The Tower

The Board Room

July 8, 2013, 9:50 AM

It's been three months since Mr. Flynn's tragic death. It's amazing how much things can change in a company when there's been a leadership change, for the good, or in the case of The Flynn Group, for the worse.

I'm about to sit in on my first senior management meeting in the company's board room on the building's top floor. I'm still a junior peon engineer but Mr. Noble asked me to attend along with him and Nigel. He said this was a critical meeting for the company going forward and he wanted me to sit in the back, be quiet (that could be problematic), take notes, and learn. I jumped at the chance.

The entire floor consists of executive offices with wood paneled walls and plush cream colored carpeting. Stationed outside all the offices are very professional looking gatekeeper secretaries behind identical dark wood desks. In the center of the floor, ringed by the offices, is the colossal board room.

Inside the board room is a heavy wooden conference table so large that it must have come in four sections and then was reassembled inside because after taking in its enormity there was no other way it could have conceivably fit through the room's double mahogany doors. Four outsized crystal chandeliers lorded over the table like giant ice crystals, their shimmering lights reflecting softly off the quarter-inch glass affixed to the top of the table. Wood-trimmed tray lighting encircled the chandeliers with an illuminating glow of soft white light.

Surrounding the table are eighteen high-backed black leather armchairs on wheels. Stretching along the walls on either side of the table are a series of four-foot high mahogany cabinets with some kind of lighter wood inlay on the panels and topped with tan and gray granite countertops.

Spread across both countertops is a smorgasbord of pastries, doughnuts, fresh fruit medleys in glass serving bowls, and muffins the size of pomegranates. At the front of both food lines are stacks of white china, juice glasses, coffee mugs, and ornate silverware. At the far end of both food lines are glass pitchers filled to the rim with orange, tomato, cranberry and apple juice, followed by five oversized silver coffee pots. In front of each silver pot is a printed embossed card: Regular, Bold, Decaf, Hazelnut, and Vanilla. Standing quietly off to the side of each counter was an attendant dressed in a crisp white uniform.

For some reason Mr. Noble insisted on us being at the meeting early so there's still ten minutes to go and we're the first ones there. "Just how many people are going to be in this thing," I ask incredulously, still staring at the breakfast lineup and breathing in the gloriously breathtaking smell of freshly brewed coffee.

"In addition to us, both the Architecture and Estimating department heads will be here plus the entire ELT," replies Mr. Noble.

I turn and give him a quizzical look. But before I can say anything Nigel derisively spits out, "Executive Leadership Team. I can't believe you've been here ..."

Mr. Noble comes to my rescue. "Yes, thank you Nigel," he says dismissively. Turning back to me my wonderful boss and mentor picks up the explanation. "The ELT consists of the President and CEO, Mr. Carlton Flynn; the Chief Operating Officer, or COO; the Chief Financial Officer or CFO; the ..."

Nigel snorts at Mr. Noble's patient explanation, rolls his eyes and moves away to attack the piles of food.

Good riddance, I think. He's so slimy. Kori told me Mr. Noble tried to get rid of Nigel several times in the past but Human Resources kept saying he didn't have enough documentation in his file or the rationale didn't justify termination. Worse yet, just last month Mr. Noble tried again but this time Carlton Flynn himself stepped in and stopped him. She said she had never seen Mr. Noble so upset in all of her seven years working for him.