A/N: A couple chapters ago I said it would be 40 neat chapters for this story. Turns out, it is 41, since my idea of the epilogue being chapter 40 got crushed when I had a sudden idea of sort of closing a plot line that a few of you asked about two chapters back. So, new chapter update is 41 but it is done. And before anyone keeps coming to say "great, now you can update quicker"... um...no, since I keep going back to chapters to tweak a few things in regards of plot.
Also, on a side note, a few of you seemed displeased with Steph cutting Tank and the others out in regards of LA and Marylin. Well, I know I had her arguing constantly she would always seek their input and ideas, but with this idea I assume before you actually announce anything, she'd want to make sure that it technically works - something to provide solid argument points for her case so to speak...But I promise, she isn't cutting them out, she is just experimenting with a few things. I love how invested all of you are :)
I came back to Trenton with a stack of papers that would be signed a few days later. I had spoken to Cal, Tank and Bobby as well as Lester and talked about the plans and what I'd been looking at in LA and how I imagined things to work.
I had expected for them to be vary, especially since I still was keeping the information about Lester's side project to myself. But all three surprised me when they actually found my planning and idea great. I was wading through quotes for everything that was needed until I was certain I had taken care of everything and was ready to present everything.
"Wait, Marylin Swanson has been a client of RangeMan for the past few weeks and you are only telling us now?" Cal asked surprised. He didn't seem angry, just surprised. "how were you able to keep that hidden for so long? Especially with Lester being one of her guards?"
"Well, it was a lot of work and a lot of swearing to secrecy. But I think this will work out great. A few days ago I met her for coffee just to talk about how everything was working out for her so far and me updating her that her request for LA-based RangeMan people might actually come to reality. Of course there are a few things to be considered and planned and it won't be right away with an actual office. We'll look at ways of working around that and she seems a bit flexible. She also mentioned that she might have quite a few people as possible clients. So the usual opening of an office and hitting the streets to make a name for ourselves and acquire clients might not be as tough as with other offices. Of course, none of that means it will be easy and that her friends will definitely work with us or come to us for personal protection. But… it is a start. And I learned once you count a celebrity as your client the rest just flocks to you. Also the area of the offices,-" I went on and pointed towards a slight show of pictures of the facilities behind me, "- is commercial, so that could work out in our favour Especially since the area is closer to a residential area that is considered a bit of trouble and the next security company is several dozen miles away. And I got a really good deal for the land and building on it from the city council, since they want to try and revive the area and are happy about the interest, investment and jobs it will bring potentially to the area."
I showed them more pictures of the areal right now and then a few plans from the architects and how it was supposed to look in a few weeks or months.
"It will of course be different than the other offices, but I also think very fitting for RangeMan as well as LA and California."
"What abouts costs and – maybe almost even more important – recruiting? This is a very special and specific market and you need to make sure even more than anywhere else who you recruit."
"My initial budgeting got overhauled twice already and needed to be amended in regards of costs. But it is still okay and within the limits I had set myself. So that works out. The recruiting however is a different story."
I saw Tank nodding, him probably knowing better than most of us how hard it could be to actually find suitable people for the jobs RangeMan offered. "But I actually have that figured out as well. And it solves a different problem within RangeMan that probably none of us actually had been aware of. While in Denver one of the Merry Man there had approached me with an issue that he had encountered. There seems to be an unofficial rule in regards of transfers within the franchise and I think … I can fix two problems at once. Technically even three. We create a 'mobile team'. People from all offices can sign up for it potentially and we will pick from them to create a team of several people who can move between offices and help wherever help is needed, assignments can range from a few weeks to years, whatever works for you and whatever we need. That way, people who want or need to move around are able to, offices that have difficulties acquiring new people have an option to help with temporary staffing until more permanent people are found and opening a new office allows us plenty of time to wade through applications without a hurry. The office in Helena will probably be excited about that, since they are having a staffing issue, a few people in the Denver office will love it since it allows them more flexibility and I will love it since that means less bitching," I laughed and saw the others laugh as well, knowing fully well how much of a headache staffing had become the past few years. "The moment the office in LA is somewhat workable we can have people there. It doesn't have to be finished, but at least offer a few options in regards of working on getting stuff done. I prioritized the office building and apartments, saving us the most money in regards of costs, since it means fewer hotel costs and other things for people already sent to LA at that stage."
