Good Boss

My last boss was a Nice Guy. I enjoyed working for him. I did not even have to ask for bonuses, they just showed up in my paycheck. In fact, after receiving the first one I thought it was a mistake. As it happens when I scored a large account for the business he automatically gave me a ten percent cut of the sales. Pretty cool. He also gave me important benefits, which I lost when the business changed hands. He owned the business for three years and had planned on keeping it, and me for a while longer. Unfortunately, being a Nice Guy, he met the same fate as most of us Nice Guys do. One of the main parts of the business was a large warehouse that not only stored merchandise for sales but manufactured custom parts for other businesses. He sold parts all over the east coast. I worked at the warehouse off and on to make more cash and to give him a hand. Working on the welding robots was cool. It paid well and was something different to do. I enjoyed it.

Some of the people that worked there were family. I met some of them and they seemed like decent enough people. Some were in the warehouse but most were in the office and in charge of running things. They were quite and seemed to have a great handle on running things for my boss, who was busy at other locations. He entrusted his uncles to take care of his business. This was in the end his undoing. It seems that two of his uncles were ordering supplies and selling them on their own and keeping the profits. I guess when you control the books and the inventory you can get away with this, for a while. There were many customers going in and out of the warehouse so any activity was just taken for granted. I do not know how long this went on but after a while there were items that should have been in the warehouse but were not. This came to my bosses attention but it was too late. The damage had been done and he lost over a million dollars. He ended up having to sell the warehouse and some of his locations, including the one that I worked at. Many other Nice Guys that I knew in the warehouse also lost their job.

The last that I heard he was still engaged in a huge legal battle. Making the matters worse the items that were stolen, or sold without compensation, were transported over state lines. I guess this brings in a whole list of different charges, which could go on forever. I miss the former owner. He was not only a Nice Guy but a great guy. I hope things work out for him. I do occasionally contact him to say “hi.” Maybe some day I can work for him again. Nice Guys should stick together.