Those middle-aged, egotistical idiots in Bermuda were one thing. The 50 year-old insurance broker from Kentucky was a strange creature - albeit an interesing cultural experience considering that I rarely, no, never had the chance to have a two-hour discussion about US and world politics with a bona fide Bush voter- for thinking that there was a remote possibility that I would be willing to sleep with him. Ultimately, I didn't care because throughout my time spent discussing social security and gay marriage with Mr. Kentucky, I had already meta-communicated with the extremely cute, 20 year old, black bartender that we could have some fun that night. (Of course, the feminist in me says that we, women, should be more ruthless and tell presumptuous old as*holes to f&ck off more often...but then, that wouldn't be feminine or nice I guess and that is sooo important...)

All this, however pales in comparison to the other presumptuous, 40 something f*cker that has made my life a misery in recent days and weeks. So here is the story as I know it to be true and there is not ending yet - happy or otherwise - but considering the state of the affairs I feel I need to document the events.

I have two bosses: Thomas H. and Dierk T. Tom is my friend's fiance, a couple of years older than me and a pretty friendly, straightforward guy. My other boss - whom I already talked about before - is 42, a child of the 80s a complete spinner and someone who blows hot air at a rate that it would dry Whoopi Goldberg's hairdo in a couple of seconds. Until recently I thought that the guy had a serious psychological problem exhibiting all the symptoms of a hypomaniac with a narcissistic personality disorder: pathological lying, no sense of reality whatsoever, megalomaniac tendencies, outrageous spending habits, sleeplessness and sleeplessness-induced alcoholism, etc. In the last couple of weeks I understood that he was also a crook in the strictest term of the word. He essentially took Tom - the founder of the company - for a ride, has been taking out hundreds of thousands in unauthorized distributions and has charged (often double-accounted) tens of thousand of euros worth of expenses.

The story is perhaps banal. Young guy wants to become his own man, trusts older guy whom he takes on as a partner because the older guy has a client that they could poach together from the firm that they both worked at previously. It was perfect, because Tom had worked at the client, knew them inside out and was able to do all of the actual work. The client was Alcatel, and one particular department of that company for which we were "providing our services" - unbeknownst to us, the employees, in more ways than one. The reason Dierk could so easily poach this client were his world famous contacts, especially with a woman, an ex-consultant that used to work for him and who presently is co-heading the department in question. (Whether or not he is still sleeping with this woman is almost irrelevant, or the icing on the cake, so to speak, considering that in the past they apparently had a great arrangement whereby he made her a rich woman through semi-legitimate(?), untaxed consultancy fees paid by his former company.)

On its face it was a fairy tale setup: new company, constant cash coming in from one high-paying client, everybody will be rich and happy in a couple of years. One guy doing all of the actual work with the stable cash-flow that provides for unpressurized business development that Dierk was ostensibly doing to build up the company using his gazillion business contacts acquired over long years as a high-level manager of various other companies. Few months pass by and young guy notices that older guy is taking out cash. Lots of it. More and more. Of course, there is no shareholders' agreement, no board meetings, barely any legitimate employment contracts - it is all a matter of trust and flexible business handling, as advocated by Dierk. Thomas starts freaking out, doesn't know what to do and basically ends up seeing lots of lawyers, accountants and other professional advisors who all tell him that he is in trouble, big trouble, ie he is being screwed over big time by his partner. Meanwhile there are no other clients, "business development" has led to nothing and the only thing you can find by googling Dierk are hundreds of articles written by a medical doctor by the same name on - how ironic! - the effects of various anti-depressants and anti-psychotic drugs. No trace of Dierk, the businessman, anywhere; neither his brilliant business carreer, nor his stellar consulting record appear anywhere. I mean, there are more websites about my best friend's dog than this guy. In a desperate attempt Tom goes to see the client and asks them not to deal with his partner without his presence. Naturally, the lady client - who by the way likely still gets "gifts", to put it mildly, back from her company's payments - closed ranks with Dierk and that led to Tom's discmissal from the client's site yesterday. In the weeks that passed up to this point there were lots of meetings, official (with lawyers and accountants that Dierk chose not to attend) and unofficial (that he chose to bullshit through) and the bunch of overpaid mercenaries (freelance consultants is the term they use to describe themselves, I believe) that he has hired to work for our company just let him bullshit through with no further ado. I am not necessarily blaming them (my colleagues with a mercenary attitude) in a way: I don't know how I would react if I was making 10 to 20 thousand euros a months for very little work.

As it is, however, I have been supporting Tom in the background for the past few weeks. I lost a lot of sleep over it because my fundamental sense of justice tells me that this is just plain wrong. I haven't even given the full story: not mentioned the unpaid and blocked salaries and all the other crap that has been given to us over the past few days. This man, Dierk, is the most despicable creature that I have ever encountered: he is a crook, who shirks responsibility every step of the way, blames others at all times, no matter what, steals, lies, fabulates, thinks laws don't apply to him; never says anything straighforward, never writes down anything that could be held against him but carefully "documents" certain lies that he imputes as statements to others, makes promises that he has no intention of keeping, blackmails and bluffs without basis, disrespects respectable professionals, and meanwhile tries to act friendly and charming, a real snake.

I have tried to be professional and civilzed. But this morning I became a victim, it would appear. He posted a message on our internal company intranet website (supposedly inaccessible to the client) a message insinuating that Tom is crazy and asking us to let him know that he should not jeopardize the client relationship. At this point - this is my father's education, I guess - I could not leave the message alone. I knew that the mercenaries wouldn't say anything and he has already successfully managed to blackmail the only other supporter of Tom's away from Alcatel for the week. Therefore, as a response, I posted a message saying that perhaps he would have better luck contacting his partner if he reinstated his rights to the intranet (he had blocked him the previous day) because I didn't think that that was an appropriate way of dealing with the situation. An hour later, when I attempted to log in I found that I had been blocked as well. When I attempted to ask him about it he waived at me and then sent the client woman after me who then asked me to leave and go to the company offices because apparently I suddenly was not needed on my project anymore. He did not send me an email, look at me or talk to me at all. I found out that he took my post off and posted a message to the rest of the people saying that I was further endangering the client relationship (why, I ask, considering that it was an internal message and not a very threatening one at that). No word from him or anyone ever since though so as far as I am concerned I am still in employment and have every intention of going back tomorrow morning to Alcatel. If there is one thing I remember from my father's and his friends' tactics against the communists is that by playing by the laws and regulations (my employment contract in this case) I can trouble them more than by adapting to their "illegal" and illegitimate actions. So this is where I am right now. I will go back and not walk away with my tail between my legs. I have nothing to lose, but a job that I don't want anyway and they have a lot to lose. So we'll see who wins. I have no illusions but I need to see this through. For my self-respect and peace of mind. Wish me luck!