- Bill Briggs: On our level you don't get fired, you know that. After thirty years of productive work, they can't say to a man like me, "Alright, now get out!" They just can't do that. So what do they do? They create a situation. A situation you can't work in and finally that you can't live in with this tension, abuse. Small humiliations. It all starts out on a scale so subtle, so microscopic that at first you can't really believe it's happening at all. But gradually the thing begins to take shape. The pieces fit together - all the little bits. And it becomes unmistakable. They chip away at your pride, your security until you begin to have doubts, and then fears.
- Mr. Ramsey: Name your terms. All terms are negotiable.
- Fred Staples: I don't think so. Not mine.
- Mr. Ramsey: All right. I'd just as soon not waste any time doing trading. As of now, your salary is doubled. Your stock option is doubled right down the line. Your expense account is whatever you make it. Add to that a new title, vice president.
- Fred Staples: I want a lot more than that. You're not going to take me on as just another vice president you can push around. You take me as someone who hates you down to the bare nerve. Nothing in the world will ever change that. I'll argue with you, contradict you and fight you every way I know how. I'll do everything in my power to push you out and take your place myself.
- Mr. Ramsey: Go ahead and try. Mr. Staples, you have yourself a deal.
- Fred Staples: Have it drawn up.
- Mr. Ramsey: No reservations now?
- Fred Staples: Yes, one. Bill had one pitiful little dream that someday he'd walk in here and break your jaw. I reserve the right to have that wish myself.
- Mr. Ramsey: I'll have it drawn into the contract... with a rider giving me the same privilege.
- Nancy Staples: [dropping Fred off at work] Now I know what a mother feels when her child goes to school for the first time.
- Fred Staples: [angry] I don't want the job. I'm through, I'm quitting, I resign as of now
- Mr. Ramsey: [angry] Why?
- Fred Staples: Because I hate your guts. You used Bill Briggs for a whipping boy. You made him knuckle under, then you beat him to death. You wouldn't try anything like that with me because I'd kill you first.
- Mr. Ramsey: I'm not a nice human being. What else?
- Fred Staples: You're nothing but a freak. You drive your people into peak efficiency if they can make it, or into a grave if they can't. Because Bill Briggs lacked the strength... ..
- Mr. Ramsey: He was second in command, he had a lot of responsibility to hold and he cracked... .
- Fred Staples: It was his business too... .
- Mr. Ramsey: It's no one's business. It belongs only to the best; those who can control it; sustain it; nurture it; keep it growing. Right now it belongs to us because we are producing. But in the future it belongs to who ever has the brains, the nerve, and the skill to take it away from us.
- Fred Staples: You can have my share of it right now, because I don't want any part of it.
- Mr. Ramsey: What do you want from me? Apologies? I don't apologize. What else? A nice unsullied conscience? You walk out of here with a halo because you spoke your mind? What do you do then? Go to work for some nickel and dime outfit run by nice people who won't challenge you and prod you and goad you and drive you to a height you never even dreamed of? A company where there's nothing to fight for because you're the best and there's no competition? Where everything is handed to you and nothing is worth fighting for? I want you to stay.
- Fred Staples: I don't think you understand Ramsey. I don't like you. I don't like anything about you.
- Mr. Ramsey: I didn't hire you to like me. Alright, I'm not a nice person in your eyes. But whatever I am, you'll learn more, grow more here with me than anywhere else on earth. I need you to stay because I need help on my level. You're the only one whose able to function there. Be a conscience for me if you want. Be anything you like. And if it's something I don't like, you'll know about it soon enough. I think you'r strong enough to take it. And if not, I think you're strong enough to get out.
- Bill Briggs: [to Fred] I'm wondering if you're as good a human being as you are an industrial relations man.
- Fred Staples: I just hope Mr. Ramsey remembers hiring me.
- Bill Briggs: [ominously] Mr. Ramsey rarely forgets anything.
- Mr. Ramsey: I'll see you in the morning, Fred. Remember, you didn't steal that promotion. You won it!
- Nancy Staples: [approaches Mr. Ramsey cautiously, who is at the Staples' house, reading a report] The coffee will be ready in just a little while.
- Mr. Ramsey: Fine. You know, my, uh, my father's recipe for coffee was to mix salt and chocolate in with the grounds... cook them all up together. He'd never drink anything else.
- Nancy Staples: Sounds wonderful.
- Mr. Ramsey: They, uh, they serve it at a small downtown restaurant I eat at occasionally... I must remember to mention it to Fred. You said he was a confirmed coffee drinker?
- Nancy Staples: Dedicated.
- Mr. Ramsey: Fine. He's quite a young man, this husband of yours.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
