I had just received promotion and was now in a much more senior position. I'd worked my butt of to get this promotion. Mind you, I'm well aware that some people have implied that I'm a back-stabbing bitch, but they're the losers. You have to be ruthless to get ahead in this world. Business is a dog eat dog world and this bitch is quite capable of taking her share and fending off challengers.
Management loved me. I got the job done. In addition I was lovely to look at and could be absolutely charming. I frequently represented the company during media events and I could wrap reporters around my little finger, charming the socks off them. By the time I was finished my opponents found themselves facing a hostile media.
Take the latest round of lay-offs. OK, so we'd moved some jobs off-shore. We were doing something practical to help developing economies. True, there was some cost locally to doing this but we all have to make sacrifices for the common good. We didn't fire any one. Those people who got laid off were all voluntary departures. We just didn't replace them.
Mind you, if the Media ever found out how some of those peoples had been persuaded to voluntarily depart they'd have roasted me on prime time TV, but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt me.
So here I was, not even twenty five, riding high with a great and glorious future in front of me.
I was now getting ready to go home. It had been a long day and I'd worked late. (Extra kudos if senior management see you working late. Shows you've got the companies interest at heart. And it's amazing what you find out by looking around on people's desks. People really should lock up sensitive files.)
It was dark outside when I finally caught the lift. When I boarded there were already three people on board. Unusual for that time of night. I guess they'd been working late getting some overtime in. The men looked at me and then looked away. I radiate self-confidence and men find that threatening.
The lift started down and then it suddenly stopped with a jolt. The lights went out and then the emergency lighting came on. We waited for the lift to start again, but nothing. I pressed the intercom button to alert the guards downstairs that we had a problem.
They were all apologetic. Power was out all over the area, they said. A truck had cleaned up a few power poles. Power would be restored shortly. All we could do was wait. So we waited a little longer.
One of the men in the lift was giving me odd looks. Suddenly he spoke up.
"I know who you are," he said. "You're Ann Milkins, the new manager of Human Resources."
I nodded modestly to shown that yes, that's who I was.
"Thought so," he said. "You're the bitch who cost us our jobs."
The other men were also looking at me now, and not in a friendly manner.
"Excuse me," I said, "but I haven't cost anyone their jobs. We're just accepting voluntary departures at this time and not refilling them."
"Tell it to someone who might believe you," the first man snarled.
"Yeah," snapped another of the men. "We were called in and told we were voluntarily departing with a pretty lousy package. They let us know that if we didn't accept we'd be departing anyway and wouldn't get anything. Big fucking choice, bitch."
I ignored them. If they couldn't stand the heat let them get into a kitchen. Best place for them.
Then the emergency lighting went out. It was now pitch black. I turned on the flashlight option of my smartphone, found the intercom and pressed the button. No answer. Why didn't it surprise me?
I still had my phone. I rang the general line, figuring the guards would answer it. They did. They were most apologetic. The emergency generator had broken down. Apparently it hadn't been serviced regularly and no-one had noticed that it was faulty. We would just have to wait until the main power came on.
There was dead silence in the lift after I hung up. Then the complainer started up.
"Fucking Maintenance Department. They've let everything run down. I'm surprised that anything works in the building at all."
"Their manager laid off most of the staff," said a second voice. "Said they were wasting their time. Come to think of it, didn't you use to be the Maintenance Department manager?"
I knew damn well he wasn't referring to the other men. That had been my old job. I'd been told to make the place more efficient and streamlined, and I had. They couldn't blame me because a generator broke down.
Apparently they could.
"Stupid bitch, worrying about looking good and not caring if the job was actually getting done. How do you like being in the dark, sweetheart."
"Probably pretty standard for her," came a voice. "She never knows what she's doing anyway."
Let them carry on. I had a good job and they were on the way out. Screw the lot of them.
"Hey, guys, you know what Russian Roulette is?"
"Sure. A gun with one bullet. You take turns shooting until someone blows their brains out."
"That's the game. Ever hear of clothes roulette?"
Dead silence, then negative grunts