Setting Up The Victim

Darth laid the groundwork during the first meeting and formally appointed me the secretary for the group. The responsibility he gave me in front of the group was far less that what he had privately discussed with me. The task was simple; we were to look at quality control practices in the plant and in the lab, recommend ways to improve the practices and then implement the recommended changes. Since the people responsible for carrying out any recommended changes were part of the group, the changes should take place with relative ease. Thus, an opportunity to impact Gamma's poor business practices appeared possible, and the changes would have Darth's blessing which was essential.

Darth was emerging more and more as the one man who oversaw everything and who had to approve all changes. His power was conveyed in direct ways and in some subtle ways. In one instance I had written a monthly report that I had which showed the results of some work I had done which indicated that the patent application submitted by Ravi and Darth could be circumvented by a simple chemical trick. The procedure which I had tested would allow other companies to essentially use our system. A couple of days later, Darth called Ravi and me into his office and gave us a lecture on how he would make all decisions on how the Tenneland legal battle would be fought. He emphasized that it was not my job to do that. I was a little confused, because I had made no attempt to steer the direction of the legal battle, but the timing of the meeting in relation to my monthly report and Darth's direct remarks to me implied that Darth thought I had. I left the meeting feeling his comments were irrelevant to the issues at hand, but Darth did emphasize his total control.

The meeting also served to reinforce the idea that everything I did was wrong. I ouldn't do anything right. It was like a child with a domineering parent or a marriage with a verbally abusive spouse. What I couldn't see was how the constant belittling of me was wearing down my self confidence and self-esteem.
On one occasion Darth and I were discussing authority, decision making and general business practices in relation to the task of the quality control committee. At one point Darth paused and said, “Russ, the best form of management is the BENEVOLENT DICTATOR.” The message was clear. You did not discuss policy with Darth, because what he said was the way things were to be and, of course Darth was benevolent.

Darth's power and appearance of total control was reinforced by Paul Johnson and Ralph Sampson. Pauk commented that Darth treated everyone the way that I was being treated.

Ralph came in one day and said, “Darth is treating you the way the Chinese treats their prisoners. He likes to break people down, and then he molds them the way he likes them." He laughed and then departed.

I did not find his comment humorous at all, and I thought the analogy to the communist treatment of prisoners was not a totally inaccurate description. Jay Wells reiterated that Darth had the Cline's ear and he had the final word in everything. The bottom line was that Darth was all powerful in Gamma Supplies.

More subtle means of conveying Darth's power ran from the ridiculous to the sublime. During quality control studies of a particular product, the question arose as to how to determine the point in time when a reaction was complete in order that the product could be drummed and a new batch could be started as quickly as possible. I was discussing the problem with Jay and I suggested we put a torque meter on the stirrer shaft, since there was a sharp increase in the thickness of the product when the reaction was complete. Jay said he didn't like the idea. When I asked why he said, “Well, Darth told me we should hook up an amp meter to the stirrer motors and then measure the increase in the current on the motors when the reaction became complete.” After some more discussion, I said fine, and eventually the quality control committee agreed to recommend Darth's solution to the
problem to Darth for action. The incident enforced the idea that all changes came from Darth and more importantly, it placed Jay as Darth's official spokesman in the quality control group. It again appeared that Darth was undermining my position in the quality control group. This was after Darth took great pains to tell the group that I was heading up the task force. It looked like the old “magic act” again.

To make sure that Darth had actually told Jay that the amp meter was the solution Darth wanted, when we presented our group findings to Darth I said, “Of course, we did consider monitoring the torque on the stirrer as an alternative. What do you think of that?”

Darth just glared at me as if to say, what do you think you are doing, you
insubordinate? Then he said, “The amp meter should work fine”.

I remained silent the rest of the meeting.

The ridiculous means of conveying Darth's position of power took very subtle
psychological forms. In Darth's office, across from his desk, was a couch which was very low. When you sat on the couch, your knees came up to your chest, making the occupant quit uncomfortable. One day I was talking with Jay and I mentioned a book I had read by Michael Korda called Power. In the book, Mr. Korda related how some managers arrange their furniture in their office to give them a position of power when they talked with someone. It is a subtle form of intimidation. One example in Korda's book was about a manager who had his furniture so low that the people in his office felt uncomfortable, and the manager from behind his desk had a feeling of towering over his subjects. For a vertically challenged person like Darth, he probably wanted to feel he towered over other people.

