Whew, kicked that one out quick. If you’ve got suggestions, I haven’t heard them. I’m going to keep going this way unless someone offers up a substantial change in direction.
Thank goodness Berta isn’t commenting, she’s been lobbying against my pay cut ideas all week!
I was only two minutes early for the meeting, and all the seats in the
conference room were already occupied. I took a spot in the back of the room
near the coffee maker.
The stupid thing was empty.
At the from of the room stood a tall, wide man in a dated blue suit.
John Roberts is the
partner that doesn’t often show up at work, preferring to remain quietly behind
the scenes, soaking in the power that accompanies being an advertising
executive.
This power is also known as, “All the Profit.”
A couple of stragglers entered and Roberts called the meeting to order.
“I’d like to thank everyone for coming on such short notice at such an early
hour.
Let me get started by congratulating everyone on the Monroe account for an
utterly terrifc job.”
Ashby blushed and her flunkies all nodded appreciation for the applause that
ensued.
“Also, I would like to announce that our new internship program will begin
today. So if you see any new faces around the office, be sure to greet them
kindly and show them the ropes.
Ok, ok. Now on to the bad news.
As you know the economy has been a bit sluggish lately, and everyone has been
affected by it.
Since we haven’t received the number of accounts that we usually do around this
time of year, we’re running a little underfunded.
We’ve tried to keep things normal for the last month, but I’m afraid that time
has come to an end.”
Uh, oh, this was going to be bad.
“Rather than start layoffs, I want to assure everyone that we’re a team and
motivated to keep our team together. So everyone is going to bear the burden.
Starting with our next pay period, everyone will see a pay cut of 10% in their
paychecks. Hopefully this won’t last for more than a few ah.. ah.. a month, but
until we get the new influx of clients that we expect to see around this time
of year.”
Oh, great. It seemed that everyone else in the room was about as happy as I
was.
“We will understand if you can’t afford this loss in pay, and hope that you’ll
give us notice if you decide to seek employment elsewhere.
If you have any questions, please see me personally after the metting.
Thank you everyone.”
I was about to return to my desk and contemplate what this paycut would mean
to my salary, when I heard Roberts say, “Collins, I need to see you in my
office, if you please.”
Every eye was turned in my direction. Was I to be the first to get canned?
Oh, crap. Out of coffee.
