Dennis Family Intrigue

Randolph Dennis was a significant shareholder in Futuretec, and he’d fully expected his daughter Carole would get to be employed because of her name Dennis. Maybe she was not the brightest scholar in her years at school, but he thought it should be an unspoken rule the people at the top would see they supported each other when it came to plumb jobs for their relatives and friends. He’d casually slipped the word to the president his daughter would be seeking a job and was interested in employment.

To his thinking that hint should have been enough. Of course, they had to go through the usual procedure to show fairness, but when the final decision was to be made, he expected his daughter would be the natural choice. He’d mentioned several years ago his brother’s son Derek was interested in a job and Derek had got the job. The fact was, Derek had been able to sell his skills to the interviewing team, but Carole had not. It was not favouritism at all. As a matter of fact, the vice presidents had cautioned it may not be well to employ Derek not because his academic strength or presentation was lacking but because they didn’t fully trust this significant shareholder, Randolph Dennis and they were closely related.

Randolph had his tentacles into several competing corporations too as the oil money riches of his great grandparents had accrued to him on the death of his parents as the eldest son and those investments were spread widely. Randolph was considered in the corporate world to use information gained from questionable sources to benefit his corporate interests so was treated with suspicion when he showed up at stockholder meetings anywhere and asked questions that could give him rather than other stockholders an advantage. Management had talked with Derek and drawn his attention to documents agreeing any disclosures outside the corporation of work he was doing would automatically involve him in criminal proceedings. Christie had been told the same when filling in documents at Human Resources. The threat of an audit at any time by the forensic or legal crew kept them all on their toes. While Derek always avoided sharing any information on what he was working on with his uncle who always expressed curiosity about his work his loyalty to his cousin Carole caused him to try and get the current recruit destroyed hoping to give his cousin another chance at the job. What he didn’t know was that Brian would have been the next choice. Carole was all presentation skills without substantial business academic or natural business skills. She should have been in public relations as she was quite capable of that work.

Two months later Derek was invited to an audience with William Faulkner who had oversight of Tim Wesley’s research department. It had been voted in their administrative committee to transfer him to a junior administrative job in one of their manufacturing companies. Faulkner stated they’d been watching him develop in his research work and thought he qualified for a chance to advance in their administrative structure by gaining experience within the many companies the holding company operated. Derek did have the smarts to advance in this way and knew that was the corporation way of advancing their employees up the ladder. He gladly accepted and Tim in consultation with William Faulkner gave Christie his position and they began a search for another recruit. Christie had expected to advance to such a position after at least another couple of years of work, but Tim was confident this young woman was an exceptional asset, and he’d personally mentor her as she eased into this new responsibility. She had the skills, but could she withstand the pressure of deadlines.

Christie was grateful no work could be taken home as it gave her time to relax of an evening. Sometimes she had the company of her father and aunt and enjoyed talking business with her father as his experience gave her new insights. Sometimes the group of her peers at work met together after work to visit a restaurant together and one or two of the men in that group over the period she’d worked for Futuretec had tried to get her to accept dates with them individually.

But Christie was not interested in any of them and tonight she was thinking about how she might be able to meet with people outside her group as she felt the need of companionship with a special friend. She attended her father’s club on weekends or enjoyed visiting with her brother’s families but most of the people attending the club were older and only those employed there were about her age. These did not share her interests so there was no chance of a meaningful relationship with them. The group she’d enjoyed working with in her MBA class had all left to take up appointments in other cities. She kept in contact with some of them through social media but that was not the same as sharing experiences together. Tonight, she felt lonely at home by herself as her father often attended night meetings and her aunt was interested in her hobbies and an early night. That’s why she was reviewing her time with Futuretec and wondering if after she was confirmed as permanent, she needed to look for a place to work where there’d be more opportunities to look for that special person to share her life without the rigidity of her present job.

Tim Wesley the middle-aged manager of the department Christie worked in had been observing Christie over the time she’d been with the corporation. He was not married and so looked on those in his team as his family and took an active interest in their welfare. He was well liked, and the team treated him as their confidant. He’d studied their personalities and sought their advancement when he saw they were seeking more challenges than their present work provided. It usually took a few years before that happened as most loved the challenges of their work.

But he’d detected in Christie a restlessness lately that was usually the sign his team member needed a new challenge. Once a week they had a team meeting to discuss ways to make their work easier and more efficient. Sometimes it was new technology that could make the work faster and sometimes it was little conveniences they’d like to have. Tim would inform William Faulkner who he reported to at the higher level and usually a solution would be provided so the meetings were valued. Today Tim decided to have a one to one with Christie who he could see was producing the work but didn’t seem to be as happy as she was when first employed.

Christie was surprised to be asked to remain behind when the meeting finished and Tim began to probe whether there was something that could be done to make her job more satisfying. Christie assured him she was happy with her job, but he kept probing and eventually she confessed she was missing the social interactions she’d enjoyed in her master’s studies. Tim sent her back to work with the assurance he was a good listener and if she ever felt like talking, he was available to listen and give her whatever support he could as an elder brother. Christie returned to her workstation feeling glad to be in such a supportive environment. The work was hard and exacting but there was a good team spirit she appreciated and felt lucky to be here. Tim then made an appointment to consult with William Faulkner as he was aware the corporation president had his eye on this young woman for future advancement at a higher level. He had some idea as to how this young woman could find fulfilment outside corporate hours. A week later Christie was called to Faulkner’s office, and she went with trepidation wondering why she was being summoned.