JaY blurted out, “Yeah, just like Darth's couch.”

I said, “Yes, exactly like that.”

We both laughed and I didn't think anymore of the conversation until a couple of days later. I went into Darth's office , sat down on the couch and was surprised that the couch had been raised to a comfortable level. The timing relative to my conversation with Jay bothered me immensely. And this was another time when something I told a coworker in private seemed to have made its way to one of my managers. I was baffled as to why that should be happening.

As work on the quality control committee progressed, I became more and more
disenchanted. I was working hard at learning all I could about the product processes so changes could be made. Darth would verbally support all of the groups recommendations, but nothing was done. One day in early November, I was preparing for a meeting, when I sat back and reflected on the situation. Every couple of weeks we would meet in Darth's office, discuss our findings, recommend actions that should be taken, get Darth's support and approval and then nothing would happen.

At the next meeting I was going to address the lack of progress. I took my notes from the previous meeting and made up a list of seventeen actions which was supposed to have occurred in the intervening two weeks. I also noted the person who was responsible for implementing the change. I wanted to find out why nothing was being done.

I started the next quality control meeting by saying I wanted to go over what had been done since the last time. Darth tried to steer the meeting in another direction, but I was insistent. I took out my list, and one by one I addressed the expected actions and the person responsible. The answer was always the same; the people responsible had done nothing and they acted like they could care less. Finally, when I had completed the list, Darth turned to me and said, “Russ, how may items were you responsible for?”

“Three,” I replied.

“Well you only did two of them. See you didn't do all you were suppose to.”

I sat there in disbelief. No one else in the room had done anything, and Jordan was reprimanding me. He said nothing more to the other people. Once again I was wrong. Then we went on to business as usual.

I left the meeting feeling frustrated and with little enthusiasm for the quality control work. Darth was suppose to be all-powerful in the company and he was verbally supporting all of our recommendations, yet he said and did nothing when no actions were being taken. The feeling of frustration and failure was further enforced by the actions of another committee which had been formed at about the same time as our quality control committee. That group was responsible for identifying cost problems in production and then taking corrective actions. Ralph Sampson was a group member and he dutifully kept me abreast of their work. In direct contrast to our group, their group was being successful in carrying out corrective actions and they were achieving results. I was baffled by the difference in the results of the two groups.

My work in the laboratory was going well, and I had solved the major problem of not having adequate analytical facilities at Gamma Supplies by gaining access to equipment at the University of Wisconsin, Blackwater. In a stroke of luck, I had learned that my former office partner from the University of Florida was now a professor at the U. of Wisc., Blackwater. I quickly contacted him and gained permission to use the equipment there. Not only did it make my work easier, but there was no cost to Gamma Supplies which resulted in a savings of several thousand dollars in analytical fees. The analytical data was absolutely essential to support our technical position in the legal battle against Tenneland. Despite
all the other activity, winning the lawsuit was still the major objective of my work.

Think One by SUGGESTION!
My earlier laboratory results had shown that one particular phenolic resin worked
particularly well in Gamma's “Rapid Set” formulation. This was an important result, and there was a need to identify why that particular material worked so well and then to characterize that particular material. However, before I did that, I wanted to find out what was going on at Gamma Supplies. I decided to run a little test.

Before I went to Blackwater for analytical data, I decided to tell Darth and Dave some of my results. We met in my office and I explained my results to them. Darth quickly asked why I thought one particular material worked well. I knew what answer Darth wanted, but I deliberately gave him an answer that was not supportive of Gamma's cause. Darth sat there, visibley annoyed, commented on my interesting results and then queried as to when I would have my analytical results supporting my conclusion. I told him it would be a while because it was a long drive to Blackdwater and I wanted to wait until I had lots of samples for analysis. That way I could make the most efficient use of my time and spend the entire day on their equipment. Darth said fine and the meeting was adjourned. He made no attempt
to question my conclusions, and he offered no alternative explanation.

