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I let out awoo, and a few other people laughed. One person cheered. But mostly, the room just stared back at him. The math was simple for most people: a huge, guaranteed payout now was better than potentially making a little bit more down the road.
I gave Jude a grateful smile for at leasttryingto sway the employees one way.
The lawyer, Mr. Albacor, cleared his throat once more. “In just a moment, everyone will receive an email with a link to vote on the sale. This email also contains another copy of the stipulations, and your individual proceeds based on how many stock options you have. Unlike last night’s email, this is not an estimation: it is an exact amount. You all have one hour to read and vote.”
Laptops began chiming, and phones vibrated in pockets. Everyone hastily pulled out their devices, me included, to open the coordinated email. The number listed in my email was close to what my sister and I had calculated: just shy of eight million dollars. Even now, despite my feelings, the number made my knees wobble. It was big enough that I almost stopped caring about my job here at ACS, and my relationships with the three men at the front of the room.
And there, next to the number, was a link to the terms of the agreement. It detailed my severance package, which was contingent upon me training several senior engineers among the Google team and helping them take over my position. Hearing about it from Jude and Owen last night was tough, but seeing it written in legalese made my skin crawl.
I don’t want to leave, I thought.I want to stay here and finish the job. Damnit, I feel like I just got started here!
There was a lot of other information in the email, including the ability to exchange some of the proceeds for ordinary shares of Alphabet at a discounted rate, but I ignored all of it and clicked on the link. I mashed the NO button with my thumb. A message popped up assuring me that my vote had been received.
I sighed and lowered my phone. The employees of ACS were in various states of excitement as they voted. Some people high-fived. Dave and Nancy broke protocol and outright hugged, then immediately looked embarrassed about it.
Melinda voted, then sighed unhappily. I saw a few other employees who also weren’t sharing in the collective joy. I was happy to see that I wasn’t alone, but it wouldn’t matter.
Furio was looking at me from across the room. He was flawless in his slate-gray suit, majestic and commanding like the leader he was. But his eyes held a note of sad disappointment, and some concern. He raised an eyebrow hopefully to me.
My heart pulled toward him, eager to forgive. It wanted to tell Furio that I understood, that this was a business and he was a businessman. That the sale of the company made complete sense.
But all I could think about was how I desperately didn’t want this to happen. And he was the man who initiated all of it.
On the way upstairs, I passed Eleanor. She was a punk girl with a pixie haircut who we had hired straight out of college. She was leaning on the railing and glowering down at everyone else.
“Not happy about it?” I asked.
She shook her head. “It’s all going to change. Right? That’s what happens when a giant like Google buys the place.”
“Probably.”
“I voted no. It’s stupid, but… I don’t want it to change.”
I smiled sadly. “That makes two of us.”
I went into my office and closed the door, cutting off the celebratory noises outside. I savored the silence. It was peaceful. It reminded me of the way things were when I first started working here, when there were only a handful of employees.
I pulled up the core expansion roadmap and admired it for a while. It was the distilled essence of all of my work since I started here. It had grown since Jude and I sat down and created it, tasks expanding and splitting off like the branches of a tree, a tree I had nursed from a sapling. I touched my screen with my fingertips, admiring the color-coded projects and tasks that had been completed along the way, and those that still remained.
The expansion roadmap felt like my baby. I wanted to see it to completion, not hand it over to someone else to finish the way they saw fit. I cared more about that than about the money I would get from the sale.
Was I stupid for thinking that way? There was so much poverty in San Francisco, in America, in the world. Half a year ago when I took this job I was in financial trouble of my own, my savings depleted and my debt rapidly growing. Now I was rolling my eyes at millions of dollars like it was nothing. Had I really become that spoiled in such a short time?
I tried to think of the good I could do with my severance package. I could donate a huge portion of it to the cancer charity, adding it to Furio’s donation. I could take my sister’s advice and invest all of it in an index fund. I could start my own company.
No, I can’t do that, I thought bitterly.My severance package includes a non-compete clause. I can’t do anything in the cryptocurrency industry for three years.
Now I truly knew the meaning of golden handcuffs.
I zoomed in on the roadmap, then opened the task list for the most recent side-chain project. I found a specific task that nobody had begun working on yet. I cracked my knuckles. If I was going down, I wanted to do one last thing for the company. Like finishing a marble sculpture in Pompeii before Vesuvius erupted.
I laughed wryly.I’m not getting killed by a volcano. I’m getting a fuckload of money. I should be happy.
My fingers began moving on their own as I began to code. It was a small task, simple enough for even the lowest programmer. It took me ten minutes to complete. It felt good to get down into the weeds again, so I selected another task to work on. Something more complex.
I lost myself in the technical difficulty of the task. Declaring variables. Nesting a for-loop within another loop, which had to call a third-party function. Tricky, but doable.
People came by and knocked on my door, but I shook my head without looking up. I didn’t want to be bothered. I didn’t have time for the normal meetings on my calendar, and there wasn’t a point since I was being pushed out the door as part of the sale. I didn’t want to spend the last hour at my company being a manager. I wanted to feel useful.
