Hr The Intern Pt 02

Human Resources: The Intern, Part 2

I was about a month into my four month internship, having, what I thought at least, was a pretty good time. Yes, some of the women were a little... aggressive... and with so many women in the company, my job in keeping them happy was pretty tiring. But, overall, my experience was wonderful!

I was a little surprised when I came in on Tuesday to find that my computer had been used during off-hours. Overall, though, I didn't think too much of it. The login requirements were pretty good, so I knew it had to be another IT person and just blew it off as someone needing to use it for some reason.

"Michael," Ms. Jackson said as she walked into my shared office early Tuesday afternoon. My current officemate wasn't in at the moment. He worked for the design department and not IT, so we had extremely different jobs to do.

I turned in my chair to greet her. "Ms. Jackson. What can I do for you?" She wasn't one that usually needed... special treatments... during the work day, but with this job, you never knew. I had to always be ready for anything.

"We were served some legal papers late last week and I need you to do some... investigating... for it," she said, looking a little tired and concerned. "You inherited James' computer when he left, correct?"

"Uh, yeah, I did," I said, looking at it.

She stood thinking for a moment. I couldn't tell if she was thinking about what she wanted me to do or thinking about how to phrase it.

"I don't think that computer was ever looked at for compliance after he left," she said. She handed me a flash drive. "I'd like you to look through the computer, especially James' account of course, and let me know of any Use Policy violations. Keep what you find on the computer, but put a copy of it all on the flash drive."

"Ok... I can do that," I said, nodding, a little unsure of what I was supposed to look for.

"There will also be depositions held next week for several employees, here in the conference room," she said. "Being James' officemate, you will definitely be questioned. Is that ok?"

"Yeah... I mean I don't know what I can give anyone," I said, now getting even more concerned. I was getting dragged into a legal confrontation and it was making me very uncomfortable. And it sounded like it had something to do with James. "But I'll be here."

"Good. Then I'll let you get on with your compliance check. Let me know when you're done."

"Sure thing," I said, plugging the flash drive into the computer. Ms. Jackson turned and walked out, leaving me to do my work. In seconds, I'd logged on with the administrator password and had started just looking through James' document folders. And it wasn't long before I found some very interesting things.

The first thing I found was that he had a hidden document folder that was full of video files of all things... fifty or sixty video files. I double clicked on one at random and a video player popped up on the screen playing it. The movie looked pretty innocent at first, in an office setting, an older woman approaching and talking to a younger, male employee. The next few minutes didn't reveal anything new, until the woman leaned over the young man and pushed her hand into his crotch and started stroking him.

As soon as that started, I knew this wasn't just a simple movie. James had downloaded porn onto his computer. I watched for a few minutes more, making sure to turn down the volume on my computer, while the older woman knelt on the floor and sucked off the guy. Then she sat in his lap, pushed his cock inside her pussy, and rode him like a bucking bronco.

I closed that window and opened a couple of the other videos, noting the same, basic premise in all of them: a woman, or several women, approached a male colleague in the office and within a few minutes they started having sex. Sometimes they just forced themselves on him and other times they blackmailed him.

I closed the video player and copied all of the videos to the flash drive. I figured, then, that in order to get the videos onto the disk, James probably visited some porn websites and downloaded them. I brought up his browser history and looked it over. Very quickly I saw the names of several porn sites and copied those links to the flash drive as well.

Finally, I went through his email and found some conversations that were a bit creepy. In one email, James mentioned that he had a way to send the Firm 'crashing and burning' and said he would do it for a million dollars. There seemed to be some back and forth, a haggling on the price and also a questioning of his damage assessment. There was also a desire by the person he was emailing for James to guarantee the results. In the end, both parties agreed to the deal.

The next email was that James was bragging that he had installed a virus onto the system that would rapidly spread into a ransomware attack... an attack that he was fully in control of. When commanded, the virus would encrypt all of the computers in the Firm, making them inaccessible. The Firm would be required to pay a large sum of money in order to free up all their data.

I was so shocked. James was not at all the person I thought he was. I put everything I had on the flash drive and, noticing that it was about time to leave for the day, grabbed my stuff, and started heading up to Ms. Jackson's office.

