I once had a bodyguard for 3 weeks.
For 22 years I held many positions at IBM spanning 3 states – Arizona, Minnesota and North Carolina. During 8 of those years, I was in management positions in areas such as manufacturing, order and production control, and software development.
My first management assignment was in tape manufacturing in Tucson. It also happened that this job was on the overnight shift (11pm – 7am). It was very difficult to recruit and retain manufacturing operators for this job and shift and we basically hired everyone who applied. This was in the early 80’s and was prior to any of the current hiring practices that are in use today. Just to make that a bit clearer, if you were breathing and could fill out an application, you had a job.
One night/early morning during the lunch break, I went outside to get something from my car. As I walked through the parking lot, I noticed a car that appeared to me (from a distance) that it was on fire. There was smoke billowing from the windows. Upon closer inspection, my nose told me that this was not a fire but there was definitely some extracurricular activities happening. I walked over to the car and the occupant rolled down the window and greeted me like this was normal. I had to step back just to get clear of the cloud.
I asked him to come into my office and after presenting him with my evidence, fired him on the spot. He asked me to reconsider but when I told him that I would also be notifying the authorities, he made some serious threats to both me and IBM. Today they would probably be considered terroristic threats.
The following morning I did notify the IBM personnel department and based upon the events that happened and the threats that were made directly to me and at his exit interview, IBM felt it would be best to give me a bodyguard until he could cool off.
It was strange to have to look over my shoulder for a few weeks and know that someone would be watching out for me wherever I went and whatever I did. In some weird way I missed it when it was over.
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