Hired, page 10
Sebastian quirked an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?”
Hadley put his laptop down on the table, then set his hands on his hips. “Yes. You. You are the problem.”
“What did I do now?”
“You mean aside from being a complete asshole to that poor woman in the meeting?”
Sebastian sighed, rubbing his neck. “It’s her job to know these things, Hadley. She went into a meeting unprepared, even when she knew her issue would be on the agenda you so helpfully emailed everyone ahead of time.”
Hadley blinked. “You’re serious.”
“You should know by now I lack a sense of humor.”
“You really think that’s what happened, that she went into this meeting unprepared.”
“Were you in a different meeting than I was? I know what I saw.”
Hadley’s posture changed as he stepped closer, his face much softer and kinder now. “No, Sebastian, you don’t. Did you know today was her third day working for LeClerc? So she only had two days to get up to speed before this meeting.”
“I didn’t. I agree that gives her some slack.”
“She also got thrown under the bus by her boss.”
“By Drew? What do you mean?”
Hadley studied him. “You’re not good at reading body language, are you? Or picking up subtle clues in people’s expressions and words.”
How had he picked up on that so quickly? It had taken most others much longer to see this weakness in him. “I have no trouble reading you. You were bored out of your mind when Drew was talking.”
“No, I wasn’t. I was furious. Big difference.”
Furious? What the hell was Hadley talking about? “Why would you be angry?”
“Did you listen to what he was saying?”
He shuffled his feet. “I tune him out. I don’t know anyone who loves to hear himself talk more than he does.”
“If you had listened, you would’ve heard the most blatant self-aggrandizing ever while he took the credit for everything that went right and tore down everyone on his team and blamed them for what went wrong.”
Hadley’s words made Sebastian uncomfortable, though why he couldn’t explain. Just something that crawled under his skin, like a frustrating, irritating itch. “I know he can be a pompous ass, but he does a good job.”
“Does he? What’s the turnover in his department?”
Turnover? What did that have to do with anything? “God, Hadley, you’re giving me a fucking headache. Why don’t you get to the point?”
Hadley stepped even closer, and Sebastian swallowed at the fire blazing from his eyes. “My point is that you need to open your eyes and see what’s going on. I will bet you big money that Julia had no idea she’d have to answer for the quality issues. My guess is that Drew told her she’d just have to sit in and listen and that he’d take care of it, only to throw her under the bus when you were pissy with him. The look in her eyes made it crystal clear she wasn’t prepared for this, and why would she be on her third day? He sabotaged her right in front of you.”
Sebastian frowned. What had happened exactly in the meeting? She had sent some desperate looks in Drew’s direction. Was that was those had been about? “Her explanation to me about the software was pretty condescending, though.”
“She had no clue you’d been involved in the development of the product.”
“It’s not common knowledge,” he admitted. “Only those who have been with us for a while would know. I mean, Drew is aware.”
“And didn’t tell her.”
“You think he did it on purpose?”
Hadley’s expression was much kinder now. “I wouldn’t rule it out. Have incidents like this happened before?”
Sebastian rubbed his chest, which was aching again, then walked over to the little fridge. He’d better get that glass of milk. Maybe that would help. As he poured it, he thought about Hadley’s question. There had been that time Drew had let an intern do a presentation of a new prototype. Which had been disastrous. Almost as bad as when Drew’s new right hand had tried to convince Sebastian to sell off a division. He’d only lasted a month or so.
Huh. What was the turnover in Drew’s department? As the CTO, Drew had all the technical departments under him, ranging from their R&D group to quality control and more. Sebastian carried his milk to his desk and sat down, then tapped a few keys to wake up his computer. HRM always made quarterly graphs for him that showed key statistics about their workforce, but Sebastian hardly ever looked at them. As long as he didn’t hear about problems, he had better things to spend his precious time on. But now he pulled them up—an easy task, thanks to Hadley—and, with a few clicks, found the turnover numbers.
“What’s a good turnover rate?” he asked Hadley as he studied the numbers.
“I think ten percent, but let me check.” Hadley whipped out his phone, and his fingers flew as he typed something in. “Yes, most companies aim for ten percent, especially in departments that are knowledge intensive, though tech and IT jobs have a higher rate.”
“The turnover in our R&D is almost forty percent. That’s sky-high, then.”
“It is, and I’m not surprised.”
Sebastian scratched his chin. “I thought we paid well. Above market rate.”
“Trust me, no money in the world can outweigh an asshole boss.”
Sebastian looked up. “You’re still here.”
“You’re not an asshole to me. Besides, I made a promise to Caitlyn. And I haven’t made up my mind yet about whether I’ll stay once she’s recovered.”
They’d have to revisit that discussion another time because as important as it was to Sebastian, he didn’t want to get off track from their discussion. “You think Drew is the cause for that high turnover?”
“Sebastian, Drew is a dick. He might be a technical genius—I’ll leave that judgment to you—but he’s an asshole. I’ve only had two interactions with him, and I wanted to slap him, and that was before the meeting we just suffered through.”
