As he approached Marvin’s office Dan hoped this was not another offer of a directorship, or just as bad, more work being piled on his shoulders, already sagging under their present load.
“Come in, come in,” Marvin motioned to Dan as soon as he spied him about to knock on his open door. Take a seat while I pour us some coffee.
Dan did as he was bid, always happy for a cup of Marvin’s excellent fresh-ground, personal coffee blends. He sniffed vanilla in the air with, what? Maybe a hint of caramel?”
“I know how hard you’ve been working, Dan, and so do the Melameds.”
“Please, keep the Melameds out of it. I’m frankly not interested in their appreciation for my hard work,” Dan interrupted, but quickly added in a more congenial tone, “though I am grateful for your acknowledgment and support.”
“Hear me out, Dan.” Marvin continued, his perpetual smile put aside for the moment as he looked at him in a way that could be either concern or mild annoyance. “I know you’re still unhappy about the pricing for the new program and what you considered the Melamed’s weak sign of appreciation,” Dan scoffed as Marvin put up both hands defensively and plowed on, “And I know how hard you’ve been working without complaining or pointing to the obvious fact that you’re not paid to put in 12-hour days.”
“How would you know the time I put in,” Dan asked genuinely curious to know the answer.
“Some of the teachers who teach at night have brought it to my attention more than once. They’re worried that you’ll burn out.”
“You’ve been checking on my hours with my faculty?” Dan asked, anger rising in him.
“No, Dan, you’re not listening to me. Two of your teachers approached me with concerns for you. They like you and would like to keep you around and they talk to one another and know through the grapevine that you’re almost always here before 9:00 a.m. and seldom leave before 9:00 p.m.”
“I take long lunch breaks,” Dan said, mollified.
“And you also take no lunch at all on many days. Bob’s been mentioning that too. Look, I know you’re not likely to stick around long, but I’d like to extend that if I can. You know that none of your predecessors put in the time that you’re putting in. If you were incompetent and taking up space in the office, I wouldn’t be impressed if you slept there. But you’re not. You’ve gotten a lot accomplished and I’m getting the feeling you’re getting ready to move on and are trying to get all you can done before you go. I think it’s a matter of pride with you—a good thing, not a criticism. So, I’d like you to take it easier—go home to your family at a reasonable time, or work late if you like, but also come in late. Take a day off once in a while. You know you’re not on the clock.”
Dan said nothing for a long moment, touched by what he knew to be genuine concern from a man he liked working for and who clearly was more in touch with what was going on at his school than he led on.
“I appreciate your concern, Marvin” he finally said. “But there are still things that I need to do and I’m not very good at delegating, even if I had someone to delegate to.” That was true, and something that would be an issue in all of his future administrative postings throughout his career to the consternation many times of his assistants, secretaries, and office managers. He was not a micro-manager. When he had a staff who had his confidence, he gave them a lot of freedom and all of his support—often ensuring they got credit where it mattered for work he himself had done without ever letting them know it. But he simply liked doing most delegable tasks himself, even when these were relatively unimportant and time consuming. That was a flaw he would never quite master.
“I just want you to think about ways of lessening your burden. Let me know what I can do in that regard. I am concerned about you.”
“All right, Marvin. I appreciate that. Let me give the matter some thought. I am tired, and work has been bleeding too much into my personal life. And, frankly, the reverse is also true. Let me just think about this and get back to you,” Dan said, then added, “Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?”
“That was it. Please think about what I said.”
“I will. Thank you,” he said rising and taking the last sip of his coffee. “I really do appreciate it.” He walked out of the office as Marvin’s normal beatific smile replaced his serious expression. Dan was really touched by Marvin’s concern. Before he got back to his own office, he had the seed of an idea germinating and beginning to take root.
As soon as he got to the office, he called his best friend, Gene Leyans, and left him a message on his answering machine. “Gene, it’s Dan. I know we haven’t spoken for a while, but there’s something I’d like to run by you. Give me a call either at work or at home—I’ll be here until about 9:00 tonight. It’s important, though nothing is wrong, so please don’t put this off for six months before getting back to me. Talk soon.” He hung up the phone with a wry grin. He and his best friend had a very strange and wonderful relationship. They were as close as identical twins in their ability to pretty much live in each other’s heads—knowing exactly how the other thought, how they felt, and what they valued. Yet they were total opposites in almost every way. Gene was a dyed in the wool old-fashioned Liberal who has been a delegate for the People’s Party candidate for President while they were both at Queens College. Dan was a life-long Republican with generally conservative views but liberal on many social issues. Gene was tall, black, and very handsome, while Dan was of average height and, though still in excellent physical shape, not the natural athlete that Gene was who could beat him at every sport from Tennis, to softball, and even video games. Rather than the competitiveness that real blood brothers might feel towards one another, the two genuinely took as much or greater pleasure in the other’s major and minor accomplishments as they did in their own. They discussed politics constantly, often into the wee hours of the morning while Dan’s parents still lived in the apartment Dan now occupied where Gene was often an overnight guest. And despite their diametrically opposed views on nearly every hot-button political issue from economic policy to the death penalty and everything in between, they always—100 percent of the time—could reach a compromise on the most politically divisive issues of the day that both could live with. They played a sort of game trying to solve the great issues of the day and quipped that if they were co-dictators of the world, they would be able to fix them all.
