soldiering by the seat of his pants,behind a desk, rewriting,redrafting and revising AirForce specification manuals, documents,and directives. And here's the clincher! Guess what method he used to justify those changes? Right on! FLIP-CHARTS OF COURSE!

I´d just checked my desk calendar,six months to the day since I sold my soul to the flip-chart fanatic! Now Greg motioned for me to enter his office. For five long minutes, he ranted and raved on about something that totally escaped any meaning what-so-ever. Finally sheer exhaustion sized him. Before he managed to sit down,he pointed to a white piece of paper on his desk corner. I picked it up and read it over and over again just to make sure that it was for real. IT WAS! MY BIG RAISE HAD FINALLY ARRIVED! Greg mumbled something, then found the strength to utter,"I WON´T PAY IT! YOU HEAR ME! NOT ONE DAMNED DOLLAR! NO MAN IS WORTH THIS! NO MAN!´

We stood glaring at each other,neither of us willing to give an inch.I broke the standoff. I calmly assured him that my raise was for services I´d done at Cape Kennedy and that it had been long overdue. To that he snorted, "I don´t give a damn if you passed out cigars at "The Last Supper," I won´t pay it! You do know, that this comes out of my budget and only last week I had it approved!"

"No problem, Sir, all you have to do is send in a supplemental request. The people that approved your annual budget are the same ones that approved my raise. Let me file the paperwork for you and get it out of the way. And while we´re on this subject,let me be your administrative assistant, that´s where I can be of real help to you. I´ve had a good deal of experience in administration during the Saturn Program. I left PP&C to become the administrative assistant to The Facilities Manager. Check my file!"

For what it was worth, I had Greg where I wanted him-for now. I could see my suggestion starting to find paydirt in that mind of his. The wheels were turning. " Hm, I´ll give it some thought…my secretary said I was way behind on paperwork…said you were by far the most qualified to take over. Give you my answer tomorrow morning."

The drive home gave me a whole new prospective. I felt sure that Greg would come around. All he needed was the next 24 hours to see that my suggestion was good for both of us. I noticed that the traffic was unusually light for this time of day. Then a big dose of reality set in. I´d remembered that recently my company had lost three huge, Aerospace contracts that´d either been cancelled or awarded to other competitors. The commercial side of our house hadn´t fared much better, sales for new jet-liners were at an all-time low.I turned on the radio to break my gloomy thoughts. Instead, I was treated to some recognized economist´s prediction that The Puget Sound economy had only hit a "slight bump" and that a turn-around was only a matter of months away, possibly under a year.

I left the freeway. My drive thru several residential neighborhoods made me wonder if the economist and I were looking thru the same window. For-sale signs were everywhere, looking like the posters one usually sees during the November General Election. This sight made me wonder if my big raise would fall victim not only to Greg, but to bad timing. I turned onto our driveway and the only person I could count on, my wife

Margie gave me her most-welcome greeting: a kiss and a hug.I handed her the white paper.Her eyes grew big as silver dollars."Oh hon," she squealed with such delight. "You did it! Finally your salary will match your talent! I thought this day would never come!" She noticed my lack of enthusiasm. " Okay, what happened?"

I explained as best I could about my run-in withGreg.

"Wait a minute! Wait just a darned minute! Your raise has nothing to do with that flip-chart nut you work for! This was due you from the first day you set foot at The Cape! Roger promised it to you if we moved down there so you could put that big over-run mess to bed! AND YOU DIDJUST THAT! Can´t your boss get that thru his thick head?"

We tabled further discussion in favor of our family enjoying one of my wife´s great dinners. Before anyone was excused, I broke the news to our children about my almost-big day. Kathy, our oldest, spoke up."Daddy, you and Mother have always said that if we work hard and keep our nose to the grindstone, that good things usually happen. How come you´re in such a pickle? Daddy, how come?"

How can a 38 year-old father of three,answer that? He can´t!

