As You Wish - Part 2

Where were we? Oh, let's talk about Frank's interview, because it's a tiny bit
amusing (but just a tiny bit). When Frank arrived for his interview, I showed him into a conference room - the same one I'd sat in reviewing resumes, actually. There was a very long table, with many chairs. I went to the chair directly to the right of the chair at the foot of the table, pulled it out, and told Frank to have a seat, Remy would be with him shortly, blah, blah, blah. After letting Remy know Frank had arrived, I continued doing my work, which at one point, including walking by the conference room.

Where I saw that Frank had seated himself at the foot of the table, and NOT next to it. Now what I knew because I'd been spending so much time there, was that the chair at the foot of the table was raised, and the chairs on either side were significantly lowered. And broken, so they couldn't be raised to fix the problem. Okay, Frank was playing power games, how cute. Dick move, but kind of cute.

Frank was hired. He was from Boston and black and preppy. Very preppy. He told
me that he was married. I asked if he had any kids. He hemmed and hawed a bit, and then told me he had a daughter. Then he referred to his wife as his girlfriend. I asked if he was newly married, thinking he'd forgotten to use the word "wife" instead of "girlfriend." Frank explained that actually, they had a common-law marriage, but weren't really married. Okay.

The legal department was upstairs, next to the CEO, CFO, Accounting and Human
Resources. But there was no room for Frank, so he had to sit downstairs away from the rest of us, in a cubicle, in a loud room. Baby Attorneys, please be careful of this - make sure you'll be getting an office, and sitting with the rest of the attorneys. Frank was treated like a second-class citizen. But, we were moving "soon", and it was clearly implied to Frank that he would get an office after the move (he didn't).

The brother of the CEO sat in a big office right near Frank, and didn't really work for our company. He sometimes did a bit of work for it, but mostly ran his own business, which involved real estate. I often did work for Brother, therefore saw Frank quite a bit, and sometimes we would chat.

Frank put nothing personal up at his cubicle. I thought maybe it was because he
didn't want to take ownership of it since it wasn't an office, so I said something. I offered to clear away the binders The Kid had left, to make room for Frank's diplomas on the shelves. Frank said no thank you. I expressed my surprise, not even a picture of his daughter. He said no, he doesn't like for other people to know his business. "That's understandable; you probably keep a picture of her in your wallet or car or someplace."

I figured Frank would nod at this and we'd be finished. But no. Frank had no picture of his daughter. Now, growing up, I was never close with my dad. Our relationhip got 100 times better after I moved to Florida. But I know he kept a picture of me at work, and I think he had a nursery school picture of me in his wallet (or maybe just his wedding picture, I can't remember).
I've never seen a dad who lives with their child, but doesn't carry a picture of them. It struck me as odd. If that had been the ONLY odd thing about Frank, then I'd just have tossed it aside as a quirk. It's when there are so many odd things about a person that the person themself becomes odd.

Because Frank sat downstairs, away from all of us, or maybe he had different reasons, he came to work late every day. Attorneys in law firms don't really have to be in the office by 9 a.m. - they can show up any time, as long as they get all their work done. But this was not a law firm, and the G.C. wanted all three lawyers at their desks and working by 9:30 at the latest. Frank knew this, and didn't do it. Often the G.C. and Remy told me to let them know whether or not Frank was in when they saw me headed downstairs to talk with the Brother.

Frank had been in a fraternity and liked to tell me what his fraternity brothers were up to. What big-name law firms they were working for, what their salary was, what they were driving, etc. I got the impression Frank was just waiting to pass the bar to become like them.

I knew he planned to take the MA and FL bar, but the Company only knew that Frank
was taking the FL bar. Frank didn't know it, but there was a bit of a fight over whether or not the Company would pay for his BarBri class to prepare for the bar, and they eventually did. I was filling out all the forms related to Frank becoming a lawyer. It was from those that I took his address, home phone number and cell number and added the information to our departmental phone list.

I asked Frank to let me know when he changed his cell phone from a Boston number
to a Florida number so I could update the information. He said he would.

One day, Frank didn't show up for work. By this time, the General Counsel had given Remy a talking to about his jeans falling off his ass (every single day I knew what color panties Remy was wearing, and every single day I tried to avoid seeing crack - he kept a lot of files on the floor of his office) and showing up after half the mornign was over. So Remy told me to call Frank, find out where the hell he was, and tell him he was needed in the office.

I called his Boston cell number first, which went to an automated message telling me voicemail hadn't been set up for that account. Frank had had this cell phone all through law school and NEVER set up his voice mail? Whatever. I called his home number, only for it to ring and ring.

After lunch Frank finally called, to tell me he'd headed out the door to work, but had to go back when he got a call from his wife saying there was a leak. I told the G.C. and Remy what Frank had said, and they told me to tell him to come into the office. When Frank arrived, he had a nervous smile on his face. The G.C. was a nice guy who rarely got angry, which of course made it extra bad when he DID get angry. And he was angry.

Frank had left the faucet in the bathroom sink on, and the water overflowed. I've never done that - I can't imagine walking out of the bathroom with water running, or doing it and forgetting about it. Frank had told me his wife was getting their house set up before working (this went on for over half a year), so I'm not sure why she couldn't handle the leak on her own with Frank's help via phone.

It seemed though, that the attorneys were more upset about Frank's attitude about the whole situation - he kept laughing about it, and didn't seem upset or regretful that he both hadn't called in OR been reachable (a very serious offense for an attorney).

Later in the day I was told the G.C. didn't believe the leak story. I didn't either. I didn't believe a lot of things Frank said. What I came to realize was that I shouldn't believe anything Frank told me, but should believe everything he alluded to but did not say.

(I know you're frustrated - we're getting there.)