About a week later I passed Darth in the hall, and as we passed he shouted out
something. Since I didn't understand what he had said, I stopped him and asked him to repeat it.

“One is the magic number.” Then he turned and continued on his way.

Several days later he walked through the lab and as he passed me he said, “Think one!”

This scenario was repeated on two other occasions, and I knew what Darth was telling me. The phenolic resin which worked so well was what polymer chemists call monomeric, or as a layman would say, it had a unit of one. I had been certain that was the case all along, but I was not going to confirm it with analytical data until I found out how Darth was going to tell what was wanted for the legal battle. Finally, I went to Blackwater and obtained the analytical data which quickly confirmed the phenolic resin which had worked well was indeed low molecular weight or near monomeric. When I returned to the laboratory the next day, I informed Darth that my initial conclusion that the desired material was polymeric was wrong and that I was surprised to find that “one” was indeed the magic number. Darth was relieved.

CHRISTMAS - A Good Time to Eliminate People!
The one day away from the confines of Gamma Supplies did help me put things in perspective. While talking to Ed, my former office partner at Florida, I realized how distorted my view of things had become and how much stress I was under. It seemed as though my values and belief in myself had been warped by my exposure to the barrage of criticism I had endured at Gamma Supplies. It really frightened me, but I didn't see any way out of my present predicament.

My relationship with Ravi had not improved, and he and John continually kept me under constant pressure. The extreme stress I was under began to show up in physical symptoms. Initially it was nothing more serious that frequent colds and fatigue, but in early October, I developed an irregular heart beat. At first the palpitations were just a skipped beat now and then, but their occurrence was becoming more and more frequent. Finally, one evening as I was driving home, my heart started racing out of control. I wasn't sure what was happening, and I quickly pulled my car off the road. I sat there for a minute or two while my heart raced at triple time. I was frightened and wasn't sure what to do. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, my heart rate dropped down to its normal beat pattern. I cautiously resumed my trip home. When I arrived home I did not say anything to
my wife for fear of alarming her.

The next day I called the Chicago Medical Clinic and asked for an appointment. Since I was new to the area, I had to describe my problem to a nurse who finally gave me an appointment with Dr. Agayoff. The problem was I would have to wait two weeks to see internist Dr. Agayoff. I was not too pleased about waiting that long, but I already knew what the problem was and as long as my heart didn't act up again like the previous night, I could wait.

That same week we were scheduled to have another management meeting. Again I decided to confront Darth with the situation with Ravi and John. The meeting was held at the West End Inn and we were to discuss a short scenario we had been given and we would also discuss the process of evaluating personnel. The scenario we were given was titled “Excelsior Bakeries, Inc.” and it presented the classic problem of the conflict which arises when a person is suddenly made manager over people with whom he has been long time friends. I was particularly interested in Darth's analysis since he had gone to Chicago's Business School. Again my expectations were not fulfilled as the morning discussion never addressed the basic issue of the paper. Instead we talked about assembly line operations, which was of little value to us, since we had no assembly line. And Darth carefully avoided the subject of conflict among company personnel which was prevalent in the Excelsior scenario.

I was going to talk to Darth at the noon break, but instead he, Jay and I went to a local foundry to see Better Supplies's “Fast Set” being used in production. After watching production at the foundry for awhile, we returned to the inn.

The afternoon session was equally uninformative and we adjourned around three
o'clock. As everyone was leaving the room I collared Darth and said we had to talk. I told him I was fed up with the situation in the laboratory and that either Ravi went or I was leaving. I told him I had a phenolic resin which worked well, and Ravi was blocking my efforts to do further research on it. Darth was prepared.

He said, “Ravi will be fired and you will be given his job, but we can't do it now.”

I was puzzled. “Why not?” I asked.

“We don't want to fire him until after G. T. leaves for Florida in December. Besides, if we do it at Christmas time, the rest of the people are busy with the holidays and they don't think about it,” replied Darth.

This was the first of many Christmases that would be used to "eliminate" someone from the work environment. To this day I still hate the Christmas holiday!

Answers Out of Nowhere(or Heaven)!
I was not pleased at all with his answer because it did not solve my immediate stress problem and the related health problems, and Darth despite all his power had not acted sooner to rectify the problem.