"What about who runs the office?" Bobby asked and I found that a good sign that we were already talking about that and not the office itself. It meant that the office idea itself seemed to be a success with the Core Team. I knew I didn't need their agreement, but I also still felt the same as I felt about decisions months ago. I wanted their input and wouldn't go against it, despite the fact that I didn't need their support and agreement.
"Well, that is going to be a bit tough and I would most likely need your expertise. Not sure what you think about the idea of all five of us taking turns in the beginning? Everyone two weeks until we have found someone suitable? Or… maybe two or three of us taking turns if you guys think that someone can't or rather would prefer not to. Though, I'm not sure we need a Head of office right away. I mean, with Marylin being the only client so far it isn't like we need to overlook things for the moment. But when traffic and work picks up, we need to have someone or at least a temporary solution until someone permanent is in place."
"Can the mobile team decline request?" Cal asked and took notes. As a matter of fact, all of them actually did take notes, like they were really thinking this through and wanted to remember everything I actually said.
"Well," I started once more. "Of course someone is allowed to decline a request personally, if for whatever reason someone can't make it to an office. But we need to make it obvious that these needs to be good reasons. If you choose to join that mobile team you need to be aware that this will be your future until you decide that it isn't your cup of tea. I heard quite a few people wishing for more flexible arrangements and maybe not everyone dreams about working at the Helena office – or even the Miami office – but again, it isn't like they will transfer there indefinitely. I'm pretty certain with the right incentive, we can make this work and solve a lot of issues, which might not have been that large to begin with or even on our radars much, but could mean challenges in the future."
"You could offer more vacation days," Bobby chipped in. "Or the prospect of shorter shifts. Instead of working five or six days, you could offer four days and then long weekends if interested, to travel back home. Or… you work with a bonus or an increase in salary. There are quite a few ways this could work. Or options to choose from. Someone might not need more money, but wouldn't mind more days off. Or maybe a paid flight back to wherever he's coming from. Depending on the length of the assignment you could also say… a flight every three months, or whatever. There are probably quite a few options. But I actually don't think you'll need much convincing. I have heard about quite a few guys as well that wish for a little more flexibility within the company. I believe if you put the option out there, you'd be surprised how many actually might be interested and sign up without asking for anything else."
"It's worth a shot," Tank agreed as well. "It could actually work out very well and you never know what this mobile team could become. Eventually you could also send the entire team to an entirely new location to set up the office for the first few weeks. Can solve a lot of problems and issues."
I was surprised how well my idea seemed to go down with the guys and that apparently no one else mentioned LA again. Or the fact that we had Marylin Swanson as a client.
"Have you thought about the communication?" Lester asked and I just nodded.
"In a way, I guess," I replied vaguely, seeing all four guys looking up expectantly. "I went ahead and asked Ram to set up an e-Mail-address where interested parties can email to. I was thinking of sending out a company-wide e-mail, telling people about the project and that everyone who's interested can get in touch and we'd look through applicants and make a decision. Depending on how many people actually apply or express an interest."
The meeting finished about an hour after that and I set out to write my company-wide news, informing Merry Men far and near about the upcoming plan of a mobile team.
Two hours after I had started typing, I had deleted the text a couple hundred times just to write something similar to the just deleted text again. This was a lot harder than expected. I had come up with a few points that definitely needed to be included as some sort of a 'condition', meaning that only employees with a certain seniority could apply and that applicants would need to be chosen based on how their office was staffed. I knew this would put people from a smaller office – such as Helena – at a disadvantage, but knew I'd find a solution to that issue sooner or later as well. For now, it was a work in progress and changes could always be made later on. Another hour later I was finally at a point where I was happy with my e-mail and the text, hitting "sent all". And then I signed off for the day, figuring tomorrow would come soon enough and I had managed to get enough done for today. I truly earned my glass of wine tonight.
I called Ella and let her know that I'd be getting ready in a moment and she could sent up dinner any time she was ready.
"You started quite a buzz;" Cal greeted me amused by the elevator doors the next morning.
