Cube Packed Up - 4/6

[starfirix]

I walked in, tugging at my collar. It was very warm that afternoon, and my starchy collar was making it worse. I was so preoccupied with ranting to myself about how unnecessary collars were that I didn't notice the neatness until I was right in the middle of it.
Everything was packed neatly into a box, not even stuffed. I opened it to find all my office stationery inside. Evidently, the people cleaning out the place had mistook my cube for the supply closet, but even then it did not make much sense. For instance, my cube wasn't filled with mops, or smell like Dettol.
I took out my laptop, peering at it to see if it had been damaged during the packing. I still had the laptop in my hands when I turned back to the box, and I nearly dropped it when I saw what was inside.
There was a small metallic creature inside. I would have called it a robot if it wasn't for the fact that it looked so human. Small metal arms clasped pointed metal knees to its chest, the head lolling on the side of the box. If it operated on electricity it must've been switched off.
I gingerly poked it, and it fluttered into life. It's eyes flapped open, revealing artificial irises of an unusual orange color. It raised it's head up at me, and then cowered, shuddering.
"Don't hurt me," it said. It's voice wasn't very pleasing; it counded like the voice the computer uses when you ask it to talk to you. But there was a difference here. Could it have been emotion?
I stepped back, hands on my hips. "What are you?" I asked. Not strictly professional, but I hadn't included interaction with small metal creatures in my CV.
"I'm sorry," it said."Don't hurt me."
"Sorry for what?" I asked. "What are you?"
The creature straightened. "I don't know."

[sleeves3]

When your world breaks down, you expect that morning to be disastrous; you expect to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you expect to burn your toast. That was not what happened to me on October 25th. No, it was the perfect morning. It was one of those Mondays where you are ready to go to work, you have made you peace with it.

I had the best weekend. A relaxing Saturday followed by a semi-busy Sunday, or rather a Sunday that keeps you from turning on the TV and watching those random Sunday movies that are on. Sunday night I read the paper with a cup of hot tea, and I thought, I can deal with this week, I can make it through. With that mindset I went to sleep and woke up with the same resolution. It was a smooth morning. I woke up five minutes before the alarm, and was able to lay in my bed and just contemplate the day. I got up, took a nice warm shower, picked out the outfit that I hadn't thought of before but I promised myself I would wear it again.

I got on the train, coming a split second after I arrived on the platform. I got my favorite seat, and was able to take the most refreshing nap before arriving at my stop. I walked into work with a huge smile on my face, and I should have realized something was wrong when no one greeted me the same way.

I came to my desk, at first I thought I had made the wrong turn. I thought I was in Maria's office. I looked around. No this was my office. The office was empty. All my pictures, my favorite stapler, my sticky notes, they were all in a big box. A big unfriendly brown conventional box. I thought it must be a joke, until I read the note on top of the box.

My perfect morning didn't matter any more. It was this moment that I would remember for the rest of the day. The moment I saw the big curly hand writing of my boss. My favorite job gone. I felt my world crashing. I felt the knot in the back of my throat. I sat down for a few minutes and pulled myself together. A couple deep breaths, a couple more. I composed myself, got the self-confidence that I had been so carefully putting together since my last break-up, and with all the resolve I had, I walked to my boss's office.

[captioner54]

I am always on time. Promptness is an obsession with me. Everyone knows if I say I’ll be there, I will be and I will be early, not just on time.

But this morning I don’t know what happened. My alarm didn’t go off and I overslept. Then Denton gave me a hard time about going to school. By the time I got in my car to get to the office I already was a wreck and felt that I had just gone through the whole day instead of just 90 minutes. Needless to say, with the traffic I was late. I didn’t even have time to stop and get my favorite latte that I usually do to reward myself for just making it to Friday.

So imagine my surprise as I walk to my desk and I see this big box on my desk. I’m like, who left this here – my desk is not a garbage dump. Now, I’m mad because I have to take this to the janitor and waste more time before I can really start my day.

However, as I get closer to the desk I see my books, pictures and knickknacks inside the box. That’s my stuff! Who put them there? Why? I look around and everyone is busy at their computer. I went to Sharon whose desk is not too far from mine. “Sharon, what gives? Why is my stuff in the box?” Sharon shrugs and says, “I have no idea.”