Our two daughters did the dishes while our son carried out the garbage. This gave Margie time to resume her thoughts. No matter what I said or what lame excuse I came up with,she countered with something a whole lot stronger-the facts."We´ve done everything your company has asked of us and a whole lot more! Many a time I´ve felt that we were nothing more than middle-class gypsies by the number of times we moved all over this country just so you´d have a job waiting at the other end. I lost count of the number of times we stopped along the way to buy a package of bologna and loaf of bread for lunch so we´d have a few extra dollars for a little nicer motel with a swimming pool.That way we could set aside a few dollars to meet those unexpected expenses that always seemed to pop up when we arrived. And don´t you dare get me started about why you had to take a 20 percent cut in salary just so we could leave New Orleans because of Tammy´s and my health problems."

"At least in California,we did enjoy living there… that´s what you said…"

"Yes,and look what happened at Vandenberg AirForce Base. The post commander sent you his personal memo which said that you had written the best engineering report for The Minuteman Program. And what did your supervisor do? He gave your merit raise to the other guy who worked with you because he´d been there a lot longer than you."

"My boss said there was only enough money for one raise… he had to make a choice…."

"Some choice if you ask me! What are you gonna do if Mr.Flip-chart says he won´t pay your big raise?"

"I´ll ask for a transfer. Don´t see how he can refuse that because it won´t come out of his budget."

The next morning, I approached my work station with guarded optimism. Another piece of paper was scotch-taped to my desk. It was pink! My termination notice! Stunned beyond belief, Greg got in the last word."Tried my damnedest to keep you from collecting one check out´a my budget, but since you will,here´s another little something for you."

In anger, I ripped the notice from my desk. I was about to really unload on him when he thrust another piece of paper in my hand."This is your transfer to The B-1 Bomber Proposal Team for the next two weeks before you hit the gate! Time to put that fat paycheck to work! Their expecting you,let´s not keep them waiting!"

To hell with Greg, I made a beeline straight to my personnel representative. "Yes, I know who you are,and yes, you got the shaft! Now before you explode, let me tell you that your ex-boss spent a hour with me last night, making sure that he followed strick company policy in handling your termination."

"Wait a minute," I shouted. "Downstairs in the engineering theater, before I ever signed on to The Saturn Program, the company rep made all of us who attended a promise, He said that because we agreed to work out in the field, we´d be protected in case of termination, lay-off or whatever. It´s time to collect on that promise!"

My rep walked me to his open door. I saw what he saw: a dozen stacks of files covered every inch of his secretary´s desk. "All those file are waiting for preferential treatment. Know what they´ll get? The same as you´re going to get, a quick look- see for job openings. Of course there aren´t any, so we type-up what you already have, the pink slip! That big raise you just got presents another mighty big ditch to jump. Who´s got enough budget left to handle the fourth biggest raise in corporate history?"

The next week was a nightmare in slow motion, I came in early to use the company phones to call from a list of names I´d written down at home. It took less then twenty minutes of frantic calling to realize that another impossible hurdle was there: I was a complete stranger now after spending far too many years out in the field. Out of eleven years of faithful service, my family and I lived on the road for over nine and one-half years! No wonder when I called, they either forgot who I was or a voice came on-line saying:" Mr. so and so, no longer works here. Who are you and why are you calling?"

My last week as editor on the proposal team started out with the same routine: sit alone in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee getting colder by the minute. I´d play my "people game" of watching the faces of who came and went. Never did recognize a single sole, but I can give a pretty fair description of those who still held down a job.They seldom smiled or laughed, most seemed tense or nervous, and they spoke only a few words in hushed tones and hurried over to the conveyor belt to deposit their cups or food trays.Then they were gone.

"You look like hell, Ivan!"

I turned around and nearly fell out of my chair before I shook his hand! Hard! "John! John! What in heck are you doing up here? Thought sure they´d never get you to leave those launch-control consoles out on Launch Pad 39. What brings you up here in this doom and gloom country anyway?"

