“A meeting at 12 with the shipping department, and another at three o’clock with your lawyer,” she replied as she flicked through her calendar.
“Cancel the three o’clock till tomorrow. I’m not in the mood today." I felt sick.
“Okay, I’ll do it now Sir,” she replied as she headed out of the office to run an errand or something.
“Grab me a coffee and a couple of pills will ya? Be a good girl,” I shouted as I closed my door.
Kendall returned with my coffee and pills. I looked out of the office and watched the staff in the call center section. Who would put their foot in it today I wondered? Maybe, Jefferson? I had heard he always voiced his opinions, he had been here for around eight months and seemed a likely candidate. He had been absent a few times and had not given any good reasons. Hmm, he didn’t look the sickly type to have sick days, he looked quite fit, hell he cycled to work so he should be fit. Maybe there were other reasons, like looking for another job, or another bullshit excuse.
I cast my gaze to another desk, Archie maybe, he had been here for a few years but was getting a bit old and made mistakes, he did have a family, but that wouldn’t be my problem. He needed to lift his fucking game.
“It’s nearly 12, Sir,” Kendall said as she popped her head around the
door. “The meeting is due to start.”
“Anything I need before we go in?” I asked as I approached her desk.
“No, not really, shipments are up, but we did have one customer complaint about a missed collection,” Kendall said.
“Okay, noted. I’ll deal with that,” I said. “You ready?”
“Coming now Sir. Right behind you,” she replied in a mess of papers and fumbling.
We entered the meeting room and found the whole shipping department present. Their eyes were fixed on me, yet I sensed their thoughts were somewhere else. I went around the table one by one and listened to their statistics, I then informed them of a new customer who was coming on board who would be looking for very large consignments of sea freight. A slight groan rose from the far end of the table, but I ignored it.
“One final thing, I heard there was a customer complaint about a missed collection, who was this for?” I asked the room.
Hayley raised her hand to provide the information. “It was Smythson, Sir,” she said nervously.
I found Hayley cute. She was worth keeping, she was good to look at, a 30-year-old, single mother, her ex-prick of a boyfriend was a real douche.
“Hayley, was the complaint about you?” I asked her.
“No, Sir,” she replied as she bowed her head and glanced at everyone as they looked at her.
“Shit, I made the mistake. I would leave right now if I had another job,” Archie muttered to Charlie.
“Archie, you have something of interest for everyone to hear?” I asked in a commanding voice.
“Er, not really,” Archie replied nervously. Fucking little prick.
“I beg to differ. What did you just whisper,” I said. “Don’t make me out to be a liar.”
“I just said that it was my mistake,” he replied as he pushed his glasses up on his nose.
“And the second part? What was the second part?” I returned the question to him. “You mentioned a job, am I not correct?” I had him now.
The color drained from Archie’s face. “Yes sir,” he mumbled.
“And what did you say about a job exactly?” I asked as I started to have some fun at Archie’s expense.
“I just said, if I had another job I would leave today,” Archie answered as he bowed his head.
“I can help you with that. Grab your stuff and go now,” I yelled across the table. “Kendall, call security and have Archie escorted off the premises, and get his severance pay sorted.” I leaned back toward Kendall who looked shocked.
“Anyone else wishing to go? Do it now. It’s not a problem with me. Your money will be on the table if you decide to go. Jefferson, you may have been thinking about it for all your absent days, you want to go?” I said as I looked at each of them individually.
“I’m okay here, Sir. It’s just that I have a personal problem with my boyfriend,” he replied.