I was only 20 minutes late. The first time I’ve ever been late. To anything! And what, now they’re going to fire me! For being late! No exit interview, nothing! Oh, those good for nothing – all the work I’ve put in for them. The overtime. The stress I’ve gone through for this company. Not even a wham, bam, thank you, ma’am!

I am madder than a wet hen. Fine. That’s how they want to play it, then fine.

I grab my box, throw my purse inside of it and decide to leave. I’m getting my latte and will figure out what to do next. Those cowards will be sorry when they couldn’t look me in the face to tell me I’m being fired!

As I reach the revolving door, Greg comes running from behind and yells out to me. “Carol, where are you going?”

“Home,” I snapped.

“Why?” asked Greg.

“Why? You cowards can’t look me in the face and tell me I’m fired. You’re going to do it through the mail? Or is it on my email at home already, waiting for me?”

“Carol, it’s a surprise,” said Greg.

“Yeah, sure was. One day I’m late and you throw me out,” as I started to cry.

“Carol, we’re not firing you, we’re promoting you!” screamed Greg.

With that, my mouth dropped open and all I heard next was the crashing sound of my coffee mug and knickknacks as that box hit the floor.

[Cana]

Reason for Leaving

I have very few possessions on my desk. A hello kitty calendar. A good luck cat with a bouncing golden paw. A computer that I had to buy with my first paycheck.
"Why. Is my stuff. In a box." I demanded to no one.
I stalked into my cubicle, vastly annoyed. I may not have been the perfect employee. I may not have passed for even a good employee. However, I always clocked in within the three minute grace period, I never took more than 30 minutes for lunch, and I got all my work done only a day after deadline. When I first started this job, I had the patience of a saint. Granted, I did notice my tolerance dwindle over the year, but I never took it out on our clients. I had decent work ethic, and I even broke up with a boyfriend to keep myself from getting distracted by my work. They had no reason to fire me. And if they WERE going to fire me, why did they go through the trouble of packing my stuff for me?
Why fire me to begin with?!
This was really pissing me off!
"MR. LOMBARD!" I suddenly screamed from the middle of my cubicle.
"She snapped! Press the button, pressthebutton!" Mr. Lombard's voice whined, "This is what we've been waiting for!"
I spun around just in time to see a fourth wall slam to the ground, blocking my exit from the cubicle. I threw myself against the wall, slamming my fists. "WHAT IS THIS?!" I raged, clawing at the wall. I climbed onto my desk and launched myself at the fourth wall. It was a cubicle wall. It was supposed to give.
It didn't.
"Vitals?" a voice over the intercom asked.
"The chip is reading her blood pressure at 200/112, pulse at 150," another voice said, "Mr. Lombard, it's working. She's changing."
"Finally," Lombard's high pitched whine cut through the din of voices suddenly flooding my cubicle, "A candidate that survived the allergy."
"Let me out!" I yelled, "What are you doing to me?! Why..." That was when I noticed the fur.
Black velvet was snaking up my fingers, my perfect nails shooting from my nail bed with a sound like a car sliding against a wall. I screamed with a tri-toned voice that echoed in the walls. "Help!" I cried.
"So it's true," a voice said, "Stress in a controlled, monotonous environment can trigger the enzyme for change. We've done it. We've discovered the secret to lycanthrope. The theories are true. People can indeed develop an allergy to work, and the stress leads the human transformation into a monster."
"Call the others," Mr. Lombard said, and my nose, at the end of a long, canine snout, detected a sweet smell in the air. My mind grew foggy, and as the tranquilizers claimed me, I noticed my body changing back to normal. "It's time to put in our two weeks for this company and say that we're allergic to work."

