Second day, year 1
My night was spent wondering how to approach Alison about the questions I had. At the same time, I had Polly’s voice urging me to slow down until I had all the answers. I did not want to complicate anything, but I also wanted to know exactly how she felt about me. It was only day two, and I was already quickly eating my bowl of cereal so I could get to work just for another chance to see her. The ride into work on the trolley allowed me a chance to daydream while I stared blankly out the window at the darkened streets.
I arrived at work and started at the pile in my inbox. It was actually fun to get in earlier than everyone and be able to stay completely focused on the job. By the time the first person walked through my hallway office, I had already done two sets of updates. I looked up and smiled, not wanting to ruin the flow.
“You saw we have an all-staff meeting today, right?”
I had already returned to laying out a newsletter.
“We are not going to get anything done today.” The person opened the door to the stairs. “Good thing you got in early enough to get something done.”
I nodded, and the door closed.
I did not know there was a special meeting today, and I was wondering why I didn’t know. Was I not invited? Did I miss a memo? While I was still thinking, my boss appeared in the archway.
“Did you see the thing about the meeting today?” He tapped his newspaper on the top of my monitor.
“The all-staff meeting?” I said like I was completely informed.
“Yeah, that’s it. Make sure you’re not late, or you’ll get a crappy seat. See you there.” He turned and disappeared.
I still had no idea when it started and where it was taking place. My plan was to keep working and get the rest of the details from those that passed through. There was no way that it would start before everyone got in, so I knew I had plenty of time. After another half hour, my sister’s friend came through.
“Hey,” I called. “When and where is that meeting?”
She stopped and put her bag down. “Ten, in the lunchroom.” She looked at the pile in my inbox. “You’re getting through pretty quick.”
“A bunch were mostly edits, but now I’m doing a more complicated newsletter,” I admitted. “This one will take awhile.” I held up the thick stack so she could see which association and exec requested it.
Moving closer to me, she leaned in and said quietly, “To avoid doing an infinite round of revisions, I would recommend you sit down with that one after you lay it out. She tends to give you way too much text even though she’s done this for years.” She stood up and patted me on the back. “I’m so glad you have to deal with that now.” She smiled as she grabbed her bag.
“What’s this meeting about anyway?” I asked since she would give me a balanced and truthful perspective.
“From what I heard, they’re bringing in a speaker.” She shrugged. “That’s about all I know.”
“Is that something that happens a lot?”
“Sometimes they let us hear speakers in case we want to book them for our groups. Other times it’s a topic they think we need to hear. You know, to get us motivated and focused. That happens once or twice a year usually.” She opened the door to the stairs. “Time will tell,” she added before heading up.
Alison flew by me and opened the door. “Morning, Derrick,” was all she said before proceeding noisily to her floor.
Everything about her looked messy, unprofessional, and I wondered if everything was okay. I started to stand so I could follow, but I decided to call instead. After waiting two minutes, I then picked up the phone and dialed her extension.
“You okay?” I asked when she answered.
“I’m running a little behind schedule today,” she admitted. “Is there something you need?”
“I wanted to give you a heads-up about the all-staff meeting at ten. Did you know about that?”
“Are you joking?” I could tell she was losing her cool.
“No joke. Ten, in the lunchroom.”
“I’m supposed to work on three newsletters today, by myself. I was planning to see if you could help move them to the top of the pile. Those two I got rid of yesterday had been sitting on them for months.”
“If you can get some of that done before the meeting, we’ll work on them when the meeting’s over.” I wanted to help since the situation was definitely not going to get better the longer it took.
“How long is this meeting supposed to last?”
“I’m not sure about that, but make sure you stop by here so we can get good seats together.”
There was silence for a few moments. “Sure, I’ll see you soon.”
I hung up the phone and felt so terribly alone. Work is not supposed to be a place where you develop deep and meaningful relationships, is it? Can you really get to the point when you call your fellow associates friends? I thought last night with Alison got us to the point of friends. I also realize my sister was cautioning me to be realistic. At least, I think that’s what she meant.
Getting back to my layout work was the best thing to pass the time. The job called for an eight-page newsletter. However, when I was done, there were ten solid pages of text—ten pages with no clip art or anything to break up the words. Either it would have to be twelve pages with room to add some nice touches, or a whole lot would need to be cut to make it eight. The advice to talk to this exec about the job was well-timed.
It was getting close to the meeting, so I printed out the job, wrote some notes on it about the layout options, and decided to head upstairs to deliver it. The exec was in the same area as Alison, which I thought was a bonus. As I approached the exec, I saw she was talking on the phone. She looked in my direction, and I flashed the job. I pointed out my notes and handed the stack over, giving a quick smile and wave as I turned.
Alison was sitting at her desk, sorting piles of paper.
“I had to drop off a job,” I announced, hoping she would look up. When there was no response, I sat in a chair that was next to her desk. “It’s almost time for that meeting,” I added.
She stared at me over the top of her glasses. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
I sat back and gave her the once-over. “You look more pulled together now than when you arrived.”
Pushing her glasses up, she stood over me. “I told you to tell me something I didn’t know.” Grabbing me by the arm, she pulled me out of the chair. “This meeting is supposed to last all day.”
“I didn’t know that for sure,” I said, now towering over her.
“We will need to stay late to work on those newsletters. Are you okay with that?” She removed her glasses, pocketed them, and pulled her hair back.
“That works for me, if you’re okay with being seen with me late again. People might talk.” I bounced slowly, smiling.
