[Rick Lee]

As I said, I was on my honeymoon when I got this email and had no idea it was coming. I doubt it would have been any less of a surprise had I been on the phones back in the office. I have met the CEO, CFO and senior mgt. several times and feel like they are approachable and reasonable people. They spent $19 million buying my old company out and so think we're worth something and give my boss a much longer leash than any other division head. I am truly blessed in that regard. You can't imagine the BS the other people have to endure.

But I do believe the CFO is the big boss when he feels like being it. The CEO is not an American and I think he defers sometimes to the local folks. The CFO is a very good guy and a very smart guy. Doesn't matter though. I'd be egregiously breaking the chain of command by going to him directly. My immediate boss has been my boss for six years. If I can't have an honest discussion with him, then I can't do it with anyone. Problem is that I'm sure he agrees with me in his heart, but is A) so well paid now, that our commission checks don't much matter to him anymore or B) he's really gone native, sort of like when Kevin Costner got captured in Dances With Wolves and the soldier said to him, "Turned Injun, dintja?" He just drank the Kool-Aid and sees his job as selling senior mgt's decisions to us folks in the trenches. 180 deg. from how it used to be when the two companies were fierce competitiors and ours was a lean, entrepreneurial machine. Now we're in the belly of the beast and half the day is spent fighting the internal beast, rather than drumming up business and revenue.

No, I'm not going to send the email. FWIW, when I left the company last year for my brief foray into subprime mortgages, my boss asked me for a very brutally honest review of the company and commission structure. I gave him a several page response and he seemed like he couldn't have been more grateful. But a few mos. later they were bought out by our present company, and so none of those ideas were ever implemented. Now I'm back in the belly of the beast.