January, year 3
After leaving college and entering the work world, you lose the excitement you had as a kid when you hear it is going to snow. When the prediction is for flurries, that’s okay. They look nice then go away. Even a coating turns the world back into that place of wonder you remember as a child. What I’ve been noticing more recently is ice storms. A thin layer of slick stuff on everything makes walking dangerous and going to work a chore. Waking up to the news telling me schools are closed for the day harkens me back to when that mattered. Now, it simply means there will be more seats on the trolley.
The driver skidded past me, trying to stop, throwing out sand to help with the braking. “Morning,” I said as I put my token in the slot and smiled at the operator. I picked a single seat near the back doors and settled in to stare out the window. On days like this, the heat was often too hot, slowly roasting my backside, even making keys in my pocket warm to the touch. Shifting often allowed me to get through the whole ride without having to move to another seat.
Now that I was in my current position, I had a set of keys and codes so I could open up the building. I needed to come in early so I could take care of the servers before anyone was in using them to do work. Believe it or not, I’ve found being alone to do my job is better since most people are very chatty when they first arrive. Machines, when they are working correctly, for the most part, are quiet. Green is good, orange not so good, and red is definitely no good. Standing in a dark room, watching blinking green lights first thing in the morning always brings a smile to my face.
“What are you doing here?” I heard someone ask. Turning, I saw HR walking in my direction from the kitchen.
“I get here early to check on the servers,” I said, pointing around the room.
“Did you forget to check to see if the office was open?” She stood there with her arms crossed, obviously disappointed in me.
“Check?” I asked, moving closer. “What does that mean?”
“We have a line you can call. I just changed the message.”
“Just?” I asked.
She nodded.
“That wouldn’t have helped me. I left my house”—I checked my phone’s time—“almost an hour ago.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well, you can go home if you want.”
“I’ve got a lot of work to do, so maybe after that.” I shrugged. “If that’s okay.”
“Actually, why don’t you come to my office first? I’ve got something to show you.”
I followed her and sat down in a chair around the little table. “What’s up?”
She got a bunch of papers from her desk and spread them on the table before sitting down next to me. “We’re moving.”
The first thought in my head was how long was my commute on public transportation going to increase. There were so many places in the city that were easy to get to in a car but were a true nightmare the way I traveled.
“Where?” I asked nervously.
“At first, there were a couple of options until we saw the bottom line. There is a dedication to staying close to this area, and I’m happy to tell you that it’s within two blocks.” She smiled, and I felt a little better.
“Has there been any thought given to spending the money on fixing this place up?”
“Yes. Management is pursuing aggressive goals to expand our services, and we will quickly outgrow this place when we get more clients. So staying here is not an option.”
“Oh, that’s good, I guess.” I really stayed away from how they acquired new business. “I can see the floor plans?” I asked, turning the papers for a better look.
“That’s the new server room,” she said, excitedly pointing out a very small block of space.
I looked at the key and determined it was five feet by ten. “Is the scale on this accurate?”
“Sure, why?”
“The room isn’t wide enough for the rack we have our computers on now. If we turned it the other way, then there wouldn’t be space to sit down in a chair. Also, there isn’t room to store extra stuff.” I looked at her and could tell she understood but couldn’t do anything at the moment. “Am I supposed to sit in there all day?”
“It was going to be your office, but I can see that isn’t really an option.”
“Good thing we had a chance to look at it, right? I could imagine it would get pretty tight in there if someone stopped by for assistance.” I looked at the rest of the plan and did a quick count on how many it could hold. “Room for about sixty?”
“About that.”
“So, three more teams of three or nine clients.”
“Well, that would be correct in our current model.”
I rubbed my chin. “Okay, can you elaborate?”
“We are considering taking the administrative position from each of the teams and creating a new group. They would do all the data work, allowing the rest of the team to service the client better.” Her excitement was contagious. “How does that sound?”
“Who’s going to manage them?” I asked.
“We are also planning some bigger moves that I’m not sure if I should share with you at this time.” She made a pouty face.
“That’s fair,” I said, starting to stand.
“Wait,” she said, pulling me back into my seat. “I can trust you.”
I hate when people tell me stuff they aren’t supposed to; however, I wasn’t going anywhere. She started telling about how there was going to be a whole new layer of management with a series of people getting the title of vice president. The mail room was ultimately going to be reduced to one person. A lot of people weren’t going to make the move since they had to pay for these changes somehow. My head was swimming with all the business decisions that in no way accounted for the personal devastation that would occur.
I sat back and stared at the ceiling. “What is the timeframe for all this?”
“We should be in the new space by June, with most of the other things I mentioned done before we move and a few after. I’ll have to tell them about your server-room-size issue as soon as possible, or you will be crammed in there with no going back.”
“That’s pretty fast. So I guess this will be announced soon,” I said, watching her clean up all the papers.
“Within the next few weeks, we’ll have an all-staff meeting to let everyone know about the move. Packing up an entire company is going to take months.”
“Especially when we will be heading into our spring- meeting season, collecting yearly dues, doing membership directory updates, and closing out last year’s accounting for the auditors.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “Wow, there’s never a good time to do this, is there?” I stood up.
She shook her head. “Can we count on you to rally the troops and keep everyone excited?”
“Me?” I put my hand on the doorknob, ready to leave.
“I’ve been told a lot of people trust what you say,” she said with a sinister smile.
