Article March 15, 2004 Issue

The answer was to love

By Laurel Johnson

Shouting matches, angry words. A broken friendship. I never expected that this would be the way a wonderful business relationship would end. Could I ever get past my feelings of injustice and betrayal? I doubted it. In fact, I didn't see any reason that I needed to.

It began a few years ago when I was working as the vice president of a manufacturing company. I had been working there for seven years, and over the course of my employment, I had developed a very close relationship with my boss, the company president. I had invested a lot of money in the company, with the understanding that we were going to go public. I'd even convinced some close friends to invest. My boss had assured me that our money was safe, and that we would get out of the company whatever we'd invested.

After taking a maternity leave to have my third child, I came back to work. However, I realized within just a few months that I couldn't comfortably balance full-time work with my growing family obligations. Since my boss said that working part time was not an option, I decided it was best to resign.