Gary Jennings knocked quietly on the Human Resource's Director's door, and listened nervously for an invitation to enter her office. He had no idea why Mrs Carter wanted to see him, but he doubted the meeting was going to be enjoyable even if her intention was theoretically positive as she always made him feel very uncomfortable even when passing each other in a corridor.
He heard a shout of "Come in!", opened the door, quietly half-smiled a nervous "Good Morning. You wanted to see me?" and sat down in the chair she directed him to.
"Yes," she said emotionlessly, "We need to discuss your position and come to an agreement if you are to continue working here."
Gary Jennings spluttered his reply: "S,s,s,s, sorry, I don't understand. What am I supposed to have done?"
Sharon Carter smirked in a way that he thought menacing, put her hands together as if about to pray, and added "Accessing inappropriate websites while at work is a disciplinary offence for most employees, but as you've only been here a little over three months I'm well within my authority to terminate your contract today."
He protested his innocence as she continued while waving a sheet of A4, "Well you either looked at the websites on this list, or you left your computer logged on and unattended and someone else did. Either way, I need to be convinced that it's in the company's best interests to continue your employment". Mrs Carter slid the sheet of paper across the desk as she continued, "The IP address is your work station," and then grinned so widely that deep creases appeared all over her face as she added, "And have you always fanatasised about older women? Not that it matters of course, I'm just curious."
Gary Jennings picked up the sheet of paper, saw his name, numbers, dates and times, and read the list of website summaries, all which were variations on a theme: women twice his age getting orally pleasured by men like him.
He felt a lump form in his throat as Mrs Carter stood up, walked round the front of her desk, and sat on the edge facing him. Gary Jennings tried to look her in the eyes, but he couldn't. She was too intimidating. All he could do was look down at her black, high-heeled, over-the-calf leather boots as they swayed gently, and tell himself that on no account should he lift his head even slighly in case in case he accidentally looked up her skirt.
He listened intently as she outlined her plan to keep him as "he was very good at his job," "showed a lot of potential" and added laughing "and it's even a little flattering that women my age are so appealing to someone of your's." He didn't respond until she stepped down from the edge of the desk, stood in front of him, titled his head upwards with her index finger and said, "This conversation is strictly between the two of us. Nobody else knows anything, so if I draft something about future conduct and confidentiality ging fowards, will you sign it?" He nodded intently, thanked her enthusiastically, nervously muttered "good bye" and walked slowly back to his desk in a large shared office down the corridor.
The next day, he answered the telephone on his desk, and felt his heart sink when Mrs Carter "invited" him to a meeting using a tone of voice which made it sound very much like an order, not a request.
Gary Jennings was even less comfortable knocking on the HR Director's door than he had been the previous day. She'd sounded cold and unfriendly, and even though he hadn't left his desk at all so knew that his computer hadn't been used, somehow knew that he was going to be accused of doing something inappropriate at work again.
"Come in and sit down," she said emotionlessly as he opened her office door, "We need to talk." Gary Jennings just nodded as Mrs Carter stood up, walked round to the front of her desk, sat on the edge and continued: "Yesterday, we discussed you looking at pornographic websites and reading erotic stories, but that's not quite everything is it? You've also been putting your fantasies on the internet instead of doing what we pay you for."
