“What?!!!”
Is all I remember saying in reply.
“Is this a joke!?”
But Steve’s Attorney wasn’t laughing. My old boss was being sued by a former employee. An employee that I had been tasked with firing back when I was President of Steve Harvey World Group. I didn’t fire this woman because I wanted to, that decision came from someone else, but as the President of the company the news had to come from me. In fact, I sat in on all hirings and firings. And it was fine, I understood part of my role was to position myself between my boss and situations that had the potential to negatively affect his relationships or reputation. This particular employee had been with Steve Harvey for many, many years; long before I came along. She had seen me go from taking out the trash and carrying luggage to closing the Miss Universe deal. In fact, when my family and I got our first apartment in Atlanta, she was like a mother figure to me and Patrice and a grandmother figure to Reagan. We were neighbors. She babysat our daughter every other weekend. She even spent Christmas and Thanksgivings with us. She was close to our family for six years. I understood the decision to let her go. As a long time receptionist who hadn’t transitioned well over time, she got to the point where she got comfortable and no longer added value to the company. Although she had been kept on for many years out of loyalty, her salary could no longer be justified. Still, it was hard giving her the news… But she was given a sizable severance and, although I knew it would be hard, I hoped she would land on her feet.
That said, this wasn’t her first attempt at suing our former employer (her previous attempts had been unsuccessful). But this was the first time she drug me into it, and the lies she told not only threatened to ruin my reputation, but would eventually cause me to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in projects & production deals.
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