I replied, “Fine, if you get rid of Ravi, I will stay and see your lawsuit through to a successful completion.” At that point I had decided as soon as the lawsuit was completed, I was out of Delta Oil.

Then the conversation turned to my research results. As we were discussing what should be done, Darth quired, “what about the free formaldehyde?” Since I saw no reason from my work as to why free formaldehyde should be important, I tended to ignore his comment and continued on with what I thought was important.

After the meeting that day, we all gathered in the cocktail lounge for a drink. Darth joined us and soon everyone was listening to his business philosophy. After a couple of drinks, Darth began to brag more. He took great pride in telling how he and some friend had operated a telephone scam designed to bilk old ladies out of their savings. As I sat there and listened I couldn't help but think what a sad state of affairs it was to have a man like that as a business and community leader. In addition he pointed out that he was an Elder at a church in his community.

The next day, Darth came into my office and handed me a sheet of paper.

“Here are some thoughts I jotted down this morning on what should be done. I gave Ravi a copy. Why don't you draw up some plans and give them to Ravi.”

I looked at this list and there was item number 4, “What effect does free formaldehyde have?” The question again surfaced in my mind as to why he was so insistent on looking into the free formaldehyde. It seemed to me that he had been told that the free formaldehyde was critical. But by whom and why had Darth been given that information.

I drew up a detailed research plan, but I didn't include any work on free formaldehyde because I couldn't get all the work done by myself. I had my research plans typed and had a copy sent to Ravi and Darth.

The direct response I was expecting did not come from neither Ravi nor Darth.
Instead, John showed up in the upper lab and started to work on making phenolic resins to determine what the effect of free formaldehyde was on the “Quick Set” formulation. The results were dramatic. The correct level of free formaldehyde was critical to get the optimum performance on “Quick Set”. Now I was completely baffled as to how Darth knew that. He had been so insistent on it that he had to have known. And there were at least a dozen other parameters we could have looked at, but originally, the only thing he told me he was interested in was the free formaldehyde.

And in a later conversation, Darth all but admitted he had been given the information when we were talking about the free formaldehyde and he said, “I should have thought of that! It is comparable to another product we have.” I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Suggestions and stress!
Once the criticalness of the free formaldehyde in the phenolic resin had been established in the performance of the “Rapid Set”, Darth decided that no one outside of the laboratory should know about it. It was a technical secret that was to stay known only to a select few.

Several days later I had a scheduled meeting with George Hammond who was Vice President of Sales. The meeting was scheduled for nine o'clock in his office. As I walked down the hall toward George's office, I could hear John's voice. I paused and listened. John was talking to George and Paul Johnson and telling them all about the importance of free formaldehyde! I walked into the office, John looked at me, completed what he was saying and then left. I was furious. I went upstairs and stormed into Darth's office.

“What the hell is going on here? We agreed not to tell anyone about the effect of free formaldehyde and I walk into George's office and there is John blabbing all about it.”

Darth remained very aloof, and then said something about including John more in our plans to keep John from doing such things. I failed to mention that it was Darth's job to do that since John never listened to anything I wanted.

Since my appointment with Georng had been arranged for nine A.M., so John's presence and blunder seemed almost deliberate. But WHY? It was not until several months later that I realized these little arranged incidents were designed to generate a strong emotional response. This incident with John was one of many that were arranged to get my emotions running out of control. But at the time, it just seemed like another bizarre event at Gamma Supplies.

At that point I had enough of Gamma Supplies. John had worked for Mobile and knew better than divulge critical information. The information he was relaying had been obtained by, at best, questionable means as far as I was concerned. And, it was considered to be a critical trade secret. Yet Darth was condoning John's conduct by saying we had handled incorrectly. I was going to find another job.

I wanted to find a position immediately because I didn't want to get involved any deeper in Gamma's legal battle with Better Supplies. I called an acquaintance from a previous job and explained my situation to him. He had approached me with an offer prior to my joining Gamma. He said that he would be in Chicago in December for the Plastics Show, and maybe I could meet with him there to discuss the situation in more detail. I said I didn't know how I was going to get to the show, but if I could, I would contact him. Since I didn't have many alternatives, I decided I would try to manage a trip to the Chicago show.

