Day One
The phone buzzed, demanding attention. Suzy stared at it, dreading yet another confrontation. The day had just begun, but it felt as though she had already been working for hours.
After four rings, she managed to overcome her reluctance, and picked up the phone. "Hello, this is PolyCorp, Suzy speaking. How may I help you?" She put on a cheery tone, hoping that this call wouldn't end up like the last one.
"Hello, yes? This is Emma Drydon calling from SoftChange Incorporated. Please schedule me for an appointment with your boss." The voice was curt, inviting no dissent.
Suzy frowned, pressing one hand against her forehead. SoftChange was a very minor client, and she knew that her boss wouldn't enjoy being interrupted by another inconsequential meeting with them. How was she going to defuse this situation?
"Just a moment, I'll check his calendar." She put the lady on hold, and pulled up the schedule on her computer. Her boss was out on vacation, but there were several obvious free spots available the next day.
She didn't need to tell Emma that, however. She picked the phone back up.
"I'm sorry, Emma, but his calendar is full. I could possibly fit you in next week?" She crossed her fingers, doubting that putting this client off would end well.
"I'm very disappointed to hear that," the voice replied with irritation. "Well, then, since this is time critical, we'll simply take our business elsewhere. Your service has been rotten, and we consider your business to be run by third rate citizens. Consider our account closed." The phone disconnected abruptly.
Shaking her head, Suzy hung up the phone. It was the second tongue lashing she had gotten today. Hopefully she hadn't ruined things too badly. Still, it was only a very small account. It couldn't be that big a deal. Could it?
She turned to her computer, minimizing the schedule. There wasn't anything she could do about it now. Might as well get back to working on the charts her boss had requested yesterday.
She opened the spreadsheet, starting to dig into the numbers. She had always enjoyed working with numbers more than people. They acted rationally, always balanced. They never had hurt feelings, or were rude or dismissive.
She smiled, sinking deeper into the patterns, trying to figure out the simplest way to present them to her boss.
She collated some data, creating a line graph. Something seemed strange about the shape - if the numbers were right, her company was somehow missing revenue.
This wasn't adding up...maybe she needed to contact her boss. This might be serious enough to interrupt his vacation. She was about to reach for the phone again when the door to the office opened.
Dave stepped in, one of the regular stiffs who worked in Accounts Payable. She didn't know Dave very well, but being both the office manager
and
executive assistant, she could recognize almost anyone who worked at PolyCorp.
Dave was a short, stout fellow who had obviously eaten well and exercised little over the years, but he was normally slow and dependable. Today, he was dressed conservatively, a buttoned up cardigan covering his semi-formal attire. She smiled wanly at him, hoping for some kind of acknowledgement. "Good morning."
Normally, he would have made a muttered greeting, shuffling past her towards his cubicle. Instead, he sidled up and placed his arms on her desk. "Good morning," he mumbled softly, blinking his eyes behind his thick glasses like a lobster.
His voice was thick, like warm syrup. "I hate to bother you, but I think that the elevators are broken again."
Now that he was close, she noticed that he was wheezing. "I hope you can get someone in to fix them quickly, because an important client is supposed to be coming in tomorrow. Just thought you should know."
Without another word, he slipped off her desk and trundled on into the office, considering his duty fulfilled. "Thanks," Suzy said softly to his back as he disappeared.
Well, that was certainly curious. She didn't remember hearing about any kind of client coming in tomorrow. She shrugged, hoping that her boss had simply forgotten to keep her in the loop.
Had they been invited by the head of a different department? Either way, the client wouldn't be impressed with broken elevators.
This time, she reached for the phone with confidence, the number for the elevator repair company already springing to her fingertips. She dialed it in, sighing as she listened to the rings.
The elevators never seemed to work for more than a month before some minor issue caused them to malfunction. This time, it had only been a
week
.
"Yallow, this is Gus Grayson with Everlahsting Elevatah repaiyh soivoces. How can ah help yuh?"
Gus appeared to be one of those people who knew he was barely understandable under his thick accent, but didn't care. The rest of the world would have to adapt to
his
peculiarities, rather than the other way around.
Suzy began politely, hoping to get through this conversation quickly. If she was verbose enough, perhaps she could prevent this Gus fellow from asking too many questions in his indecipherable dialect.