"Why?" I asked confused and let him follow me to the office.
"Not sure about your inbox, but from what I heard so far from the Trenton guys, your mobile team has gained quite a lot of interest. Also, news about a possible LA location seems to have finally made it into the chatter," he noted and I needed to laugh. Took long enough.
"What's the general feel in regards of my e-mail?" I asked, once we reached the office and I was able to sit down behind my desk.
"Excitement. People seemed to have taken to that idea quiet well. Not sure how many here in Trenton will hit you up, seeing that most of us have family here and are not in any need for changing locations and moving around. But… you never know."
I booted up my computer and was a bit anxious to see about possible responses. I was expecting a few emails to actually choose from, making a small selection of people. What I didn't expect was a wave of emails. A lot of emails. A ton.
"That's a lot of emails," I said more to myself then anyone really.
"Atlanta and Chicago already called, wanting to know what's up with that and whether they need to worry about loosing people and staffing issues," Tank said, stepping into my office a moment later.
"Atlanta and Chicago are a huge operation. They could afford to lose a few guys," I replied, going through the first dozen of emails. Just by the looks of it almost every office had at least been represented by one guy. Even Helena. "But isn't like I plan for the mobile team to be consisting of hundreds of men. So, even if we say a handful, it wouldn't make a huge change for Atlanta, Chicago, Boston or Houston. But other offices might actually be really grateful. I'm certain however that I'll probably getting similar calls later in the day or hear plenty of it in the Monday companywide videocall."
Tank just laughed at my comment, while Cal shock his head. Both of them knew how these calls went, they had been in plenty of them to know that they loved pushing them towards me. Since I was acting CEO and technically the face of RangeMan it wasn't hard to argue.
"I'll probably let this go for a few days before we can sit down and look at who we think would work great in the new capacity. Maybe I'll wait three days or so to give everyone a chance to actually show interest without giving this a feeling of a rush. That also gives us maybe time to figure out how large we want this project and team to be and take it from there," I suggested and saw Tank nod.
"I'll run it by Lester and Bobby as well, for them to be aware of it and we'll see what day can work for all of us. By the way, how does your day look today? I have a few things we need to sit down and get through."
I looked at my schedule and knew today was packed, as any other day. To a degree I wondered why I was always in these meetings and not Tank or Lester for a change. But I knew, I was more suited. I had no problem with a desk job and running from meeting to meeting, seeing clients, answering concerns or just getting budgeting, acquisitions and even the damn Feds or anyone else from the other alphabet agencies.
"I'll have a meeting with Legal in a few moments and I assume this will take forever. I'm not entirely sure what it will be about but they made it sound rather urgent and important. So, maybe tonight or tomorrow?" I asked, knowing I'd be able to shuffle a few things around if tomorrow would be an option.
"Sure," Tank said, before offering whether I wanted him to come with me to my meeting. I looked confused and amused at him for a moment before bursting out loud in laughing. Tank HATED meetings with Legal as well as Budgeting or Finance. I believe he once told Ranger he'd rather get shot several times before voluntarily going into one of these meetings if he could avoid it.
"I'll be fine," I assured him. "Especially since I'm not entirely sure what they could possibly need me for. It isn't like I can offer any input into legal issues, seeing that this would probably be more or less their job to begin with. But I'm sure I bully Cal into coming with me," I grinned and saw the man himself look at me less than amused.
"Why me? What did I do?" he asked and Tank laughed.
"Nothing," I said innocently. "Other than you picking that god damn route for our morning run that had to get us not only past a Tasty Pastry and a Cluck-in-a-bucket but two more sweets shops as well as another two fast food chains. This was torture this morning, so now I get my sweet revenge."
Cal just grinned suddenly and Tank shook his head in disbelieve.
"At some point she'll kill you, claim it as self-defence and none of us will be able to argue her case."
"Until that happens toughen up, big guy and let's go," I said, starting to walk.
"Actually I have something I need to take-" Cal started and I shook my head.
"No you don't. I made sure whatever you had planned to take care of is handled by Binkie. So your schedule is wiiiiiide open."
"Ah crap," I only heard Cal mutter and Tank laugh a moment later. Finally I seemed to have learned how to play with the big guys.