I was very unhappy with Gamma Supplies, and I no longer believed anything Darth told me. Even if Kash was fired, I had been treated so badly that I wouldn't want to stay with Gamma, but I still wanted to leave under conditions which were best for me. Apparently my unhappiness was noted because I was given constant reminders that Ravi would be fired. One day Darth walked into my office and handed me a stack of papers concerning Gamma Supplies technology and suggested I look through them. All the papers were technical in nature except one which was one of Darth's business scenarios titled “The Paul White Young Co.”. That story was about a young manager who had been hire to replace an older, unpopular man. The new man is given an office adjacent to the unpopular manager. Eventually the older manager is fired , and the newly hire man takes his position. The analogy of situation with Ravi could not have been missed.

Later when I saw Darth, he asked if I had looked through the papers he had given me. I said, “yes”. The he said with a wink, “did you find anything interesting?” He smiled as only Darth could.

The absurd suggestions continued. One day when I was in the outer business office copying some papers, G. T. Cline walked up to me. I was about to say hello, when he smiled and stuck out his hand. I shook his hand and he turned and walked away.

That evening I told Anita what had happened and I exclaimed, “Now what the hell did that mean?”

“I don't know.” She replied.

The second week of November, I kept my appointment with Dr. Agayoff. Dr. Agayoff quickly asked me what was wrong and then gave me a quick once over. He then asked me a series of questions concerning the use of stimulants, such as coffee, to which I answered negative in all cases. Then he asked me if I had been under a lot of stress at work. I explained my situation at Gamma Supplies and with Ravi. He concluded that my problem was due to externally generated stress.

I was curious what someone else might do if they were in my situation. When I asked him his opinion, his solution was to hang on until Ravi was fired and to hope that things would improve. Even he seemed uneasy with that solution, but it was the best he could offer. He answer was not encouraging, but it made me feel as though I was doing the most practical thing by staying on the job. An EKG was taken and it proved to be normal. The appointment confirmed what I had believed all
along; I was under a tremendous amount of stress at work.

Book publisher wanted!
I continued to consider leaving Gamma Supplies, but because of my financial situation, I could not afford to just pack up and leave. Despite the finances involved, I continued to look for ways to find a new job rapidly. I made some inquiring phone calls with no success. I also finally expressed my problems to Anita and during our discussion, I stressed that despite all the problems, the Delta job still offered me exposure to the other business facets such as sales, accounting, marketing and production that I could not get with larger companies. And that exposure fit into my long term plans. At that moment it was the one reason I could see for staying at Gamma Supplies.

The next day at work, late in the afternoon, Darth wandered into my office and started a discussion which rapidly turned into a sales pitch on the merits of working for Gamma Supplies. I had had another bad day with Ravi and John, and I was not buying any of it. By now I considered Darth as much or more to blame for my problems than I did Ravi. It was becoming obvious to Darth that I wasn't buying his pitch when he said, “You know, Delta offers you exposure to other facets of the business such as sales, accounting, marketing, and production that you wouldn't get in another company.”

I blurted out, “That's EXACTLY what I said to my wife last night.”

I was somewhat take back by his statement, but I just dismissed it as a coincident. The coincidences at Gamma Supplies began to occur with more and more frequency and several occasion they seemed truly bizarre. At one of the management meetings, Darth had briefly mentioned psychologist Maslow's hierarchy of needs which states that a person's needs can be grouped into five categories, and that the categories are pyramidal in nature. That is, one need must be satisfied before the next higher need can be fulfilled. The third level need is belonging or association.

During a routine office conversation with Ralph Sampson, I jokingly said, “ I know what's the matter with me. My Maslow's sense of belonging is not being fulfilled.” Then I went back to my lab and continued working.

Within a couple of minutes of my conversation with Ralph, Darth came into the lab and slapped me on the back. Then he put his arm over my shoulder as if we were old buddies and said, “How are you doing Russ?”

The conversation continued for a couple of minutes, then Darth removed his arm from my shoulder and went on his way. The timing of Darth's action in relation to my comment to Ralph Sampson was uncanny. Darth had never acted like that before. In fact, Darth was always the isolated power figure. His actions seemed amateur like as if he were deliberately trying to make me feel that I belonged at Gamma Supplies.