"Hello, Gus, this is Suzy from PolyCorp speaking. Your company was in last week to repair an elevator problem we've been having. There appears to be another issue, which is preventing both elevators from working properly."
"Ah, yuh, PollyCorp. We fixed her up good! Should be no prahblums there, now!" He sounded cheery at this proclamation.
She decided to change tack. Maybe she just needed to be sterner with these people. "I'm sorry, but they're broken now. I need someone to come out immediately, or we'll start losing business."
"Yuh, I getcha. Elevatuhs work great!"
With that noncommittal statement, the phone disconnected. Suzy did a double take. Was that a yes or a no answer?
She slowly set the phone back down, wondering whether
anything
would go right today. She would have to do a follow up later to make sure that they were on the job, since right now she simply had too much work to get through before her boss returned.
She unlocked her machine, ready to look through her numbers again. There had to be an answer in there - maybe she was just missing something? Perhaps she had put the wrong formula in one of the cells. She started going back over her figures, trying to diagnose where the problem might be.
"Sizzlin' Suzy!" a voice loudly proclaimed, making her jump.
She had been so deep in concentration that she hadn't noticed Larry sneaking up behind her desk. Not even the slight motion on the convex mirror she had mounted at the side of her monitor had been enough to warn her in time. She locked her computer to hide her work, then turned her chair to face Larry.
She kept her face neutral, but inside exasperation was building. Larry, or 'Lewd' Larry as she thought of him, was clearly an ass. He styled himself as some kind of playboy, and was constantly trying to hit on women at the office. The guy didn't seem to know how to turn it off, to the point that he would probably try to make love to the conference room
desk
if it had boobs.
Larry was a careful predator, never quite crossing the boundary that would cause HR to take notice or give his victims enough proof to get him in trouble. Despite the fact that he was creating a hostile work environment, he hadn't yet been called on the carpet for it.
This situation wasn't helped by the fact that he was the head of operations, only a step or two below her boss, the CEO. This made for a toxic atmosphere, nobody willing to do anything that might get them fired unless they had solid proof of his malfeasance. It was a sad state of affairs, but with the economy the way it was, employees didn't want to rock the boat.
The way he was undressing her with his eyes made her uncomfortable, but there was nothing she could do. She pretended not to notice, but she felt slimy inside. "Yes, Larry? How can I help you?" She tried for a fake smile, being as polite as possible.
His lips curled into an unctuous grin, leaning over to try and get a peek down the front of her shirt. She wanted to punch the smile off his face, but determinedly sat still, refusing to rise to his bait.
"I hope you're having a great day!" He announced broadly, stroking his loud, orange tie with one hand while he spoke. "Did you get the memo?"
Memo? What memo? "No, I can't say that I have."
"You should really keep up with your email! We're having an important client come in tomorrow, and we need to get the status reports up to date before they arrive! I've taken the liberty of sending you the relevant materials."
He stated this as though he was doing her a huge favor. "I'll need them for the big meeting tomorrow, so no dilly-dallying! These reports take precedence over anything you're currently working on!" He snapped a suspender to illustrate his point while leering at her breasts.
Internally, she was sweating. She was already behind on the number crunching, and now she'd have to spend the rest of the day on his stupid reports to get them done on time!
She knew better than to make an inconsiderate reply, but was sorely tempted. "I will get right on it, thank you."
Turning back to her computer, she unlocked it, ignoring his presence. From past experience, it was the only way to make him go away without insulting him to his face.
"Great!" he said brightly. "I'm glad I could be of assistance!" It was hard to tell if he was being serious or facetious.
Suzy watched him depart in her mirror, relieved that his ego had been stroked enough to leave her alone. She was less happy when she saw him stop again down the hall at Nancy's cube.
Nancy had been her best friend and confidant at the office for years, and she didn't want her to be pushed to leave by Larry the asshole. Hopefully, she'd be able to catch up with Nancy at lunchtime and convince her to stay.
She doubted that she'd hold much sway over Nancy's decision if Larry really
was
trying to put the moves on her, but if Nancy left
she'd
probably have to start job hunting too.
It was all so unfair! It was hard to find a job that fit an intelligent financial graduate, and she had thought that she had finally found a position where she would be able to utilize her talents without having to work too much overtime.
Instead, she had ended up in a backbiting, political institution that was grinding her into sawdust. Things needed to change, she knew that, but she didn't know what to
