Teela chanced a glance at Janice, one of the cashiers who was a good friend. Janice had been there for as long as Teela had. They’d started around the same time. She blinked a couple of times and Janice blinked back. When The Troll turned to face the other side of the room she scrunched up her nose and slowly shook her head in her best silent what a dick communication. Teela shook hers back before she dropped her eyes back to her hands, which were clasped tightly in her lap.
The Troll went on, unfazed. Of course, he was unfazed. Even if he’d seen their dirty looks, or noticed the stunned faces of all the others, he gave zero fucks. He didn’t need to. He was rich and rich people didn’t give a shit about the people they clobbered on their way up and their drive to stay at the top.
“Positive changes that are going to make this place as great as it can be. We’ll be taking the next week to go over your new duties with each and every single one of you. Changes including new policies, the new name of the company, and all the other details. Unfortunately, with change, comes the need to reorganize and make room for people who are going to take this company in the direction it needs to go. I’m sorry, but some of you are going to receive termination notices. Of course, we will provide a generous severance package. You’ll each be called into this room throughout the day and notified of your new position, duties, or given your severance package. We will of course provide excellent references as well.” The Troll clapped his hands together and spun around like he hadn’t just told the entire room that people were going to lose their jobs. “Okay. That’s all. You can disperse. Your new manager and general manager will be here shortly as well as the people required to do the re-training and the HR reps to get the new paperwork taken care of. Please be prepared.”
It felt good to be dismissed. The staff slowly filed out of the room, shell-shocked by what had just happened.
“They could have at least told us,” Sharon grumbled. She was turning sixty-five in a few months and it was clear from the horrified look on her face that she was extremely worried about being axed.
As usual, Alexander grumbled to Billy, one of the guys who drove their pick-up and delivery truck, about being hungover. It was like he hadn’t heard a word that The Troll just said. Clearly, he didn’t give a shit that he had to be destined for the axe and not a single other employer out there was going to be okay with the store’s manager getting tanked at one in the afternoon on the job.
“Girl! What the hell is going on here?” Janice grabbed Teela’s arm and steered her back to her desk.
It was in the back, since Teela was one of those unseen puppet masters that made the world go round by pulling strings and fixing tears. In other words, she was one of those jack of all trades admin people that made the world go round and fixed everyone’s problems. From break room disasters, employee disputes, assembling and helping with benefit packages and paperwork, to inventory fuck ups, accounting blow ups, filing, and all other business bullshit, she was the gal people turned to in order to keep their little world on its axis. She was always first in line to defuse angry customers and angry clients and god knew they flooded in on a regular basis.
She covered for Alexander on a near daily basis. If she had a nickel for every time she saved his ass, her bestie, who just happened to work at a fertility clinic, never would have had the bright idea to sneak out the supplies, meaning stolen sperm and other implements to make an actual child.
That’s right. The baby growing inside of her was pretty much stolen. Amy cried every single day for a month straight about what they’d done. About what she’d done. Teela was astounded when her bestie showed up on her doorstep in the middle of a storm and announced that since she would have to wait years to be able to afford the procedure, she’d taken matters into her own hands. Teela should have told her no, but uh… well… maybe her moral compass was seriously in the trash, because she’d let Amy do it and they’d waited. And waited. And waited. Until they didn’t have to wait anymore.
The whole weight of being pregnant, single, and possibly getting axed from her job at a time she needed to have a job to support herself and her unborn baby, crashed down on her all at once.