No Escape
My hope for a trip to the Plastics Show in Chicago were fading when a week before the show, another strange coincidence occurred. Darth walked into my office and without saying anything else, calmly asked, “How would you like to go to the Plastic Show in Chicago next week? Ravi thought it would be a good idea.” I was stunned. I had been trying for weeks to find some way to rationalize a trip to the show on company expense, and now Darth walks in and offers it to me with no strings attached. I felt he had to know I wanted to go, but why would he offer me an opportunity to go see about another job. And, how did he know? I accepted the offer somewhat reluctantly.

Later in the week I was making arrangements for the trip to the show and a minor problem arose. I was still having a problem in my own mind justifying the trip because it was in no way related to my job in foundry industry products. Surely Darth was aware of that. I discussed the problem with Darth, and he assured I me there was no problem with my going and urged me to complete my plans to make the trip. As I was walking from his office, Darth said, “Oh Russ, Ravi listens to your conversations through your office wall. He suggested the trip.” That explanation, which I didn't ask for, seemed to be another one of those convenient rationalizations. I didn't see how Ravi could have heard me and a more
plausible explanation was my phone was tapped – but why and by whom?

I left Darth's office more confused that ever. If Ravi had overheard my conversation about the plastic show, as Darth had inferred, why would Ravi tell Darth and more puzzling was first, why would Darth want me to go and why would he tell me about Ravi's role? Nothing made any sense.

My trip to the plastic show was uneventful. I did get to talk to a few old friends, but none of them were encouraging when the topic of a new job came up. While I toured the exhibition hall I kept wondering what I was doing there besides looking for another job. And Darth's insistence that I go, bothered me even more. And to make things even more frustrating, I never did get to talk to the man I had gone to see. He was either always busy or our paths just did not cross at the right time. It was almost like he was avoiding me. I left the show feeling I had accomplished very little.

At the show I did meet a couple of fellow scientists that I had worked with at my previous job or I had known at the University of Florida. What was striking was how content and happy those people seemed and how well things were going for them. It sharply contrasted my frustrating, unhappy position at Gamma Supplies. It made me feel more sad and trapped that before I went to the show.

Women's Role at Gamma Supplies
When I returned back to the lab, my work progressed nicely and with the results John Mason had obtained, I had developed a new process for making the phenolic resin needed for the “Rapid Set” formulation. Actually I had developed two processes, but the first process and the one that gave the best material for our use was a high temperature process which Ravi, Darth and I all agreed come very close to the Better Supplies' process reported in their patents. To be safe, it was decided that an alternate, low temperature process should be used even though it gave a slightly inferior product. I maximized the low temperature process in the laboratory and wrote a detailed procedure for Tenneland, Columbus plant where the new material would be manufactured.

It seemed only natural to me that I should go to Columbus, explain the new process and watch the first production batch being made. Instead, Darth informed me that Ravi would be taking the process to Columbus. I was angry. I should have at least been going with Ravi. It was standard procedure in for the developer of a new process to help transfer that process to manufacturing. Ravi was going to be fired in a month, I was suppose to be taking his place, I had developed the process, and Darth decided to send Ravi to Columbus to oversee the first production batch. It seemed like Darth was doing things just to frustrate me. He never gave me a satisfactory explanation for his actions, and such decisions kept me constantly unsure that Ravi would be fired despite constant reassurances. Darth had more than amply demonstrated that his word was not good. Darth, more and more was becoming my antagonist. Not Ravi.

The material Tenneland made from the new process arrived at Gamma Supplies a few days later, and test showed the material worked very well. In fact, with proper conditions, the material equaled or bettered the Better Supplies product. The only problems remaining were to get Tenneland to make the phenolic resin consistently and to win the legal battle against Better Supplies. Both objectives seemed well within our grasps with a little work.