“If what I have to say is completely truthful, yes. I don’t do propaganda.”
She looked hurt. “I would never put you in that position.” She crossed her heart, letting me know that the information gained today would come at a steep price sometime in the future.
I went back to check the servers one more time before heading upstairs to my desk. On my way up, I saw that some others made it in before the message was changed. “Did you hear that the office was closed?”
“I had to come in because there’s a conference call today, and I needed the phone number,” an exec said. I thought it odd that she didn’t get that information and call in from home since they’ve been announcing the storm for days. Working from home is something we were moving toward this year, so hopefully next winter it won’t be an issue.
Plopping down into my chair, I turned on my computer and waited to log in. At this point, I was the only one who was receiving e-mail from the outside. I printed out all the messages and had to figure out which team to deliver them to by the content. Often it was a generic question that could apply to any of the associations. In that case, a little research was necessary. I would look at the e-mail address of the sender and would search for more information about what kind of business they ran. If that didn’t help, I would give them to Ms. Cedar.
It hit me that would not be an option any more. Who was going to do that piece of her job? A trip back to HR was going to happen after I was done playing e-postman. When I got to Alison’s area, I had hoped to see her, but I’m sure she was smart enough to check the message before coming into work. Jimmy, however, was working like the sun was shining brightly outside. He had earphones on and was oblivious to my sneaking past him.
“Jimmy!” I called to him from Alison’s seat.
He lifted his head up and uncovered an ear. After leaning to see if anyone was near the door, he went back to working. I was surprised he didn’t turn around and see me. Now, I had a choice on how to handle the situation. Should I hide and keep calling his name? Maybe tap him on the back and scare him half to death? Alison’s voice rang in my head that I should be nicer to him. Next time, I promise.
I moved around a corner, took out my phone, and called the toll-free number an association had set up to ring at his desk. He answered flawlessly, greeting me professionally, even mentioning that he represented the group and was glad to help me with anything I needed. “I’m thinking about becoming a member?” I started off easy.
He walked me through the different types of membership, asking qualifying questions to determine which one was best for my fictitious company. Trying to intentionally be vague prolonged the call, but he forced me into a corner by a process of elimination. When I started talking about payment plans, I could tell he didn’t want to lose me; however, payment in full was the only option. I expressed my strong dislike in not being able to pay installments weekly, hoping to push him over the edge.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot approve that. However, the executive director could call you back to discuss what can be done. If you give me a number where she can reach you, I’ll make sure you get a call back soon.” Teasing Jimmy was no fun when he was doing everything right.
“Jimmy, it’s me,” I admitted, walking around the corner and sitting at Alison’s desk.
He turned, still holding the phone to his ear. “Can you please hold?” he said into the phone.
I held up my phone and pointed to it. “That was me on the phone.”
He looked at the phone and slowly understood. Hanging it up, he laughed. “Weekly payments? Where do you come up with this stuff?” He stood and put his hand out to me. “You got me buddy. You really did.”
Shaking his hand, I had a better appreciation of what he had to put up with and was amazed at how calmly he handled the call. “Do you get calls like that?”
He rolled his eyes. “You can’t imagine,” he said, sighing.
“No, really. You did an excellent job.”
“Well, thanks,” he said, sitting again. “What brings you up to these parts?”
“Did you know they closed the office?”
He smiled and pointed at me. “Come on now, not twice in a row.”
“Really, HR told me when I got in. Give her a call.”
He picked up the phone and confirmed what I told him. “They’re going to have to change the message earlier,” he concluded.
“I agree. Did Nell or Alison get in touch with you?”
“Alison had plans today, but Nell probably went back to bed already.”
“Plans?” I asked.
“Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.” He turned around like doing that would make me disappear.
“Jimmy, is she doing something special for me?”
He shook his head. “Don’t ask me any more questions, please.” He pointed to the door, hoping I would walk away.
“We’re just two guys talking here. No big deal, right?” I said calmly.
He turned around and nodded.
“This stays between us, promise.”
“I wanted to say something, but Nell said it wasn’t our business to get in the middle.” He shrugged. “Sorry.”
“You’re going to have to give me more to go on.” I wanted to know but was getting a feeling it was not going to make me happy.
“Promise me you’ll keep me and Nell out of it, okay?” Was he genuinely concerned for his job?
“No problem, done.” I leaned forward. “I’ve got your back.”
He took a deep breath and then stared at me for a moment. “While you were on vacation, she was on the phone a lot. With her mother. And then with some guy.” He winced. “She’s seeing someone else.”
“Who is he?” I could tell there was more Jimmy wanted to tell me.
“I don’t know, but I know why.”
“Why she’s seeing him?”
He nodded.
“Go on.”
“She was on the phone with her mom talking over and over again how you went to visit Wren and she should dump you. Alison told her that wasn’t going to happen.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Her mom must have kept pushing her, and Alison agreed to see him.”
“Have you seen them together?”
“No, but he picked her up at least once.”
“Thanks, Jimmy. You’re a true friend.” I stood up, needing to get out of there and clear my head.
“What are you going to do?” He stood and blocked my way, holding out his hand. “Derrick, seriously, I’m not letting you out of here until I know.”
“What do you think I’m going to do?” I asked, pushing past him. “I would never hurt her, if that’s what you’re asking.” Hurting myself, on the other hand, was a distinct possibility.