Did Hadley even realize he was calling him Sebastian instead of Mr. LeClerc? Probably not, and Sebastian wasn’t gonna point it out because he loved it. Just like he loved the fact that Hadley called it as he saw it, including labeling his CTO a dick. He wasn’t wrong. Sebastian didn’t like the man either, but he’d always felt he at least did his job well. Maybe not, then. “Do I need to have a conversation with Drew?”
“If you’re talking about addressing his behavior, you should’ve had a conversation with him years ago, but that’s beside the point. It’s not gonna work, not coming from you.”
Understanding dawned. “Because I’m a dick too.”
“The words used most often are grouchy and grumpy, but yeah. Kinda hard to call him out on that behavior when you’re not setting the right example either. People in glass houses and all that. Like, what just happened in that meeting should never have been allowed. As CEO, you should’ve stopped it.”
A sense of defeat filled him, and he got up from his chair and walked over to the window, which offered a spectacular view of Seattle. Was he destroying the company? He worked so hard, did whatever he could, but it never seemed to be enough. Take this whole Drew situation. He should’ve spotted that much earlier, but if Hadley hadn’t spoken up, he would never have seen the truth. What else was he missing?
“So what do I do?” he asked without turning around.
“I think these are all symptoms of the real problem, which is the way your office is organized. Or rather, unorganized. What I have seen here is beyond anything I’ve ever encountered at a firm this size. You need a full-time secretary and a personal assistant, and both your CTO and CFO need a full-time secretary as well. Drew and Rand share one now, Fleur, and it’s not enough. That poor girl is working her ass off, and she can’t keep up. The only thing that’s keeping her here is pure loyalty, and that will run out at some point.”
Sebastian frowned. “You’re talking about hiring two extra people.”
“Three. One for Drew, since Fleur would prefer to work for Rand, one to replace me, and one to replace Beryl.”
“But Beryl is still here.”
Hadley took a deep breath. “You need to send her home. Pay her for the last few months she needs to maximize her pension, but get her out of here. She’s not doing anything anyway, and she has a negative cloud around her that will make anyone you hire in my place leave again.”
Sebastian scratched his chin. Send Beryl home. Why had he never thought of that? He’d only considered firing her and had deemed that too harsh after the work she’d done for his father. But if she wasn’t having a positive contribution and he didn’t want to fire her, he might as well send her home. He wouldn’t pay a dime extra, and it would solve a problem.
He turned around and found Hadley watching him intently. “I like that idea.”
Hadley blew out a breath. “Good. Here’s what you do. Announce it next week on, say, Monday and send her home right away. Then have her come back on Friday for a formal retirement reception where you thank her for her hard work, offer her flowers and some kind of gift, allow everyone she worked with to thank her and wish her the best, and off she goes, feeling great about the whole thing.”
“That’s pretty damn genius.”
“I have my moments. As soon as she’s gone, we start recruiting her replacement, and I’ll help you find the right person.”
“I need a secretary and a PA?”
Hadley nodded. “Yes. The secretary will work for the executive office, so they’ll work closely together with Fleur and the new person. Your PA works for you specifically and will also do more personal jobs for you outside of the office, like pick up your dry cleaning, run errands, and more.”
“And having such a large supporting staff is normal?”
“This is the smallest supporting staff to executive managers ratio I’ve ever seen. I talked to Beryl, and from the numbers she showed me, I concluded that the company grew exponentially but the staff didn’t. That’s why it became such a mess here. Granted, the fact that Beryl didn’t do her job didn’t help, but even if she had, she wouldn’t have been able to keep up.”
“Okay. Let me run some numbers by Rand and see what he thinks. I’m curious because he never mentioned it.”
Hadley stayed quiet, but his expressive face made it clear he had thoughts on that subject as well.
“You might as well spit it out,” Sebastian said with a sigh. “You’re on a roll, and I can tell you have a strong opinion anyway.”
“How long has he worked here?”
“Who, Rand?” Hadley nodded. “He’s relatively new. Six months, I think?”
“And Drew?”
“He was here before I even joined the firm. He’s an old friend of my dad’s.”
“So on one hand you have a guy who’s been here forever, who has a way of doing things, and who’s a dick, as we already established. And on the other hand, you have the new guy, who only knows what Drew told him about you or what he has done to make sure Rand doesn’t get too much influence.”
Sebastian groaned. “God, it’s like being back in high school with all this ridiculous drama. It gives me a headache, and I’ve been having too many of those lately already.”
“I’m sorry to be—”
Sebastian cut him off with a sharp gesture. “Don’t. Don’t apologize. None of this is on you. In fact, you’re the first person in a long time who’s making an effort to help me. So just… I need to process this, okay?”
Hadley stood next to him. “I know this may sound inappropriate, but would you like a hug?”
That almost brought tears to Sebastian’s eyes, though why, he had no clue. “As much as I would love to say yes, I’m pretty sure that if I touch you now, I won’t be able to stop. I tend to release my frustration in sex, and you’d end up on the floor, naked, with my cock buried inside you. Also inappropriate to say, but here we are.”
Hadley made a choked sound. “I’ll leave now.”