The key to their unique friendship that would last for the rest of their lives through both personal triumphs and personal tragedies was a deep mutual love and inarguable acceptance and respect for each other’s integrity. If Dan thought something was true and felt strongly about it, Gene could not dismiss it. And the same was true for Dan as to anything that Gene strongly believed in. Though their political ideologies would remain very different throughout their lives, that inalterable faith and respect for each other’s views and each other’s personal integrity would always help to temper their certainty in the righteousness of their own point of view. Both lamented on many occasions the inability of partisans in and out of political office to simply do what they themselves had always done, if not out of a deep abiding mutual respect at least out of simple common sense: try to understand the validity of an opposing point of view, and work to find common ground where divergent ideologies could converge, and compromise reached for the common good.
Another very strange aspect to Gene and Dan’s friendship is that they could go for months on end—even years on several occasions later in life—without seeing, corresponding, or talking with one another. And yet, when one or the other initiated contact, they would pick up exactly where they last left off as though they had just had dinner together and a long conversation the night before. No one who knew them both ever understood that—not even Dan’s girlfriend who had known Gene nearly as long as Dan himself through Dan’s friendship with Gene from their Brooklyn Tech days through college when the three were inseparable. As Dan would say much later in life, “If I never see Gene again for the rest of my life, it will make no difference: he will remain my best friend until I take my last breath.”
At 6:00 p.m. that evening, Dan picked up the phone after one ring, delighted to hear his friend’s voice on the other end. “Hey Gene. Thanks for getting back to me quickly. I just wanted to run an idea that occurred to me today. Do you have some time now?”
“Sure,” Gene said, “I just got in and have nothing else to do other than eat dinner and watch C-Span. What’s on your mind?”
“We haven’t spoken in more than a month, but you have some idea of what I’ve been doing at PEMTI, right?”
“Yeah, slumming,” his friend quipped.
“Well, my boss told me today I’m working too many hours and need to slow down before I burn out.”
“That doesn’t sound like the typical blood sucking corporate types you so admire,” Gene quipped again, laughing.
“He’s actually a decent guy. Anyway, I was thinking I could use an assistant dean to work the evening shift. They won’t go for a full-time position with benefits, but they might agree to a part-time position with full benefits, though the salary would kind of suck. Is that something you might consider?”
“You’re kidding right,” Gene retorted, laughing again.
“Hear me out. You know the concerns I expressed the last time we spoke, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well things got worse for me since then as the new program I developed was approved.”
“Hey, congratulations, Dan. That’s great. I know how hard you worked for it.” Gene enthusiastically interrupted.
“Yeah, well, there was a major wrinkle. They priced the three-month program at twice what I thought should be the outside cost and had suggested--$4,000 for a certificate program. It really ticked me off. Then they offered me the directorship at their flagship school which I turned down.”
“What, you turned it down? Why?”
“I don’t want to be a school director—I want to support faculty and strengthen programs for our students. What they’ve been getting is sub-par. I want to leave the place significantly better than I found it when I move on.”
“Move on? You just got there.” Gene said, scoffing.
“You know this was supposed to be a stepping stone for me. I intended to get the experience, hopefully make a difference, then moving on to a traditional college—maybe a community college or four-year college, a logical next step. I just had to cut my teeth in academic administration first. I intended to be here two, three years at most and then move on with some experience under my belt. But now I have to accelerate that plan. I’ll stick around for a year—that’s not going to look great on my resume, but I can then apply from a position of some strength and hopefully get some traction. And I will have some real accomplishments on my resume and good work references too.”
“Sounds like a good plan. But what does that have to do with me?”
“I thought if I can bring you on, help get you some experience too, you can take over when I leave and then maybe follow a similar path yourself. You don’t have any significant administrative experience at this point, and this could be an invaluable resume builder—even if you don’t want to stay in the education field. I mean you’re not thrilled with your present job, and there are limited opportunities for you there. Why not get some valuable experience even if you decide to keep your current job—I can ask for a 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. shift, or even 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. M-F. If they don’t go for benefits at a 20-hr. per week, I can sweeten the pot for them by suggesting starting a new Saturday program that you could also run and make your position full time. I guarantee you they’d love that—a weekend-only option for an intense three-class Saturday program that could get working people the retooling they need in under six months.
“Dan, I don’t even have my B.S. completed.”
“Yeah, but you have enough credits for a master’s degree, albeit at the undergrad level only. The fact that Queens College would not accept all of your credits from NYU and Brooklyn College is irrelevant to me. You are an expert programmer and can run circles around any of my faculty and our IT guy at corporate.”
The administrative position is interesting. And us working together would be an incredible plus.”
“Same here, Gene. Just think about it. I’ll float the idea of an evening dean to my boss tomorrow and tell him I have someone in mind. Either way, though, I’m going to go for this because I could use the extra help and I do want to train a good person to hopefully take over for me with my boss’s approval. He’s been very supportive, so I think I can make this fly—especially after today’s discussion. And it will ease my guilt when I leave to know I will not abandon my boss or faculty here without a good replacement.”
“I’ll think about it and get back to you. Either way, let’s get together this weekend. It’s been too long.”
“Yeh, what else is new? Get back to me before the end of the week on what day works best for you—no plans yet for the weekend other than getting together with Linda. Maybe the three of us can go somewhere. What do you think?”
“Sounds great. Just like old times.”
“See you soon,” Dan said and ended the conversation when Gene made a similar reply.
