THE MOMENT
"Glad to have you on the team, Justice," Roper shook the young woman's hand with a smile. She looked about the same age as Roper's 17-year-old daughter with braided pink twintails and a crisp white suit. She was overdressed for the position, but it was easy to guess she was trying to make a good impression. Roper appreciated the enthusiasm; it meant she would be easy to direct.
"Thank you, I'm looking forward to it!" she nodded with a broad smile.
"Before we get started. There's three rules they don't tell you when you start working here: 1, Don't drink the coffee in the Break Room. 2, if someone asks for your help, do not help them. 3, Do not ask what Mr. Richardson is doing when he closes his door at 2pm. Got it?" he asked with the same air of friendliness he had moments ago. But Justice's smile disappeared, and she shook her head with mild confusion.
"What?" she asked. "Those are vague enough to sound made up. Why weren't they covered in my orientation?" she asked. Roper sighed. Another rule-follower that was only going to make his life harder. It felt like he'd been going through them rather quickly lately. Every new employee was given the same talk, and still felt the need to do things 'by the book'. They didn't last long at all.
"They're not that hard to follow," Roper shook his head. "Just stick to those three rules and you won't have any problems."
"That's the issue," Justice shook her heard. "They're too vague to follow, which, according to your logic, absolutely guarantees problems."
"What's vague about em!?" Roper asked. He wasn't normally one to raise his voice, but he was a 54-year-old man twice her size and age. Annoyance came easily in those circumstances.
"Don't drink the coffee in the break room," Justice nodded. "Is it just THE coffee from the coffee maker in the break room? What happens if I bring my own? Can I drink that in the break room? Or is the whole point not to drink any coffee in there at all? What about tea? Soda? I'll assume it's limited to the coffee from that particular coffee maker, so the question becomes, why not? Is it broken? Why haven't you replaced it?" she stared into his eyes, and paused a moment to catch her breath. But, she kept talking.
"Don't help if someone asks for help??? That's exactly the thing we're supposed to be doing; we're literally a helpline. Does that only apply to other employees, then? You're suggesting I shouldn't help out fellow employees? Again, why not? I don't even think I need to point out how odd the third rule is, Mr. Richardson," she grinned as she used his name. His eyes went wide.
"I know who you are," she nodded. "You tried to play it down by introducing yourself as 'Roper', and a fellow employee. But, we've gotten quite a few complaints about how you're running things here. And, I can see they were all surprisingly accurate."
"You're from Sharp Development??" Roper Richardson asked. She hadn't even been trying to hide it. She wore the white blazer and red tie he'd seen from his usual contact; but, he dismissed her entirely based on her youth. Sharp Development had contracted him to run a phone bank, and they paid him very well. Well enough that he found it easy to take it for granted.
"There's a fourth rule I hadn't told you yet! We play jokes on each other all the time!" It was the only idea he could scrape together, and Justice shook her head.
"Then, that's four company rules that have not been approved by Sharp Development, and four solid reasons to fire you," she smiled. "Don't worry about a thing, I'll take over for you here until we can get a proper replacement," she added as she patted him on the shoulder.
"If I were you, I'd start collecting your things. We'd like you to be gone by 2 p.m., Mr. Richardson. Got it?"