I worked for a small company that was being acquired. The company buying us scheduled a get acquainted meeting with the key managers (about 5 or 6 of us) from our company. It was scheduled for a Saturday morning in Chicago a four hour flight away. We were given plane tickets for Saturday morning and we were meeting for lunch. I am sure everyone was a little insecure and eager to show the new bosses how important they were to the operation and strengthen their position in the new organization.
At the time my wife was pregnant, all of the managers knew her, she had once worked with all of us and they all understood the situation, she could deliver at any minute. Of course the new company had no idea about this.
As fate would have it she went into labor about 3 AM the morning of the meeting and she delivered almost the exact time the meeting was starting. I spent the hours before and during this important meeting beside my wife and new daughter. If it had been a weekday I would have just called the office, but it was on Saturday and it was before cell phones; there was no way I was leaving her to try and find a number and call someone.
I found out later that my coworkers went into the meeting and played dumb saying they had no idea where I was. Not one of them explained about my wife and our situation, as if I had just flaked out and not come to the meeting without calling. I guess they figured if I was characterized as unreliable I was one less person to compete with them. Not so common but a good example of how corporate people angle to get ahead, and the beauty of it was, technically they weren’t even being dishonest.
Eventually I left a message at the venue for the new boss and I ended up working there several more years.
Read other answers by Frank Asbury on Quora:
- What is something you’ve seen that you wish you hadn’t seen?
- Have you ever almost died and had something inexplicable save you?
- Is telepathy real? Why? What are some examples?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2cFm7JS
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