…”his nephew’s name. Ethan Price Consulting. Opened three weeks before you were fired.”
I opened the folder. My former manager, Gary Price, had quietly moved four of our smaller client accounts into his nephew’s new company over the past month. The plan was obvious. Once I’d trained Ethan and was pushed out, Gary would move the biggest account, the $9 million contract, into the same company and collect the profits himself. My refusal to train Ethan without a written plan had ruined his timeline.
“He fired you because you were asking for things in writing,” said the company’s owner, Margaret Lowell. “People who are stealing don’t like things in writing.”
Gary tried to argue that the accounts were “trial arrangements.” Margaret slid another paper across the table: an email from Gary to his nephew. It said, “Once she’s gone, nobody will notice where the invoices go.”
Gary was fired in front of me. Margaret’s lawyers began recovering the client accounts that same afternoon. Ethan, to his credit, called me a week later and apologized. He said he’d thought his uncle was “helping him get started.” He returned every client file and agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
Then Margaret asked me to come back as director of client relations, with a salary that would let me retire two years early if I wanted to. I accepted, on the condition that I could call the $9 million client myself, in my own words.
I did. I told them the truth: that I’d been let go unfairly, that the company had dealt with it, and that I was back. Their CEO, who’d worked with me for twelve years, said, “Then we’re back too.” They signed a new three-year contract the following week.
Gary faces a lawsuit for breach of contract and fraud. Last I heard, he was trying to start his own consulting firm. None of our clients have returned his calls.
I’m fifty-three now. I’ve trained four young project managers this year, properly, with written plans. One of them told me I was the best mentor she’d ever had. I told her the secret was simple: teach people as if they’ll one day replace you, and make sure nobody can replace you dishonestly.