William Faulkner looked up as his secretary ushered Christie into the office and smiled. It had been a long time since Faulkner had interviewed this woman before her assignment to Wesley’s department. He first expressed his appreciation for the way she’d developed through her internship and was doing well since her confirmed appointment with the corporation then got to the point. They were needing help in the auditing department for someone with her skills and would she be prepared to take some assignments travelling with them to deal with situations in a couple of their subsidiary companies that needed forensic skills as corporate misappropriation was suspected. It would probably take a couple of months of her time. and she’d be travelling with some from the CPA firm retained to complete their shareholder required audits. Internal audit was to observe and report back to the president independent of the CPA report.

Faulkner also mentioned she was scheduled to attend an industry conference for a week at which time internationally renowned speakers from around the world would be the presenters on her return from temporary assignment. Christie nodded in appreciation. This was a real privilege considering she had been employed for a limited time with Futuretec. That evening she rushed home to share the news with her father who excitedly phoned his sons to share the news with them.

It was several weeks later she received another call from Tim Wesley to tell her she was wanted in Faulkner’s office again. She was to turn her current assignment over to him and prepare for temporary reassignment. She sped to Faulkner’s office wondering what assignment this would be. Faulkner beckoned her to sit while he finished his phone call then turned to her.

“Christie, I have a request from internal audit for you to accompany one of their men to Sandusky where we have one of our subsidiary manufacturing companies. The Sandusky company president has requested help from our CPA auditors who work with us corporate wide, and we always send a team from internal audit to monitor what is happening and report back to us so we can compare their report with the report from the CPA principals who attend that audit. Our president has requested internal auditor Thomas Higgins take you along with him for experience. He flies to Sandusky at 2 pm tomorrow afternoon so you need to confirm now and pack your bags early tomorrow morning. You need to meet Thomas Higgins in internal audit now to get background on the assignment and a heads up on what you can and cannot take with you to maintain secrecy. You are booked at the Hilton and Tom will have your ticket with him when you meet him at the airport. Not sure how long the audit will take but you’ll need to inform those who you stay with you’ll be away for a while but not tell them the details of what you’ll be doing. You should be settled in the hotel about two hours after departure and get well rested as it will be intensive from the day after your arrival until the conclusion of the audit.”

Faulkner reached for the phone and contacted Tom Higgins telling him Christie was on the way to see him. She asked directions from the receptionist and she took Christie to the office where Tom called her in for a quick report then told her to go home and select appropriate clothing and pack for departure bringing her luggage to his office next day so they could leave together after he’d given her an update on the latest report from the president of their manufacturing plant there in Sandusky.

That evening she reported to her proud father she was being assigned temporarily on an audit away from home and she didn’t yet know when she’d return but would be in contact when she knew more on arrival in Sandusky.

Their meeting with those assigned from the CPA firm was a discouragement to Christie on arrival. They were familiar with Tom Higgins from previous working assignments together but were openly disinterested in this young woman they’d be working with, and it showed as they commenced their work with those in Sandusky junior administration who’d not been informed of their arrival or purpose of their visit.

The CPA in charge of this audit with Tom interviewed the president to examine the reason for his suspicions and the CPA assistant was told to head to the company IT department with Christie to begin preliminary work on assessing system reliability. Christie was surprised to find on entry the department was under supervision of Derek Dennis who was equally as surprised to see her there as part of the unexpected audit team.

Derek immediately contacted the Sandusky company president he reported to and complained Christie had once worked under his supervision and been difficult for him to handle so how could she be expected to be impartial. Christie had no idea Derek had worked against her during her internship, but he assumed she did know and felt this was the time for her revenge. The Sandusky president immediately contacted the president of the holding company who’d sent her to find out more and a furious Futuretec president requested Derek stand down on full pay during the audit, so he’d not be a hinderance. 

This surprised the CPA representatives and infuriated Derek who immediately contacted his uncle Randolph to get that order counteracted. But from that point on Christie was treated with more respect and she drank in all the accumulated knowledge the CPA team bought to the audit. She asked permission to access the system and run some tests herself which the team decided to watch to test her knowledge and judge what value she could bring to their work. They were amazed as she negotiated her way around the system with ease and inquired as to how she’d acquired her knowledge. She responded her father had introduced her to programming in her early teens and she’d enjoyed working with him to create simple games and more complex programs as she grew older. Suddenly she was accepted as a potential valued member of the team.

The president of this Sandusky company had been watching key performance indicators over time and noticed in comparing with other years there seemed to be an unaccounted drop of profitability when sales were booming, and he was running a very efficient team with an excellent costing system and controls. His sixth sense told him there was something wrong, but he was not sufficiently skilled in the IT system to be able to identify a possible cause if that was the problem so called in professionals.

To be continued.

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