“How about we push the envelope further and go out to dinner after?” She gave me a pouty face when I stopped bouncing.
“I’ll have to call my sister and let her know.” I could tell Alison was disappointed. “I’m trying to help her out with the kids and stuff, you know.”
She shrugged and headed toward the meeting.
“I can’t wait to meet this sister of yours. I’m sure we’d hit it off right away. Do what you have to. The offer still stands. Let’s go find out what is so important that they have to call the whole company together for almost a whole day.” She looked over her shoulder, watching me catch up.
When we got closer to the lunchroom, I saw the sign about the meeting. In my rush to get to my desk, I must have missed it. Come to think about it, was it even there when I got in? The more I thought about it, I was pretty certain it wasn’t there when I passed through. How unorganized are things around here that there’s only a few hours’ notice for an all-day meeting? As we crossed into the lunchroom with roughly five minutes to spare, we had our pick of seats.
The lunchroom was almost as wide as the row home I lived in and about as deep; a room nearly square, with a tiny kitchen behind connected by an archway on the left and right that facilitated traffic in and out. An old soda machine took up a good portion of the kitchen. Both rooms had wood paneling, which gave them a homely look.
Six tables, formed into three columns of two abutted tables, allowed for nearly fifty people to sit uncomfortably crammed on wooden chairs with reddish-orange padded seats. There were some additional flip charts in the front for today’s meeting. Music was softly playing from a large boom box on a shelf on the lunchroom’s back wall.
Alison walked to the front left, motioned for me to slide into the second seat against the wall, and then sat down on the end. Everything was a tight fit with my long legs, so I tried to sit up as much as possible. The chairs were most likely going to be comfortable for about half an hour at most.
She leaned over to me and whispered, “Didn’t you bring paper and something to write with?”
I did not see her grab anything from her desk as she left, but somehow there was a padded portfolio lying open in front of her. A notepad with lined paper and two pens, one black, one blue, sat there, mocking me.
“Should I go get something?” I panicked while still trying to talk quietly.
She shook her head and pointed. A wall of people arrived and began filling in the seats along the walls, leaving the middle open. I was trapped.
“If you need something, I’ll give it to you. Don’t worry,” she said, snapping my attention back to her.
“So, what do you think we’re going to be doing all day?” I wondered aloud.
The guy to my right smiled and then said, “Probably lots of breakout sessions. You know, small groups and the like.” He worked in the mail room with my boss and had been working here for a few years. I think most of the mail-room staff had been stable with no turnover.
“Oh, I thought we were just listening to a speaker.” Great, now I had to have some meaningful input on my second day of work. “Alison, did you hear that? We’re doing small groups.”
She smiled and nodded to the guy on my right. “I look forward to it.”
“It beats standing all day and running the machines, although I won’t be able to listen to sports radio either.” He looked at me. “You watch any sports?”
“Sports? Not really. How about you?” I was trying to be friendly, but the truth is even if I wanted to add something, I had zero knowledge in that category.
“I watch pretty much anything.”
I nodded and smiled, wondering how long I had to wait until I could turn back to Alison without appearing rude.
I leaned closer to her. “Are you serious? You like that small- group stuff.”
“Sure, why not? You don’t always get a chance to make people listen to your ideas. It’ll be great for you to let them know you are more than some kid that only knows computers.” She winked, tearing off a few sheets of paper and sliding them over to me. “I’m going to give you the choice of pen.”
“Blue,” I blurted out quickly.
Holding the pen up, she made me pull it from her grasp.
“Did I pick wrong?”
“You picked,” she said, huffing.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She was messing with my head again. “Was I supposed to tell you it didn’t matter and that you should decide?”
She gave the littlest hint of a smile and then relaxed in her chair. “You are catching on quick.”
“Are you going to give me a treat every time I perform correctly?”
She looked at me and blushed.
“I didn’t mean…” I started to say and then realized she was holding her hand over her mouth so she didn’t laugh out loud. “I’m going to stop talking to you even though I have a few truly meaningful questions to ask.”
She began humming and turning her head away from me. I scanned the room and saw there were no empty chairs. Mr. Manor and Ms. Cedar entered the room and walked to the front, asking everyone to squeeze in a little. By the time they made it to the front, the room was quiet except for the radio, which Mr. Manor turned off.
“Thanks to all of you for making it on such short notice,” WC began.
“We really wanted you all to hear today’s speaker, and his schedule finally had an opening, so here we are,” Ms. Cedar added, opening her arms wide. “With no further ado, let me introduce Walt Foxly.” She began clapping, and we all turned to see him enter cautiously.
There are times when you see someone for the first time and you think they look like someone else you know. In this case, the guy looked like my dead grandfather. Walt was basically bald, with thick glasses that magnified his eyes. He wore a black turtleneck and baggy blue jeans. I could tell that a few of the people had already mentally written him off because of his very unprofessional attire. For me, the similarity made me feel comfortable, waiting to hear some sage wisdom from beyond the grave.
A few more people politely clapped as he made his way slowly to the front. WC put his arm around Walt and then shook his hand.
“Welcome to Cedar Manor, Walt.”
“Thank you, Mr. Manor, and thank you too, Ms. Cedar.” Walt reached out and shook her hand. “It has been an honor and privilege being asked to come here and talk to your company about growing your business.”
Looking around again, I could see that the topic was not expected. I had never heard of the guy, but I’m sure he must have something valuable to add. Growing one’s business was surely an important topic. My only concern was where we were going to put all the new employees.