I take a deep breath and let it out before continuing. “Let me tell you how this is going to work.” I sit down in the chair opposite his desk and motion for him to do the same. In this moment, as I see the flicker of surprise in his eye, I come to realize that I can take care of myself. Last night’s fiasco proved that. Frank the Snake can try to take advantage of me, but I will eat him alive. I am the King Snake in this room, not him.
He stands there for a few seconds, being obstinate, but when he realizes it makes him look like an angry child he sits down and rests his hands on the arms of his chair. “Go ahead. Say what you have to say, but it’s not going to change anything.”
“Here’s what’s going to happen, Frank. You’re going to take the check that you have in that envelope there, and you’re going to tear it up into little pieces. Then you’re going to call accounting, and you’re going to tell them to cut me a new check for double the amount that you had on that first check.” I manage a small smile. “I think that’s fair. Six months would be even more fair, seeing as how you gave that waste-of-space Nick nine months’ worth when he left—even though he wasn’t nearly as good as I am, and even though he didn’t work nearly as many hours for you as I did. But we know the glass ceiling is fully intact here, and I don’t have the energy to fight that battle, so I’m just going to go ahead and let you get rid of me and my big mouth for the bargain price of four months’ severance.”
He looks like he’s about to speak, but I shush him with a raised finger. “Now . . . if you want to stick to your two-month offer, go ahead. That’s your right, of course. But then you’ll force my hand and we’ll just see what happens next.”
He shrugs. “I’m not hearing anything from you that tells me I should do anything with this check other than hand it to you and say good luck with your future.” He laughs. “But you know what? Don’t even think about asking me for a reference now.” He leans forward and stabs a finger into his desktop, dropping his voice to a near growl. “You think you can come in here and threaten me, and then get a good reference?” He shakes his head in disbelief as he leans back in his squeaky chair. “I don’t care how many years you worked here, and I don’t care how good your work was. You’re done now. You’re not going to work in this town ever again if I have anything to say about it.”
I smile at him very patiently. Because he’s a man who’s never dealt with a glass ceiling, and because he’s used to railroading people and getting his way, he doesn’t understand what’s happening right now. So I’m going to spell it out for him real easy and real slow so that he can keep up.
“Frank, listen closely. I’m done playing, so you need to pay attention. You have investors on the line who are poised to hand over probably several million dollars to you because you’ve told them that you have this revolutionary program that’s going to change the world. You and I both know that it’s not going to do that, and that you’re very likely going to get the lawdogs of Vedas Incorporated after you, because it could be argued that you’re using pieces of their patented code to make yours work properly. Remember? I was in charge of IP Purity.” I say the words with extreme distaste. “I warned you, in writing, of the problems you were going to have with that code, but you chose to ignore me. However, that’s not my problem anymore. Regardless of whether your investors find that little nugget of information during their due diligence, you still have the issue of outstanding lawsuits.”
His eyes narrow, telling me he might finally be catching on, but I keep going.
“If you refuse to pay me what you owe me—four months’ severance—I will sue you. It’s that simple. What you’ve done is illegal and morally wrong. You are not allowed to use people and then throw them to the curb so you can make your bottom line look prettier and lie to investors about your balance sheet. You can’t do that to investors, you can’t do that to employees, and you can’t do it to all the people who are going to get hurt down the road as a result of your terrible decisions.”
He laughs, but it doesn’t cover up the concern in his tone. “You’re nuts. You’ll never win a case against me. I can fire you whenever I want, however I want. You can’t put handcuffs on me.”
I shrug. “You may be right. I don’t think you are, but regardless, how long will it be before a judge makes that decision? Will your investors wait? When they see that lawsuit on file in the public record, will they ask you questions about it, do you think? Will they worry some of their investment funds will actually be going toward the defense of that suit or to an eventual settlement with me? Because I’m pretty sure investors want their funds going toward the development of the IP portfolio.”