Monday morning came far too soon for Mallory; she sat in her car at the Starbuck's drive-through waiting for her venti Chai Tea Latte made with a shot of raspberry and non-fat milk. I am so predictable, she thought to herself, as she gave the barista a five dollar bill and dumped the change in the tip jar sitting on the ledge of the window. The cute young brunette handed her the hot drink along with a straw, she knew Mallory requested a straw every Monday when she indulged in the high calorie sugary treat once a week. "Thank you," she said, smiling at the girl as she drove away, placing the drink in the cup holder, turning up the volume on the radio and driving off to the plant just north of town.
Mallory pulled up to the parking lot, slowly easing into the same space she always did, third space from the last in the furthest row from the building; it was not an assigned space, just force of habit. She sighed as she sat in the car for a moment collecting her things, tea in one hand, purse strap slipped over her wrist, and the strap to the polka-dotted square lunch cooler grasped in her right hand. As she stepped out of the car, she looked at the beige stucco building where she had worked for almost two years as an accounting specialist, it was not the worst job she had ever performed, but she was getting bored.
She took a deep breath as she started across the parking lot; well, she thought, I cannot put it off any longer, I guess my vacation is over and it is time to get back to reality. As she walked in through the glass front door past the receptionist, she smiled warmly, "Good morning, Elka," she greeted the ageing woman behind the desk. Elka, the rotund German woman always had a ready smile for anyone who came through the door. She may not always transfer the phone calls correctly, often getting accounts receivables and payables mixed up, and screwing up all the mail, but she had an incredibly friendly personality and visitors and staff simply adored seeing her at the desk.
"Oh, velcome back, dear," she responded to Mallory in her thick accent, pushing the button under her desk, buzzing her through as she saw Mallory fumbling in her purse for her key fob to get through the locked door. "Don't you vorry... I buzz you in."
"Thank you, Elka. You're a life saver," Mallory winked, "I'm afraid I would be late if I had to dig through here trying to find it. I think my mind is still on vacation."
With that, Mallory walked through the door and headed back to her cubicle to get settled in for her work day; she knew it would be challenging as everyone would want to know what her vacation had been like. She was not even all the way down the hall and at her desk when the parade of co-workers asking after her had begun, "Hey, Mal, did you have a fabulous time?" it was Suzie, the customer service woman who sometimes loved, sometimes hated Mallory.
It put her on guard every time Suzie spoke her name; she was not certain who was talking to her, Evil Suzie or Angel Suzie. She was not the only one who had this issue with her, most people in the office had the same challenges with her, and behind her back she was called ES and AS when others referred to her wondering what her mood was that day. So when she heard her voice that day, she cringed, not knowing if it was ES or AS with her singsong comment about her vacation; Mallory did not even want to acknowledgement, but out of politeness, she did.
Pausing in the doorway to her cubicle, she turned to Suzie and said, "It was great, Suzie, too short, of course," indicating the fact she was only out of the office for a week. "But, I had a fabulous time. Guess I better get settled in now and start playing catch up, though," she stated, turning her back to the woman as she put down her belongings and pushed the power button on her computer.
"Well, I guess you don't have time to talk then," the woman said icily, clearly proving that it was Evil Suzie in the plant today. Just as well, Mallory thought as the woman walked away, I seriously do not have the energy to deal with her.
She was content to be busy for a change, as the work here had not been challenging since her first six months on the job. Mallory was more than willing to help anybody else complete their tasks when she was finished with hers, but with the new Sarbanes-Oxley rules put into place, there was little she could do to help others or to be cross-trained. She found it challenging to look busy, she simply did not have enough work; so in order to keep her somewhat motivated, her manager had her placed on every committee in the plant he could in order to keep her.
Mallory was happy to have such diversity in her job with the committee work, and it gave her a chance to get to know everybody in the facility. She enjoyed working with the shop employees; it was a nice change of pace sometimes from the stuffy white-collar workers who she found could take themselves way too seriously sometimes. It seemed she was well received by all in the plant, from the shop employees, her direct co-workers, middle management, and executive management, she seemed to fit in with ease regardless of which group she was working with at the time.
The morning passed by so quickly since she had a stack of work on her desk from the week she had been on vacation. A few people had stopped by her desk trying to distract her from working, but she was able to politely tell them she would catch up with them later in the week when she did not feel so inundated with paperwork. By the time it was 12:30, she was eager for her afternoon run; she headed for the women's restroom and grabbed her gym bag from the locker tossing it onto the bench as she sat down and started to remove her shoes.
She changed into her workout gear, placed her clothing into her locker, and then went to the mirror to put her hair up into a high ponytail. Just then, the door opened and in walked ES, UGH, she thought, just what I need when I am on my way out to go for a relaxing run. Mallory quickly put in her earphones and started to fumble with her MP3 player so she could pretend she was not able to hear her.
"Oh, don't worry, I don't have anything to say to you," ES said as she looked at herself in the mirror, fixing her makeup.