It was mid-December and Anita and I were busy getting ready for the holidays. Since all of our relatives lived in the east, we planned on spending a quiet Christmas by ourselves. The one exception was Ursula's older sister Anna and her husband who lived in Madison, Wisconsin. A couple of weeks before Christmas, Anna called and asked us to join them for the holiday weekend. We had visited Anna and her husband Dave in the late fall and had an enjoyable weekend which included attending a university football game in Madison. Although we were not the closest of friends, Anita and I decided to spend the holidays with them rather than going it alone.

At work, I received a couple of invitations for the holidays. First, the secretary for the laboratory invited me to a Christmas party at her house. The invitation was for me only and when I asked if I could bring my wife, she was a bit taken back. She emphasized that Jay and Cliff from tech service were the only other people from Gamma Supplies who were going to be there. Jay and Cliff were both single. When I finally told her that I would only attend with my wife, she acquiesced and said that would be fine.

One of the things that had bothered me at Gamma Supplies was that there were no family functions. Wives were entirely invisible, and at all social gatherings, such as the Hatch Cover gatherings, and no one ever mentioned or acted as though they were married. In fact, Darth used the gatherings to boast of his male chauvinist pig attitude and on occasions he wore a tie with small pigs and “MCP” written all over it. However, I remained determined to include my wife in my social life.

Plot unfolds - divide and conquer
The following week Paul Johnson stopped in my office and invited me to dinner with
him, his wife, and several of his clients from the Chicago area. Since Paul was about my age, a former chemist and a confidant at work, I thought that the dinner was an excellent way to cultivate a friendship with a co-worker. I readily accepted. Of course, I was not to tell Ravi I was having dinner with an area sales manager.

On December 19, Anit and I joined Paul, his wife and two Allis Chalmers managers and their wives for dinner at Paul's house. At dinner I was seated next to Paul with my wife on my immediate right. During the course of the evening, I was talking to an Allis Chalmers representative and was telling him about my background and how I planned to help Gamma Supplies provide the best foundry binders possible. Suddenly, Paul gave me a sharp rap on my leg under the table as if I was saying something wrong. Since they were Paul's clients, I terminated the conversation. After dinner, I asked Paul what was wrong. He ignored my question and said, “well, tomorrow is the big day.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Ravi is going to be fired tomorrow.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“Darth told me today that the attorney had given his approval so tomorrow they are going to make the changes.”

I was still skeptical. Darth had not said anything to me. “Are you sure?” I quired.

“Definitely,” Paul replied.

The next day I went to work with great anticipation. With all the events that had happened since my October meeting with Darth, I had almost begun to believe that the promise to fire Ravi was just another one of Darth's hollow promises. The day went by slowly and no announcement was made, and Ravi was his usual happy self. Late in the afternoon I saw Paul and pulled him into my office.

“I thought you said today is suppose to be the day. What happened?”

“I don't know,” he replied. “That is what I was told.”

I went home that evening feeling let down. The next day came and went with no
changes. Finally on the third day, Ravi had a meeting with Darth. When Ravi came out I was the only one in the laboratory, and as he walked by me he was visibly angry. He looked at me and said, “Have you ever been had?”

Ravi's words contained no animosity towards me, and they almost seemed to be a
warning more that anything else. I wanted to go in and talk with Ravi and to try to find out what was going on, but the rift between us was too great. There was still no official announcement, but rumors were everywhere that Ravi had been fired. I feigned ignorance about the situation.

On December 23rd, the long awaited announcement was made in the form of a memo to all Gamma Supplies personnel from Arnold Clin. The memo contained several startling revelations. First, there was no mention of Ravi. Second, my name was noticeably missing from the memo. Several sales people were promoted or given increased responsibility, and Jay Wells was officially made Manager of Technical Services. Third, Carl Host was given the evasive title of Executive Assistant with the responsibility to “work on various projects, such as our joint venture with Tenneland.” There in black and white was what I had long suspected; Tenneland and Gamma Supplies were carrying out a joint effort. That effort I believed was to develop a phenolic resin and to have it manufactured. I was surprised to see it in writing because all our efforts had been to present Gamma Supplies in the Federal Court as some small fly-by-night outfit who had accidentally infringed on big, bad Better Supplies patents. Here was written evidence that Gamma Supplies was not acting alone, and that a larger corporation was involved in the attack on Better Supplies patents. While the memo stated many things, it did nothing to establish my position in the company.