After all these years working with Tim, I’ve learned to let most of the things he says kind of float around in the air and disappear in the wind. If I let them stick to me, they tend to weigh me down. I’m not completely immune to his ability to blot out the sun, though, and it showed today.

The company is doing well. It’s not just that we have a lot of work going on, which is always a good thing for a construction firm, but we’ve also managed to keep more money in the company bank account at one time than we’ve ever had before. I’ve managed to pay off all the credit lines and still keep us on solid ground.

That apparently isn’t good enough for Tim. He phoned today and asked how much we had in the account. I told him, and it was a huge number that is so far beyond the norm that it boggles the mind. Somehow in his head he had calculated that it should be about twice that much. He had asked the same question last week, and he knew how much we had coming in.

What he didn’t take into account was that I’ve been paying bills. The only reason a general contractor can collect that much money is so that it can pay subcontractors and suppliers. There isn’t usually much left after I do that, and yet, as I mentioned, a mind boggling sum is still in the account. And yet somehow it’s not enough to suit Tim.

The reason he wants the account full to overflowing is that he thinks he might have to borrow a large sum as a short-term loan. He’s been involved in a lawsuit for the last three years, and he’s invested a considerable amount of his own money. Now the suit is coming to a head, and he thinks he should be able to tap the company coffers to get him over the hump.

Here’s the kicker. The Boss knows nothing about this. Tim hasn’t told him that he might want the money; he simply wants the money to be there if he needs it.

I told Tim that I don’t pay bills just for the fun of spending money, and I only pay bills that are due. Beyond that I couldn’t promise him anything. He instructed me (not that this is his job, but he does like to throw orders around) to let him know if the Boss told me to pay any large bills.

Well, if the Boss tells me to do something, I generally do it. I told Tim that if this situation came up, he would have to talk to the Boss and tell him what’s going on. In the meantime, I’m in the middle. I’m not supposed to be saying anything about the lawsuit or the possible loan, and yet I’m supposed to keep enough money in the account to fund Tim’s problem. I sort of hate it.

I could have let this conversation with Tim ruin my whole day. It did affect me, but it didn’t keep me from doing my job. I paid bills today, maybe even a few I technically didn’t have to pay. Tim isn’t entitled to company money by any right other than being the son of the Boss, and to be honest, I’m not sure the Boss would be eager to make this kind of a loan anyway. I would kind of like to be an invisible speck in the room when Tim asks for it. That could make all this anguish worthwhile.