WT Chapter 2

Chapter 2






The Thanksgiving incident passed by. It's now 3 weeks into December. But there were incidents between then also, and lots of getting rejected by pretty much everyone. It seems in this world people like to really push other people down to get ahead. 
That's what I'd realized; this country is becoming no good. No one treats each other decently anymore hardly. 

The building here is nice. The air conditioning is always at the perfect setting. People are nice here. There are also a lot of young people trying to be responsible. 

"Morning," I greet people as they come in. Then I through the endless sea of cubicles delivering mail. 

It's still early in the day before lunch.

My office cubicle and work station are clean and immaculate. I'm also caught up on work. 

At the office I'm pushing the mail cart around delivering mail to the teams in the building up at X3X Corporation. The mail cart duty is something I help out with often after my other tasks are completed, also involving the mail room. 

One of the wheel's on the cart could use some oil though to prevent a minor squeak. It kind of let's people know when I'm coming close. Some of them ask if I've got anything for them. 

"Jake, how's the mail doing?" a feminine voice asks. 

I turned. 

"Hey Allie. Good. I'm ahead of schedule by a half hour. When I finish I'll come see if you have anything else," I informed her.
She smiled, the kind of smile that can light up a room. "Good. I look forward to it. Thanks for your hard work."

"No problem." 

"Oh hey, come see me before lunch. We have some administrative stuff to go over," Alice told me.

"Sure thing boss. Thanks." 

She likes it when I call her boss. 

We have things pretty good. 

She gives me stuff to do. And I do it better and faster than anyone. I work accurately also and with precision. 

We have a team of about 10 people. We shift duties, with some of us doing mail room stuff, some do sorting, and package deliveries to different departments. Some of us do raw material sorting and sending to the production rooms. Because its a big company, you really do need this many people doing this kind of stuff, plus we also scan and identify documents through the system to others. 

I do the work normally. 

Again, I'm the fastest and hardest worker. That's how it always is. the team doesn't seem to mind too much and look up to me. 
I glanced at the clock. 

11:02 AM

My appointment to see Allie is at 11:15. 
I'll probably get to go to lunch right after with no time to work on anything else after that. 

This is a good chance to use the restroom, and make sure my hair is in place; in case of being branded a bad worker, I worry about stuff like this, but not out of vanity. I can relieve stress also by taking a leak and basically just make sure I have no weak spots showing. Once I'd lost a job interview offer just because someone didn't like my shoes in the past. 

I'm not trying to woo over Allie. But who am I kidding? I'm pretty sure a girl like that has at least several guy friends right now. But I don't want to look sloppy for any meetings.

After a quick break and washing my hands, I get a message from Steve, who sits next to me on our 'mail room' team. He's a bit of a rival, and he doesn't share Allie's title. 

So why is he the one notifying me? 

"Hi Jake. Actually Allie wants you to meet her in room A21 for the meeting, not the usual place," he said. 

"A21...which one is that again?" I wondered.

But Steve hung up already. 

"A21 is Human Resources," Shaya, who also sits next to me said. 

"Thanks Shaya," I told her.

"Don't thank me. If you are going to HR, it can't be good," she said seriously.

Steve has already gone back to working; I can see him a few rows up ahead in the cubicle sea. And again he's already flirting with some neighbor girl. 

"Got any advice for me, Shaya?" I whispered.

"I can't...I'm sorry. I have to keep working. Don't get noticed, it always leads to trouble. And don't let on that you have talked to me. Good luck Jake," she told me. She looks flustered and like she's avoiding me, which is weird.

And it's too quiet in the team area. I don't think I've ever seen it this quiet, ever. 

Something isn't right. Normally they is some noise. I feel something ominous happening. 

"Right..." I sighed.

I begin the long walk to room A21. 

As I get to the meeting and go in the room there's a big table there with chairs. It's not a real conference room but they've added some cheap chairs and a fold up table. 

Someone is sitting with Allie. 

"Hi, you must be Jake," the guy in the suit offers his hand to shake and is super positive and a nice smile. 

"Hi." 

We shook hands. 

"I'm Dill, the new HR Manager. Nice to meet you. Well let's get down to business," he said.

"OK...I'm not sure why we're meeting or what its about," I told them.

"Don't worry, it will be explained to you," Allie told me smoothly. 

"OK...also nice to meet you Dill."

I extended a hand for a shake but he ignored it. So I sat down. 

"Just a sec, let me open up your file Jake," Dill said. 

He opens up a nice manila folder with my name on it. Then gives me an odd look. 

But my eyes aren't good enough to see what's in it. Plus, he's mostly pointed the edge of the folder up so only he and Allie can see it. 

"Oh that's pretty nice. Oh I like that," Dill said going down the rows in the file. 

He's the aura of positivity himself. But then I realized its more of the ‘image’ of it, rather than any genuine character. Not long after that while trying to look self important, he stopped and shut the folder. 

"Well, Jake...I wanted to personally thank you for all your hard work. Thank you so much," he told me.

"Thanks. It's nice to have you say that."

"Well, Jake...unfortunately I'm going to have to let you go," Dill said.

"What? But I haven't done anything wrong."

"You're always late Jake," Allie said.

"Wait, you have me mixed up with someone else. I'm never late."

"Not late for the morning. Late coming back from lunch," Allie corrected.

"I'm not ever late coming back from lunch. I think you got me mixed up with someone else." 

"Well regardless Jake...we're letting you go. So if you can give us your badge right now we won't have to have security escort you out. We really don't want to make a scene throwing you out," Dill said. 

"That's OK, I can escort myself out," I handed them my badge while saying.  
Then I start to walk towards the door.  As I'm doing so I pass by my work area.  I was going to say goodbye to Steve and Mac who sit by me but as I pass by they are laughing and pointing at me. 

What the hell is this? I kept walking through the lobby.  

As I do I pass a young man sitting in the waiting area.  "Hey there. My name's Lyle, how are you?" he stands up beaming with a huge smile and shakes my hand.  "..." I wasn't feeling good so I didn't respond right away. 

"So is it time for my interview yet?" he asked.  He looks fresh out of high school and has too much gel in his hair and one of those 'I never learned how to comb my hair' millennial haircuts.  Oh I see...because I'm dressed up in business work attire he thought I was the boss. He probably also got that idea partly because a lot of people here dress casual. 

"I have an interview here 5 minutes ago. Oh my sister Allie works here too. She's going to try to get me on her team," he said a bit too loudly. 

He's laughing. Jeez...tell me this isn't happening. That is so wrong. I left the building, leaving him confused.  What the heck is wrong with society. 

This is the second job I lost this year for no reason other than that people can dick around with others and get away with it. Not only was I sacked, but I was sacked with the highest production rate on my team.