A popular employee at Milwaukee’s Pomeroy Genistics is taking its CEO to court over the right to a friendly greeting he says he invented and has been using for over 20 years.
Says veteran analyst Max Torrey: “I go up to people and put one hand on their left shoulder, take their right hand with mine, then I look into their eyes and I say ‘All good?’ This is what I’m known for and I think I’m thought of well.”
When CEO Gabrielle Portnoy arrived at the company in 2022, hopes were high. She’d run two other genistics firms and was considered an up and comer. Unfortunately, she made a series of missteps during her first month on the job – including ordering the removal of sunflower seeds from the break room cafeteria, and cutting salaries by three percent. .
“People avoided looking at her,” says one marketing employee. “If she got on an elevator they’d get off.”
Meanwhile, she couldn’t help but notice how highly the staff thought of Torrey. She ordered two of her VPs to look into the matter, and a day later they reported that it was most likely due to the greeting. After studying some videotapes, she started using the greeting herself
At first, Torrey took this as a compliment. “What do they say about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery?” he asks
Then Portnoy called him in and asked him to find another greeting – offering either the “fake point and gun click” or the “thumbs up” sign as replacements. Torrey refused. An HR representative then informed him that since he’d created the greeting on company time, it technically belonged to the company.
Torrey has hired a lawyer, and continues to use the greeting – as does Portnoy. Now a judge will decide who owns it in the end.