Over two cups of hot coffee, my old friend listened to my problems. He added in another spoon of sugar,then said. "I never forgot what a great job you and that sidekick of yours did with all the launch documentation. All that data is going to be saved and stored up here for future launches. Only now, to save space, they want to use micro-fish. There´s at least two years work ahead to do the conversion and I can´t think of a better person to handle it than you.And yes, I do have enough budget to take care of that raise, which by the way you sure earned! Never forget the surprise inspection visit Von Braun tried to pull on us just before launch. Thanks for the tipping us off.Had that egotistical German on his best behavior despite his remarks."

That afternoon I drove home on a new high-saved by my Cape buddy! My first impulse was to give this great news to my wife and family. On second thought, I´d better play it safe and say nothing. Too many disappointments lately to chance one more for them to swallow.

Two days later, it was my last day on the proposal team. I tried not to let it get me down,but my positive attitude had all but disappeared. John interrupted my roundtable discussion on AirForce proposal submission criteria. His long face gave it away. "Do you have your transfer note with you?"

" Left it at home! Why?"

"Just came from your personnel rep. Technically, Greg´s still your boss! He didn´t transfer you for two weeks, he put you on loan so if somehow you found another job with enough budget, he was going to set on it until you went out the gate!"

" That SOB!" I screamed. Wait a minute! Listen, John! Once I´m gone, all you have to do is hire me back! It´ll only mean a day or two thru personnel… "

"He´s covered that base too! Any job openings that come up, preference has to be given to those still on the payroll! Company policy! I´m so very.very sorry. I did my best."

We shook hands. A lump the size of baseball was still lodged in my throat. Did Greg say anything else?"

"One more thing, but It makes no sense…no sense at all. Said something about him waiting twenty years to become a full-bird colonel, But all he ever was …or made was lieutenant colonel. And why should you do better then him at his expense?"

Company plants dotted the far reaching Puget Sound landscape everywhere. Yet round after round of massive layoffs hit again and again and again! I went out the gate with 43,000 other employees, the largest single layoff in Puget Sound history! That night, one local TV station´s cameras visited numerous unemployment offices around the region. It made no difference where the scenes were shot, what came on our screens was mindboggling: endless lines of laid-off workers waiting to sign up for their unemployment checks. Then a flashback to The 1930´s Depression Days appeared on screen to show the striking similarity to Chicago´s "infamous soup-kitchen lines" which stretched as far as the eye could see. Today´s historians must have cringed at the comparison.

Pride in whatever job I held used to mean the world to me. I always had a job throughout my teen and adult years. To this day, I still can´t find the right words to describe the emptiness and futility I felt being out of work. One day out of the blue, my wife suggested that I write an article about how I felt with all the anger, hostility and frustration within me. Tell the world how you feel! Do you good to get it off your chest!"

I did just that.The Seattle Times published my article in their Sunday magazine supplement on March 29, 1970.Not only did I receive a nice check for my effort, but most important of all, I received five job offers. One public relations firm even sent out their recruiter from Chicago. He made me an offer that bordered on super. Only one catch: We´d have one more move to add to the many we´d made. When I tell you that me wife used some sort of telepathy to get her message across to me, believe it! When I said thanks but no-thanks, she radiated the prettiest smile I´ve ever seen. I did accept another offer from a long established insurance brokerage firm located in Bellevue,Washington. The owner assured me that I already had the tools to succeed in a new career."Your article told me you do know how to communicate. And communication is just another name for selling. We´ll train you, start you out on a salary to take care of you bills, and send you to school to get your license. The rest will be up to you."

I´ll never forget my first day driving to my new job. A billboard caught my attention. Its message will forever be etched in my mind!.At the sign´s center hung a single lightbulb. To one side was a cluster of buildings with a car following its road out of town. The caption said:´ WILL THE LAST PERSON LEAVING SEATTLE PLEASE TURN OFF THE LIGHT!´