Ms. Jackson seemed calm and unsurprised when I told her what I found. It was like she was in shock or something. Like me, I don't think she realized that James could do something so underhanded and deviant like this. She took the drive and put it in her desk drawer before packing up everything for the drive home.

*****

Several days after I gave the flash drive to Ms. Jackson, I started to feel more and more uncomfortable with the whole thing. It bothered me that I was asked to perform the compliance check when I was, a month after James left... as if maybe Ms. Jackson knew the files were there all along. And then the fact that someone had been on that computer the night before I went looking made me even more uncomfortable.

Was I going to get dragged into this lawsuit? Was I going to be accused of what I found? Someone could easily just say that those files were somehow mine. I was getting scared for my job.

*****

On the day of the deposition, I was called back to the conference room. When I walked in the door, shaking a little with nervousness, two well-dressed women, members of the Firm, were sitting on one side of the table and two well-dressed men, visitors, were sitting on the other. I was asked to sit in the seat at the head of the table so I could face both the teams. As I sat, I noticed the microphone in front of me, along with two digital recorders.

My palms were sweating and my mouth was suddenly dry. This felt extremely serious.

What appeared to be the head lawyer of the men spoke first. "Do you need some water or anything? Are you comfortable enough?"

"I... uh... could use some water," I said, feeling extremely overwhelmed.

"Certainly, certainly," the man said, signaling his partner to pour a glass for me and give it to me. "My name is Terry Wallace and I'm a lawyer. We just have some questions for you regarding a dispute with a previous employee of this Firm." I nodded. "Please state your name for the record."

"My name is Michael Vance," I said.

"You're an intern here, right?"

I nodded.

"Please... you have to speak for these proceedings to be recorded properly," Mr. Wallace said.

"Um... yes," I mumbled. "I'm an intern here at the Firm."

"From which college?"

"State College."

"How long have you worked here, Mr. Vance?" Mr. Wallace asked.

"Um... I guess it's been 6 weeks or so now," I said.

"What date did you start?"

"Um... January 10th."

"This is your first internship at the Firm?"

"Yes... my first internship anywhere," I laughed nervously.

"When you started here at the Firm, did you take any corporate required training? Specifically, did you take any Harassment Training?"

"Yes... I took that and several other online classes," I said.

"What is the Firm's definition of Harassment?" Mr. Wallace asked.

"Well, um... I think it said it's, um, behavior that creates a... I don't know... unpleasant... situation for someone by using, um, uninvited or... unwelcome... verbal or physical, you know, means."

"Have you ever experienced any harassment against yourself from anyone in this Firm?"

All the lawyers eyes bore into me, waiting for my answer. The questions up to now had been more generic. I felt this was that one question that could immediately make or break the lawsuit. "No," I said, shaking my head slowly. The female lawyers were also taking notes and listening to every word I'd said.

"Have you ever witnessed any harassment against another person in this Firm?"

"No."

"How well do you know James Dunning?" Mr. Wallace asked after jotting down a few notes on his notepad. It seemed as if he wasn't getting the answers he had hoped for.

"Not very well, really," I said. "We barely saw each other and only worked a week together before he left to go back to school."

"Did you interact much with Mr. Dunning during the week you worked together?"

"No... not really," I said. "We had separate duties. I worked mostly on simple stuff, dealing with minor cable swaps or easy computer issues. James worked more difficult items since he had more experience."

"Well, I have to say, I'm a little surprised by what you're telling me, Mr. Vance," Mr. Wallace said. I suddenly grew nervous, thinking I was going to get in trouble for something. "Has anyone talked to you about giving this deposition today?"

"No," I said, shaking my head, looking at all of them, thinking I was in trouble for some reason. "They just said it was going to happen and I was to come in and answer questions."

"Who are 'they'?" he asked.

"My boss, Ms. Jackson."

"Ms. Jackson never said what the deposition was for or what the lawsuit was?"

"No," I said. "I didn't have a clue."

"Specifically, Mr. Vance, has anyone asked you to lie to us today?" Mr. Wallace asked, obviously upset.

