Dallas, Texas

"Daddy, I think the answer is obvious… we need to hire another man, even if just for a contracted term of say nine to twelve months. You and I are both extremely busy with work at the office, and as I've explained and you've made clear that you feel the same way, leaving town to promote Ewing Oil no longer fits my lifestyle, or yours. At this time in Bobby's life, the role he had here was the perfect fit, but he's made the decision not to do that anymore and we need to accept that and come up with an answer for what happens to his commitments in six weeks when he's no longer an employee. I'm of the same mind as you when it comes to hiring a new man, quite frankly I'm not looking forward to the process. It's a difficult role to define for a non-Ewing and it's going to take a lot of interviewing and probably a fair amount of training and trust on our part to find someone we can genuinely rely on to do what needs to be done and what is best for Ewing Oil".

"I don't have a lot of time this week, I'm leaving Dallas with Sue Ellen on Wednesday night and we'll be back on Sunday evening, everything is booked and I have absolutely no intention of rescheduling those plans. Because of my short week this week and the time constraint related to how much longer we have Bobby for, I propose that we agree on what to do now, make plans to either meet with an agency or whoever the appropriate person is tomorrow, and I want to have a final decision on how to move forward by Wednesday. I say that as the vice president and the future president of Ewing Oil, this isn't a decision you can make on your own as the current president, it has to be something we discuss and agree on and I want that discussion to occur now. I propose we hire another man, someone who knows PR and marketing, but isn't a suit, he's not needed here in the office to make promotional posters and television advertisements, he's needed out there, on the road, to make sure everyone knows who Ewing Oil is and why they should work with us, or side with us, when opportunities arise. Do you agree with me or do you have another idea? We need to do something, Bobby is leaving, but his role isn't disappearing, and as we've already discussed, it no longer suits you or I to perform the majority of that role, so trying to shuffle our own responsibilities isn't going to work". Heading over to the bar to pour himself another drink, JR considered the situation; he was ecstatic that Bobby was finally leaving, but surprisingly, he was also a little annoyed his youngest brother had chosen to leave so soon; six weeks was a decent notice period, but it might not be long enough to do what needed to be done.

Joining JR at the bar in the corner of his office, Jock too poured himself another drink as he considered the situation they were in. JR made a lot of sense, they did need to do something and they did need to move quickly, because in six short weeks, they would be without their roadman, but the meetings and potential connections Ewing Oil had scheduled and noted for investigation wouldn't just cease to exist. Life went on, with or without Bobby. They had survived without him for decades before he joined the company, but things were different now than they had been in decades past. He personally was older and trying to transition away from controlling everything, and JR was a married father with a real chance of making marriage work long-term, not to mention he was almost the president of the company, he was very busy, he really didn't have time to be leaving town for days and sometimes even weeks at a time. They needed someone young, someone capable, and someone loyal who they truly trusted to spread Ewing goodwill the way they intended it to be spread; they really needed another Ewing, unfortunately though, they didn't have another Ewing to enlist. Gary was useless when he was in Dallas, but away from Dallas he was even less useful; Lucy was a girl and a young girl at that; and John Ross was the same, he was less than a year old, his time to shine would come, but it wouldn't be for years yet. There were always other Ewings, if he remembered correctly, his brother Jason had a couple of kids somewhere, but they weren't close and with the way everything had occurred in the past, there was no way in hell he was going to go looking for his nephew in order to bring him back into the company Jason had willingly left. He and JR would come up with a plan on their own and they would be successful on their own, they were two smart men, they were more than capable of that.

"JR, I agree, to a point. We need another man, but no agencies, not yet. I propose that we look within the company and promote someone, that way there's no need for us to train from the very bottom, explaining who we are, what we do, and why we're the best. Why don't I give Bernard a call, you know, head of HR; I hate to say it, but he probably knows some of Ewing Oil's employees more than you or I do, he deals with all of the little things and other heads of department, you and I only see the big changes and receive reports of the smaller ones. If he doesn't know of anyone suitable within the company already, then we'll open the role to outside applicants. I'd rather not go through the bother of having to hire, train and learn to trust someone completely new if we can find someone who is perfect for the job who already has some of the necessary knowledge. How does that sound? Good? Take a seat; I'll call down to Bernard now".

Nodding his head in agreement, JR walked back over to his father's desk, sat down in one of the leather chairs in front of it, and waited for him to make the call. Promoting from within was worth a shot; it did mean slightly less work for them if they found a suitable applicant, and it did mean more time for he and his father to focus on other tasks, tasks related to oil rather than people. If Bernard didn't know of anyone suitable, then it wasn't the end of the world; he would be happy as long as they could get the ball rolling on some kind of plan to find a replacement roadman before he left town later in the week. They didn't have to hire anyone immediately, and realistically, they probably wouldn't, but he would like to be able to focus on his other work, and on his home life, without the stress of the possibility that they wouldn't find anyone and he'd be left stretched thin in six weeks because he'd ultimately be the one to assume Bobby's duties. He was interested in doing whatever they could now to plan for the future, because he liked the way things were now and he was not going to risk losing everything he had worked so hard for.

To be continued…