“Is something the matter?” I asked.
“No, it’s nothing,” she replied, shaking her head with a pale face.
She couldn’t believe that the person she had deemed incompetent and fired had now become the head of a department in a major corporation.
“It can’t be right. You are the incompetent, gloomy one.”
Laura was stunned.
“What am I supposed to do now?” she whispered to herself.
The reality that her business negotiation partner was someone she had ridiculed and treated poorly, and the fact that her company was now in a weaker position, seemed to overwhelm her.
It was a complete reversal of our previous situation. When she had fired me, now it was time to see her skills in business.
“Um, so, well…” she stammered.
“How are things going with this matter?” Charles asked.
Laura seemed unable to deliver her usual smooth sales pitch, glancing at me often, still shocked by the earlier revelation.
Eventually, she left the meeting.
“Did you know Laura? She seemed quite concerned about you,” Charles asked after we saw her off.
“Actually, she’s the one who fired me from my previous job, calling me a gloomy incompetent.”
“Really?” Charles responded, clearly surprised.
I then shared the whole story of my previous job with him.
“What a rude person she is,” Charles said, sounding indignant, as if it were a personal insult.
“Regarding this deal, I don’t want to work with such a disrespectful person in the future. Let’s get someone else to handle it.”
“Yes, let’s proceed with the negotiations once the representative is changed.”
“All right. I’ll make sure to communicate that,” I assured him.
Charles and I decided to request a change of representative from Laura’s company. Given our company’s stronger position, it was likely that Laura would face some repercussions later on.
A former colleague filled me in about what happened with Laura at her company.
The executives confronted her, asking, “What do you mean by changing the person in charge as a manager?”
It turns out the sales staff who had been putting up with her behavior reported her past actions to the executives, including the incident where she fired me.
They told her, “We have refrained from reprimanding you because you’re from an affiliated company, but this time we will have to report back to your parent company.”
The look on Laura’s face was ashen.
“Is that so? Thanks for letting me know.”
“Not at all. I owe you, Scott,” my former colleague replied, smiling and relieved at how things had turned out.
Sometime later, I got a call from the executives of my former company.
“Scott, would you consider coming back to us?” they asked.
Apparently, they were rethinking my employment after I left.
The work I did in the sales department was re-evaluated, and there was a noticeable decline in the department’s performance, prompting an investigation.
I had been researching long-term business strategies for clients, staying up to date with recent trends, and explaining these in a clear way to the sales team.
I also advised on sales strategies, which is why I was always at my computer.
Besides that, I was checking the financial status of all our business partners and managing the accounts receivable to make sure they didn’t become bad debts.
I would meet with representatives from current and potential clients to gather information, often over drinks.
I was uncovering needs in other companies and providing feedback to the sales team.
That’s why I dressed well after work, which made transitioning to major corporations easier.
“You really did significant work. You’re in demand everywhere, aren’t you?”
“Not really, but I do get to see various companies because of it.”
“How about this? We can offer you more than double your previous salary.”
Double my previous salary would be a substantial amount, but I said, “I’m sorry. I can’t trust a company that tolerated her behavior to such an extent, and I’m happy with my current job.”
With that, I ignored their plea to reconsider and declined the offer to return.
“I heard our manager came for negotiations for us. Charles is our director now.”
“Oh, I apologize.”
Michael was the first to approach me with this news.
When I was fired, Michael decided to switch to Bloom Dining and joined the sales team after me.
He had been with the previous company for many years, but had enough of dealing with Laura.
He thought about moving to another company like I did. My firing was the trigger for him to join Bloom Dining.
Interestingly, Charles, after hearing from me, was ready to hire Michael on the spot, but the dedicated Michael went through a formal interview to join our team.
Originally a talented salesman, Michael now excels at Bloom Dining too.
“Scott, please listen.”
“Calm down, Helen,” I said.
Helen, a female employee from my former department who cried when she learned I had left, still seemed to admire me.
“I’ve been assigned the research tasks you used to handle. Can you teach me?”
“Really? Taking over the tasks from a company I left is…”
“Please. I really want to improve our sales.”
Despite my hesitation, I was moved by Helen’s eagerness and decided to teach her.