When I was residing on the Left Coast I worked for a corporate office in Memph-fissss, TN.
I was referred to as Yankee by the primarily 'South of the Mason-Dixon line' hierarchy schooled at Georgia Tech, Duke, UGa, UMiss, UTenn and Memphis State.
Primarily God-fearing Baptists I never met a wilder bunch of good 'ole boys when they were away from home turf.
I actually got a phone call questioning a very expensive tab at Platinum Gold (Pink or Cheetah Gold) or whatever in LV.
After a nice casino dinner I was left with a few decision-makers from a large potential client along with our VP Engineering to go out on the town.
He requested that I utilize my credit card as this was primarily a sales function (and of course he a was devout tea-toddler dispensing a prayer prior to sitting down to dinner).
I believe I paid for several hours of this Mr VP's "time" to be silly-puttyed in the hands of Natasha (or some other suggestive name with the heavy Russian 'Bor-rissss' accent) in a private upstairs room.
At one point I was the only man left seated out of a table of five and probably had a dozen ladies over those two hours come and sit with me over a drink to chat and inquire if I needed some companionship (possibly thinking I had money since it was my credit card being utilized).
Since I was the designated driver and had to make sure I was able to give the presentation the following morning at the potential client's facility I soundly figured I could always come and play at another future date after the sale was consummated.
A very good decision in hindsight though I was accused of "paying for sex" by a higher-up lady in Finance who reviewed expense reports and brought it to my VP Sales attention.
The report shows as to exactly whom I had entertained eventhough I had left off our VP Engineering's name.
He inquired with a phone call if our VP Engineering was involved and I truthfully answered in the affirmative.
He inquired as to why I had left our VP's name off of the report. I replied that I didn't want to impugn on his character since he was 'a devout Baptist'...as well as we required a good relationship with Engineering on this project and future endeavours.
He seemed to convey the feeling that our VP Engineering took advantage of the sales reps whenever he traveled out of town to NY, LA, Dallas, Chicago or Atlanta etc....and imparted that if Mr VP Engineering comes on another call to 'an entertainment establishment' the Engineering credit card account should be pressed into service.
I responded, "Yes sir" and sent an e-message to our VP Engineering as to whether he thought my presentation was received well.
He replied with a phone call (probably in order to avoid a paper trail), "Dang Coffee - a fine presentation ! I would have purchased five
Natashas !" (Oh dear.
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