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“No She’s been part roadblock and part bitch since the day I hired on” Sloan sighs “That’s why I wanted to talk to you away froanization, but I can’t help you do that if I can’t be honest”

“No Absolutely I appreciate that What did she say?”

“Oh, she wouldn’t even take ht away because she’s toldto some who feel the unrealistic expectation to perforo the extra mile isn’t appreciated”

“What? She wants you to work less hard so you don’t make the employees around you feel bad?”

“Pretty much”

I roll my eyes That’s not the mentality at Stratus, and if we had an HR VP like that, she’d be fired “That’s insane”

“Right? So Meredith has her assistant call me to tell me she knohat I want and isn’t at liberty to speak about it, so I should stop calling”

“For real?”

“I can’t hs even harder “Screw it I’lass of wine”

“Sounds like you could use it”

After so, I hear the soft pop of a cork, followed by the clink of a glass Liquid splashing follows Then she sips and ss

“Better?” I ask

“I wish I don’t usually open wine on a Monday, but I want to shake all these VPs After you and I talked on Friday night, I spent the weekend scouring that annual report We should be in a far more liquid position Mr Raouldn’t be happy that Shane is financing these secret projects and potentially jeopardizing the organization’s cash position Frankly,next year The R and D people alone need a boatload of money to keep up with those cutthroats over at Stratus”

Cutthroats? We’re siht?”

“They’re more than that For years, we’ve had this unspoken line in the sand They typically handle the large-business market, so it made sense for the data We catered to the home office and very small-business audience So our on-site solutions, especially with the advances in solid-state technology, made sense for those customers We only serviced a sizable business if they approached us first But what did Satan—Iasshole of a sidekick—” She snaps her fingers “I can’t think of his name”