“Smart choice.”
Long after Hadley had rushed out of his office, Sebastian stood in front of the window. Why on earth was this job so much harder than he’d ever expected? He struggled with the people aspect of it, and it had been such a fight to not let others see this. But Hadley had. Would he now think less of Sebastian? And how the hell would he ever cope if Hadley decided to leave?
11
Hadley had bided his time, going through the weekly process of catching up with his brothers. He'd waited until everyone had shared their stories, not wanting to betray even a hint of the anxiety he was experiencing over this decision. At some point, one of his brothers would ask, and that would be his cue.
“How's the job going, Hadley?” Jaren asked, right on schedule. “I assume you're done about now and ready to move on?”
Okay, show time. He made certain his face was blank as he shrugged. “It's been okay. Mr. LeClerc has asked me to stay, though.”
He left it at that, not sure if he could say more without showing emotions.
Jaren quirked an eyebrow. “He wants you to stay?”
Hadley nodded.
“Even though Caitlyn is recovered and can resume her duties?”
Another indifferent shrug. “He said he’d prefer for me to stay. I guess he's gotten used to me now. She was only there for two days.”
His three brothers all stared at him, Nordin's gaze burning the most. He always saw much deeper than Hadley preferred, though in all fairness, he rarely used it against people, least of all his brothers.
“You think he wants you to stay because he's gotten used to you,” Nordin said slowly. “Is that what he said?”
Oh, Hadley wasn’t repeating what Sebastian had said about him being a little ray of sunshine. Every time he thought about it, his insides got warm all over again. How stupid to be so giddy about a few kind words from a man who was so sparse with them. “He said I'd done more for him in a week than anybody else had accomplished.”
Sure, that was a bit of a selective quote from what Sebastian had said, but technically not a lie.
“So you got him to give you a job description?” Jaren asked.
“Not quite. He didn't know how to utilize a personal assistant. He had a limited view of the services we offer, so I made a list for him to show him everything I could do, and he asked me to tackle his email first.” He shuddered. “The man had over ten thousand emails in his inbox. I kid you not.”
A collective gasp traveled around the table. “Ten thousand?” Nordin's eyes were wide. “Even I don't let it get that bad.”
“It wasn't his fault. I still haven't put all the puzzle pieces together, but from what I can tell, the company has grown explosively, but administrative support has not. He's been handling his own email, which included a lot of general company emails that should never have landed in his inbox in the first place.”
Jaren took a sip of the red wine he'd brought to their dinner, this week hosted in Lagan and Hadley's tiny living room. They had to push the couch to the side to allow the four of them to sit, but as always, they made it work. “That sounds like a perfect job for you. I bet if you stay longer, you could help him organize all that and leave him in a much better position than you found him.”
“Right?” Hadley was happy that Jaren seemed to understand the appeal of a job like this. “My hands are itching to fix that mess. I've already made a good start by organizing their file system and working through the email backlog, but I could do so much more if I stayed longer.”
“So could Caitlyn.” Nordin's tone was neutral. “With the groundwork you’ve laid for her, she could pick right up where you left off and implement more improvements.”
Dammit. Why did he have to be all reasonable about it? “True, but Mr. LeClerc didn't seem to have good chemistry with her.”
Nordin grinned. “From what I understand, the man doesn't have good chemistry with anybody.”
“He seems to like me.” The words were out before Hadley could hold them back. Shit, he had said too much. This would be used against him.
Nordin's grin widened as he cocked his head, those sharp eyes laser-focused on Hadley. “Yes, and I don't have to wonder why.”
“I'm not following,” Jaren said.
“The man is gay, brother dear. And while we may not see it anymore, used as we are to his presence, our Hadley with his sunshiny smile, sweet face, and bubble butt is like catnip for dominant gay men. Especially grumpy ones.”
Hadley's cheeks heated. God, the way Sebastian had looked at him when he’d stood in front of the window. How casually he’d mentioned that he’d be unable to stop touching him, that they’d end up on the floor. Not that his brothers needed to know that. “Don't be ridiculous. It has nothing to do with physical attraction. I'm simply the first assistant who’s found a way to work with him.”
“Is that so? And why do you think you found the key that everyone else missed?” Nordin asked.
Why did he always have to ask the tough questions? The man was never satisfied with superficial answers. But how could he answer this without giving away too much? “Maybe because I was willing to look past him being a grumpy asshole?”
“So he's still being an asshole to you?” Jaren asked.
Hadley hesitated. “It's not as bad as his attitude toward others. I mean, he's not exactly friendly, and apparently, he can't get the words ‘thank you’ out of his mouth, but he’s not rude to me.”
“But he is rude to others?” Nordin asked.
Yeah, Hadley couldn't deny that, not after what had happened in the meeting earlier that week. “At times, yes. But I don't think he means it that way. I can't put my finger on it, but something is off about his behavior. He's under a lot of pressure.”
Silence descended. “Hadley, babe, I'm saying this with all my love, but it sounds an awful lot like you're defending him. And if he's rude to others, that means you're excusing that kind of behavior.”
