In a nearby coffee shop, at a booth along the back wall, sits silver-haired Jermiah Green and a twenty-something woman named Elizabeth across from each other. Neither one pays attention to their drinks.
“Why are you not following up on the calls I’ve assigned to you?” Mr. Green asks.
“You didn’t hire me to call customers you piss off. You hired me to improve customer relations.”
A well dress fifty-five-year-old woman walks into the coffee shop. She reads the look of frustration on Mr. Green’s face.
His fingertips tap on the tabletop as he becomes aware of the older woman and the others in the coffee shop. He thinks to himself, “It would not be good for my public image if I the C.E.O. of Show Home Mortgage Company have a temper tantrum in this coffee shop.”
The younger woman sees him counting, “1, 2, 3, 4, ….10.” Then he said to her. “This conversation is best for us to continue in my office.”
Elizabeth’s eyes hardened in a stare. “Every time I knock on your office door, you wave me off. This is the only place I can catch you where we can talk.” She looks around for those who would be listening. Elizabeth continues while projecting her voice, “I don’t understand how you became a C.E.O. when you refuse to deal with difficult customers.”
“If you are not going to call the customers back that I have assigned to you, you can just leave the company.” Mr. Green stood up and walked out of the coffee shop.
Elizabeth stares at her half-empty cup.
A minute later, the older woman slid into the booth beside Elizabeth. “Are you okay?” She asks.
“Why won’t he listen to me?”
“Honey, your father struggles because he doesn’t want to show favoritism toward you among the other employees. You’ve got to understand he wants to teach you some hard lessons that you can only learn by experiencing them.”
“But mom. He gets customers so upset and then passes them on to me.”
“He wouldn’t be doing that if he didn’t believe you could win the customer over with your beautiful smile and brain.”
“I’m ready to pack up the stuff in my desk and leave the company.”
“If you leave, where would you go? You know you love working with your father.”
“But Mom, he never tells me I am doing anything right. He talks to me only when I mess up.”
“I tell you what, I will talk to your father and persuade him you need encouragement and praise, other than just a paycheck.”
“Is that why Dad has trouble keeping employees?”
“He has gotten harder on his employees as he has gotten older. It’s my hope that you can soften your father up, so he is not so rough on customers and employees.”
Elizabeth checks her watch. “I’d better get back to work, then.” She gives her mother a quick kiss on the forehead and leaves the coffee shop
