A group of middle-aged and suit-clad men entered an empty conference room on the upper floors of a modern high-rise building. Walking around the large table that all but filled the room, they took their seats around it, notepads and pens in hand, some of them with laptops, and they quietly muttered amongst themselves while they waited for the final chair at the head of the table to be occupied. A minute or so passed by before a smartly dressed woman walked into the room, closed the door behind her and then took what was her place at the head of the table.
"Good morning, gentlemen," she greeted them, "Thank you for coming."
The men immediately stopped what they were doing and paid her their full attention. It was quite the contrast and, perhaps, a sign of the changing times for a woman to be sat at the head of a table that was otherwise occupied by men. Not only that, but populated by a younger woman and
older
men - not necessarily
old
men, but they were certainly older than her, and there was as much sightly male grey hair in the room as there were grey suits. By an age that had barely even reached 40, Miss Anderssen had become the CEO of this multi-national conglomerate having rapidly ascended through the ranks and had climbed to the top of this ladder as she was as driven as they came, and she came with a ruthless business-mind like no other. No patriarchy was going to hold her back and she was determined to demonstrate this, not least when she was a woman in a position typically dominated by men.
However, these men were no pushovers and were, in fact, all members of the board in her business, and this meeting with the Board of Directors had been called to address the latest quarters' financials which were showing a concerning decline. This posed a risk to the share prices, and they wanted to avoid a crash at all costs, so had called this meeting to protect the investments of their shareholders. Furthermore, due to this emerging trend, a company survey had been run to try and establish where, perhaps, they could improve, and a large percentage of employees had participated. The results from the survey were quite damning about the company culture.
Following this, there were suggestions that the company culture and decline in revenue were related, and there were indicators of causation. Miss Anderssen - with her hard-hearted methodologies - was not sold on this notion, and she was not only the CEO of the business, but she was also the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, so it was her duty to entertain her shareholder's concerns. "So, I understand that this meeting has been organised in order to address the company's recent performance and the outcome of the employee survey, is that correct?"
The Board of Directors universally answered the Chairwoman's question positively, and they were quick to get their two pennies worth in on the matter.
"I concur that the results of the survey were far from ideal," she spoke over them, "However, I do not concur that there is enough evidence for causation."
"Respectfully, we disagree," said one of the directors, bringing Miss Anderssen's cold, hard stare upon himself. "We believe that declining staff morale is the cause for our targets not being met this quarter, and the trend over the past financial year suggests that it has been coming for a while."
Miss Anderssen listened on, because while she did not necessarily agree with the members of the board on this matter, it paid to listen to their advice at the very least, even if she elected to ignore it.
"So," she responded, "What would you propose we do to increase staff morale?"
"We have reviewed our salary structure and brainstormed a couple of incentives to boost morale and performance," the self-appointed spokesperson of the men explained. "From our review, we identified that - on average - we pay below the average market rate for salaries across the business," the man continued, "And we believe that this creates a lack of incentive for our staff and is why our staff turnover is so high."
"It's imperative that we keep operating costs at a minimum," Miss Anderssen coldly responded, more interested in the bottom line of the business than she was in paying her staff a fair wage.
"We don't disagree with that," another man responded, "However, paying our staff these salaries is unsustainable in the long-term - our competitors will poach our talent and leave us behind." The CEO and Chairwoman listened on, yet unmoved. "Furthermore, we have a couple of other ideas to improve the incentive to work for us and to improve performance. Firstly, we'd like to propose that we increase the annual paid leave that employees receive as standard, from 20 days to 25, and reward those with several years of service with further days. For example - five years, 10 years, and 20 years of service - with more bonus days for more years of service."
"You're proposing that we have our employees work
less
?" Miss Anderssen questioned with disbelief, aghast at such a preposterous suggestion.
"Just hear us out," another man tried to reason before explaining their other incentive. "We're also proposing that we offer monetary incentives in the form of awards for performance-related targets, acknowledging where effort has been made to go above and beyond the call of duty."
The Chair of this board could not quite believe what she was hearing, somewhat taken aback by the gall of their suggestions. Another board member jumped in. "Miss Anderssen, with all due respect, we're losing contracts left, right and centre - we cannot afford to not take action."
"And we cannot afford for our revenue to fall any further than it has, something that these incentives will certainly cause," she sternly fired back.
"In the short-term, yes," a calm-mannered gentleman replied, "But, in the long-term, we forecast that it will be sustainable, and over time the anticipated improved performance and income will offset the increased overheads."
"Why don't we put it to a vote?" another member of the board suggested, quickly getting the agreement of all but one of the individuals in the room. "All in favour of implementing these changes, raise your hand," he said. Every man in the room raised his hand, however Miss Anderssen's hands remained firmly planted where they were. Despite being outnumbered and outvoted by the men and board members in the room, Miss Anderssen wouldn't be so easily trumped.
"You cannot implement any changes without my vote, and I have vetoed your suggestions."
Miss Anderssen was unwavering and had, perhaps, abused her position of authority as both CEO and Chairwoman of the Board, and would under no circumstances agree to implement what were - in her opinion - expensive and unnecessary measures. She was, as far as she was concerned, doing what was best for the company, despite the opinion of the others in the room being on the contrary. "I'd sooner get gangbanged by all of you than implement these measures," she said sternly and coldly, eliciting a surprised yet quiet response from her board members. "It would cost the company a fortune."
 
                             
                         
                         
                         
                         
                         
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                