The bosslady
was smiling. Not that forced smile she
usually used on her subordinates, but one of genuine pleasure. She loved doing this. She loved serving them what was basically a
shit sandwich and presenting it as though she was doing them a favor.
She
gathered them in her office to introduce their new supervisor. A man who would probably eliminate the
positions of more than a few of them.
“Everyone. I’m very excited to introduce you to your new
supervisor, Donald Jackson,” she said.
Then she clapped and encouraged applause from the vermin as well. When they reluctantly joined her she cut back
in. “He’s going to do great things here
at Good American Business Company. We’re
growing and he’s just the man to get us through the coming transition from a small
regional business to a national corporation.”
She
instigated more applause and then said, “Donald?”
Donald
Jackson cleared his throat, huge white-toothed grin on his face, and said,
“What a great place. Just awesome. It really feels like a family here. Everyone seems to care about everyone. And that’s the most important thing, I think. That’s what I want to preserve as we grow and
that’s part of what I’ve been hired to do.
The other part of my job is to take advantage of growth opportunities
and take this place national. We’ve got
a chance to crush it, people. And I
think we can. No. I’m confident… that we will.”
The bosslady
led the claps again.
“I hope
you’ll bear with me in the coming weeks as I settle in. I’m going to sit with each of you so I can
see what it is you do and, together, we’ll look for ways you can do it better. I’m really excited. I hope you are too.”
Inside, the
bosslady was giddy. Her rats, these
vermin, these absolute parasites were eating it up. They were eating up the shit Donald was
shoveling. All but a few at least. She glanced around and took note of the
lowlife workers who were smiling, but not with their eyes. They were the ones she’d set Mr. Jackson on
first.
“Alright,”
she said. “Meeting over. Feel free to visit with Donald for few
minutes and then get back to your stations.
If you need me, I’ll be in my office.
I’ve got a lot of work to do, but as you know, my door is always open.”
She loved
saying that. The open door thing. She made it a habit to close her door
frequently to confuse them.
When she
got back to her desk there was an e-mail waiting for her. The subject line read: re: Employee Diaper
Proposal.
The body of
the e-mail had a two line response: Sounds great. Double check the numbers and submit them for
final approval.