"I object to the question and the implication, Mr. Wallace," the lead female lawyer said angrily. "We have not intimidated, coached, nor coerced our witnesses and implying that we have without any evidence is grounds for dismissal for your own coercion. If you're not getting the answers you're looking for then maybe you're asking the wrong questions. Or maybe it's your client that's not exactly telling the truth."

Mr. Wallace looked at her sternly, then at me, obviously not happy to be slapped on the wrist like that. "My apologies. I recall the question."

The female lawyer looked at him angrily, then addressed me. "Mr. Vance, my name is Ms. Terrington and I'm the managing lawyer for the Firm. I have a few questions of my own for you, if I may."

I nodded.

"Mr. Vance... Michael... when you first started working here, were you asked to go through James' computer?"

"Um... yes..." I said nervously.

"Who asked you to do this?"

"My boss... Ms. Jackson."

"She is the Director of IT, correct?"

"Yes, she is."

"Did she tell you or indicate in any way what to look for or where to look?"

"No... I mean, they asked me to go through the computer and see if there was anything on it that violated the IT Usage Policy... pretty standard stuff."

"I'm not sure what this has to do with my client's case," Mr. Wallace interrupted.

"Perhaps you'll find out soon enough," Ms. Terrington said to Mr. Wallace, smirking. Then she turned her attention back to me. "And... can you describe what you found?"

"Um... well, I found pornographic videos... and pornographic websites that were visited," I said, blushing a little.

"From your IT Use Policy and Security training, would you define this as an appropriate use of a Firm computer?"

"No," I said. "That's all specifically prohibited."

"What is the consequence of having or viewing material like this on a computer owned by the Firm?" Ms. Terrington asked.

"If I remember correctly, the policy said that you'd be fired," I said. "And there was some kind of financial penalty as well, I think."

"Did you look at any of the videos that you had found?"

"Yes... a few... to find out what they were, mostly." I was a little nervous that I'd now done something wrong myself and that I'd be punished. I mean, it was in the course of my investigation, but still... it was watching pornographic material on a company computer.

"Was there anything special about the videos that you observed?" she asked, as if what I did was ok after all. I felt a weight lift from my shoulders again.

"The, uh, videos had older women with, um, younger men," I said, blushing. God this was embarrassing.

"Was there a common environment for the videos?" Ms. Terrington's face was hard to read. I'm sure she knew exactly what I'd reported to Ms. Jackson because she didn't seem surprised at all about any of this. And from her questions, she seemed to believe that the videos were even more damning in some way.

"Well... um... I guess the one's I looked at were in an office setting," I said.

"Were the performed acts consensual as far as you could tell?"

"I guess," I said. "I mean, it wasn't like anyone was tied up or raped or anything."

"Was the point of the movies romance in the office or was there some sort of coercion? Was either side more... aggressive or overbearing?" she asked, not exactly satisfied with my previous answer.

"No, they weren't romance movies, that's for sure. I didn't really watch them in, um, detail, but if I remember correctly, the women were aggressive, forcing themselves on the men. In at least one, there was blackmail involved to force the man to have sex with her."

"So... the videos were in an office setting, with older women taking advantage of younger men. Correct?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's correct."

"It seems to me that maybe the fantasies portrayed in these videos became real in Mr. Dunning's mind." She paused a moment to let that sink in. "Was there anything else you found? Some kind of threat to the agency perhaps?"

"Yes... I found an email that James sent out to someone at another advertising firm that said he would do something to hurt this firm in exchange for money from them." Ms. Terrington slid a piece of paper across the table which contained several email messages.

Mr. Wallace frowned as he looked over the emails and let my testimony soak in.

"What was the 'something' to which Mr. Dunning threatened?" Ms. Terrington continued.

"He said he'd installed a ransomware virus onto our systems and threatened to force the Firm to pay him to get access to our data again."

"So, Mr. Wallace," Ms. Terrington said, sitting back in her comfortable chair, smiling smugly. "Just so you know, we intend to seek compensation from Mr. Dunning for his... serious... breach of trust by using a Firm-owned computer in violation of the Firm's IT Use Policy. And we intend to counter sue based on his premeditated decision to bring... intentionally false... charges to the Firm in order to damage its reputation for personal, financial gain, and to for installing a virus for extortion purposes."

