Hiccup

We hit a slight hiccup today - I imagine it will not be the last either.  It hasn't derailed us and I'd rather expected it so I'm not really horribly upset by it. 

As we look to move into this new office space, we had not planned to accomodate our chairman in our new space.  Since he became our chairman back in 2000 or maybe it was 1999, we've always provided him a private office.  But the new space doesn't really allow us to do this AND we didn't really feel it was in his best interest any longer.  He's not actively involved in the day to day operations or activities of the company.  He's actually about 99% hands-off.  But he's a gem of a man and has a huge cash investment in our company, so we typically oblige him when it comes to the private office. 

Well, we had to tell him we weren't taking him with us.  And because of his age and some other stressors in his life, he is a tad fragile of late and this news did not settle well with him.  He became upset and took it personally and accused us of not wanting him around any longer and it was all just kind of sad.  See, yesterday, I saw him in the parking lot and I just had this gut feeling that something was "off" with him.  So I suggested to the CEO that we bring him in, tell him straight up we're moving to a ROWE and be forthright in the fact that we don't think he can handle being in the office and not seeing everyone there every day.  I think he's the kind of man that can understand this and appreciate the honesty and candor.  Well, the CEO is heading out on vacation tomorrow and didn't want to open that can of worms until his return.  So this morning, that's when the chairman got upset and took it personally and was crying and it was just all so horrible.  Like I said - he's a very kind man that has put so much faith and trust into us - and especially me - over the years - I just felt horrible.  Sneaky.  When in fact, there is NOTHING to hide.  NOTHING. 

So the CEO and I went to lunch and the CEO determined that my idea yesterday about coming out in the open with the Chairman NOW vs at the Company Meeting on August 3rd would in fact be a better approach.  So I get the fun task of speaking to him about ROWE and explaining that and selling him on the idea and hopefully getting him to a point that he is a cheerleader for this movement also.  I feel pretty confident that I can get him there.  We've shared thousands of frank moments together over the last several years and I believe that trust is still there. 

I don't know what it's like to be in your mid-70's (yet) and I don't know what it feels like to not feel "needed" any longer.  I also don't know what it feels like to not feel "wanted."  The fact that he currently feels all of these things is heartbreaking.  He believed in me time and again.  He trusted me and empowered me over and over.  I actually look forward to my conversation with him about ROWE because I believe that in some ways, I'm giving back to him what he gave to me so many times - BELIEF - TRUST - INCLUSION.  I just hope there aren't tears involved.  Although it wouldn't be the first conversation between he and I that involved tears.  And we got through those - we can get through this!