Promotion Night: When Ambition Has a Price
Promotion Night
The New Job
This story is true even though I am not at all proud of what I did for Ryan. He and I had been married for only 4 years when he changed jobs. He was very satisfied in his last position as a section manager for his firm. He knew there was just no hope of promotion within that firm because of two things:
The old boy network where the very best friends of the boss got all of the good jobs and
He didn’t get on very well with the boss anyway.
When he applied for this new position 3 months ago he was really excited at the prospects of a totally different work ethic and just knew he would soon be manager of his department without having to suck up to his boss. Once he was established in his position and was proving to be a great success the time came up for his 3 month review of service and it was dependent on this review whether he got the promotion.
I had never met his boss. He was the CEO of this business and from what I had heard he was very easy to work for. Ryan often came home from work telling me how good his boss was and how the other managers were praising him. They all told Ryan the same thing, do your work well and the boss will reward you!
Ryan came home on Monday evening and told me we had been invited to his boss’s home for dinner next Friday evening. He told me it wouldn’t be a very formal dinner as his boss preferred to get to know his staff in a relaxed situation rather than a stiff and formal situation. He also told me to go out and buy myself an absolutely stunning new dress for the occasion, no expense spared. I was, of course, thrilled.
Chapter 2
The Dress
Much to my amazement Ryan suggested he would accompany me to the shops to help me select my new dress. Ryan never takes an interest in buying my dresses and is quite content to accept what I buy, he says I look good in anything.
We looked at dozens of dresses but the one he suggested was one I probably wouldn’t have chosen without ...