"Well, um," Mr. Wallace said, moving in his chair uncomfortably.

"And just to put a final nail in Mr. Dunning's case against this Firm... Michael, do you know if James ever had sex with any member of the IT team... consensual or not?"

"No."

"Do you know if James ever had sex, consensual or not, with Ms. Cartwright, Mrs. Patterson, or Ms. Jackson?"

"No," I said, shaking my head.

"Did you ever hear or know if James ever had sex in or outside the office with ANY other employee, consensual or not?"

"No," I said, continuing to shake my head.

"Michael... do you think that, if any of these things happened, James would have mentioned something to you?"

I nodded. "I would like to think so. We weren't close friends, but we did share an office and did spend a couple hours alone together that week. I would think that if it was consensual that he would have probably bragged about it. And I would hope that if it wasn't that he would have warned me about it."

"Thank you," Ms. Terrington said to me. "I think we're done here, don't you Mr. Wallace? I mean, you've heard from the Firm's owner that she knew of nothing, the HR Director who said that James never filed any kind of grievance in his four months of working here, James' own boss who knew of nothing... and now even a male coworker with whom he shared an office never knew of anything... except that James was threatening to attack the Firm, accusing it of the same conduct found in his fantasy pornographic videos." Mr. Wallace seemed uncomfortable and unsure of himself. Ms. Terrington turned her attention back to me. "I will remind you not to discuss anything we've said or done here with anyone inside or outside this Firm. This is all confidential information. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am," I said. Within seconds, I was on my feet and walking to the door. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

"Mr. Vance?" Mr. Wallace said just as I had reached the door. "I'm curious. Have *you* had any sex, consensual or not, with anyone in this firm?"

I looked back at him, scared that if I answered it everything else would have been completely undone.

"Mr. Wallace, please quit grasping at straws," Ms. Terrington said. "Mr. Vance's private life is not our concern. You're free to go, Michael."

I left the conference room and closed the door behind me, then walked back to my desk, nervous, scared, and unsure of what was going to happen next.

*****

I spent the next week after the deposition wondering how things turned out. While I still performed my daily duties, with computers and with the women, no one was talking about it at all, not even Ms. Jackson.

Then a week and a half later, on that Friday, Ms. Jackson told me on our drive home that the lawsuit had been dropped. She couldn't say much about it, still, but James had been trying to sue the Firm for sexual harassment. She grabbed and rubbed my thigh as she drove, getting close to my cock

"God, I'm so happy that it was dropped," she said, smiling broadly. "You have no idea how much stress this had cause a lot of us. Now... it's time to celebrate a little bit."

Her fingers slid over my erection and she jerked it a little through my pants.

"Are you ready to play?" she asked.

"Yeah... of course," I said, smiling back, even though I wasn't sure what she meant by 'celebration'.

When we got to the house, we both went inside and Ms. Jackson asked me to sit in the living room for a little bit. She was expecting a guest. I could hear her in the kitchen grabbing things, then she came back into the living room with three flutes and a bottle of Champagne. She set them on the table then went back into the kitchen.

About fifteen minutes after we arrived, the doorbell rang.

"Michael, can you get that?" Ms. Jackson called from the kitchen.

"Sure." I got off the couch and went to the door. Ms. Cartwright was standing there, smiling. "Ms. Cartwright," I said, surprised. "Please come in." I stood back and let her enter, then closed the door behind her. "Can I take your coat?"

"Oh, yes, please," she said, sliding her coat off and handing it to me.

"Please have a seat in the living room. Ms. Jackson will be out shortly."

As Ms. Cartwright went into the living room, I hung her coat in the closet then followed her.

"Melinda!" Ms. Jackson said as she came out of the kitchen with a small platter of cut up fruit, vegetables, meats, and crackers. "Thank you for joining us."

"Oh, my pleasure Sheila, believe me," she smiled. "After that fiasco with the lawsuit, I needed to blow off some steam."