The Spiked Heel

At the beginning of the day, he thought there’d been some error. The carpet layers had started with Credit, right next door to him, and he thought they’d mistakenly skipped Cost at the end of the corridor. As the day wore on, he began to think they’d passed him accidentally and then forgotten about him in the rush of getting the new desks into each of the offices. By quitting time, when the carpet layers and maintenance men had covered every other office on the floor, he began to get a little miffed. He stopped one of the maintenance men in the hallway and asked what the story was.

“Gee, Griff,” the man said, “don’t get sore at me. I’m only doing what I was told.”

“Told? What do you mean?”

“We were told to skip Cost, that’s all.”

“Who told you this?”

“It wasn’t told to me, Griff. It was told to Frank. He’s in charge of the job.”

“Where is he?” Griff asked.

The maintenance man looked around. He shrugged. “Probably knocked off already.”

“Was there any reason given? For skipping Cost?”

“I think they’re gonna paint your office first, or something. That’s the way I got it, anyway.”

“When are they going to paint?”

The maintenance man shrugged. “Griff, you got me.” He smiled suddenly. “I wouldn’t worry about it, I was you. You’ll probably wind up with the best-looking office on the floor.”

“Yeah,” Griff said.

On Wednesday morning, the first line of infantry appeared on the horizon. Manelli called and asked to see Griff. Griff went down to his office, and Manelli cleared his throat and spread a batch of cost cards on his desk.

“These cards,” he said.

“Um?”

“Few things, Griff. Here, take this pattern L 678. That’s the Scudderhoo last, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve got piping and stripping listed as one and four-ninths yards, and you’ve indicated ‘see list’ for the cost. But you haven’t indicated the cost any place on the card. And as far as I can see, the cost of piping and stripping was never included in the total cost of the shoe.”

“May I see the card?” Griff asked.

Manelli handed him the card, and Griff studied it for a moment.

“Oh,” he said, “I can explain that. We don’t have any piping or stripping on this pattern.”

“Then why is it listed at all?”

“I thought we’d look ahead a little. Davidoff figured out the approximate yardage we’d need to pipe or strip it. So if we get a request for a variation on the pattern, I can just check my cost card and I’ll know it calls for one and four-ninths yards. Then I’ll look at my list and add the current cost of piping and stripping to the shoe. Simple.”

“How do you know there’ll be one and four-ninths yards?”

“Davidoff worked it out for me,” Griff said. “I just told you—”

“I see. Well, check it again with Davidoff, and then look up the cost and insert it somewhere on the card. And then change your figures accordingly.”

“But piping and stripping is not a usual cost on this shoe. Don’t you see…?”

“I see, Griff, but if you’ve taken it this far, I want it taken all the way. Figure out an alternate set of figures for the shoe if it did have piping and stripping.”

Griff sighed. “All right,” he said reluctantly.

“Now this one,” Manelli said, picking up another card. “Pattern A 361.”

“Yes?”

“You’ve got your heel height listed as a 27 on the 103 last. Well, that’s all right. But you estimate cost of the heel covering at.070. That seems low to me.”

“Well,” Griff said, “I got the amount of leather needed from Morris, and then I figured the cost. Joe, all my costs are based on material surveys which come from Morris. He works them out on—”

“Well, check this with him again. It seems low.”

“If you say so,” Griff said impatiently.

“Same for these three. Matter of fact, everything on these three cards seems low to me. Either Davidoff is underestimating the amount of material we need, or you’re undercosting it. In any case, you’d better check.”

“All right,” Griff said, keeping his anger down.

“And on this one, the labor is figured at 2.036. That, I’m sure, is far too high.”

“Sal Valdero works out the labor estimates. He knows just what each piece job will—”

“Then check it with Sal, will you?”

“If this is a question of survey and labor, why not check it directly with Morris and Sal yourself?” Griff asked. “After all…”

Manelli smiled. “Well now, you’re head of the Cost Department, aren’t you?”

“Sure,” Griff said dully.

“I hate to be a bother, Griff,” Manelli said, “but these things have to be checked and, well, what’re you gonna do, eh?” He shrugged genially. “Meantime, let me see the other cards you’re working on, won’t you?”

“If I ever get around to them,” Griff said sourly.

On Thursday morning, at nine twenty-five, the blitzkrieg started.

“It’s Dave Stiegman, Griff,” Marge said. “On four.”

Griff lifted the phone. “Hello, Dave,” he said. “How are you?”

“Fine, Griff. You? Listen, on this lucite heel thing.”

“Yes, what about it?”

“I’m going to need Aaron here at Chrysler for the next few days, so—”

“What for?” Griff asked.

Stiegman chuckled. “Well, you know. Busy, busy.”

Griff didn’t know. His brow furrowed.