[shestory]

"Am I fired?" I asked my boss. I didn't waste any time wondering what the heck.
"Uh, yeah. The box should be suffice to alert your little brain of that." Smitty said with his snotty little accent.
"What for? Being honest, a good worker, and loyal?" I asked, my brown eyes shooting daggers at his head.
"No, actually it is about being a corporate thief, liar, and a ghetto speaking hoodrat thing." Smitty said with a straight face.
"You no good bastard. I watch you do nothing all day and I don't say a word. I watch you take breaks with the wife of your boss. I watch you watch internet porn all day. You freakin' white supremacist. You make black jokes. You are womanizing English fart. I hate you. I hate you." I rant and raved. I took my box to the elevator and didn't look back.
I walked out to my new 2010 Chevy Malibu and I put my box in the trunk and I sat in the car. I cried then I got angry. I pounded my fist on the dashboard. How in the world would I pay for this car, my mortgage, my bills? Yeah, I was just a high paid secretary but the pay meant the world to me. No, I didn't like my racist boss anyway. No, I didn't appreciate his racist rants. No, I didn't like him screwing broads in his office and leaving the door cracked so I had to listen to the moans and grunts. Yeah, I was disgusted. Yeah, I will find some job somewhere. I am a college educated brickhouse of a woman. I was smart and sexy. I don't know what excuse he was saying about firing me but I figure race and sexism are the key. Time for a law suit. Who did he think he was anyway?
I was about to drive off when Smitty stepped in front of the car. He was grinning from ear to ear.
"Surprise! You aren't fired. It was all a joke." He laughed so hard, tears poured down his pasty face. He walked to my window and rubbed my tanned arm. He eyed my breasts and licked his lips. I turned red from anger. I rubbed my purse, where I had a pocket knife just in case.
"Not only are you not fired, but your black butt just got promoted. Yeah, Mr. Sandson wants you to go to the fourth floor to be a vice president. He, uh, wants you around to pretty up the place. You know to give it some color." Smitty said jealously. He laughed. "Yeah, I got you good. Real good."
I stepped out the car, slugged Smitty. Then I straightened my dress and went to see Mr. Sandson to see if all this was really necessary to tell me about a promotion. If not, I would go to HR to file discrimination. Who did he think he was playing with? A dumb twit?
*

[roro]

Wednesdays suck the big one.

I know what you're thinking. Wednesdays? Why Wednesdays? Isn't Monday supposed to be the worst day of the week.

Well, I tactfully disagree. On Monday, you wake up energized from two whole days off. You're ready to conquer the work week. By Wednesday though, the energy is gone, and it's just time for the week to be done. Unfortunately you still have Thursday and Friday to get through. It's just a crappy day.

That's why I wasn't surprised when I walked into work- on a Wednesday- and noticed automatically that something was amiss. Walking up to my desk, I noticed a cardboard box sitting on my desk. A quick rifle through the box reveals all of my personal belongs. “What the-”

“Hey!” My cubicle-neighbor, Jimmy, sticks his head up over the side of the wall. “Is all of your stuff packed up in a box?”

“Yeah,” I reply tipping my box at an angle so he could see. “Yours too?”

“Yup. I don't think we're the only ones. Look!”

Looking around the room I notice that the rest of my coworkers have found the same cardboard box on their desk. I could feel the tension and confusion building in the room, as the whispering grew louder and louder. I turned back. “What the heck is happening?”

Before he could reply, a voice across the room exclaimed, “Hey, everybody! Come look at this!”

It was Charles, standing in front of the boss's door. Almost immediately, there was a stampede to the other side of the room. All those years of track paid off, and I made it to the door first. Shoving Charles out of the way, I saw the unfriendly, yellow legal paper taped to the door, and recognized Mr. Hendrick's scrawly handwriting.

Good morning all!
Last night, I decided to sell the company to the Bierlein Group, and move to Monaco. You are all being replaced immediately. I've had all of your belongings packed for you, and expect you to leave the premises right away.
Happy Wednesday!

[shooterboss]

"Pressure," I thought. It was something I could never apprehend. With the deadline approaching, I couldn't concentrate on anything else. Behind on schedule, I had to finish programming the third component as well as parts of the second component I had lazily skipped yesterday. Application development wasn't the most exciting occupation, but it certainly offered its benefits.

"I need a new computer" was the last statement that came across my head before I turned the corner to my cubical. At first, it seemed as if I was in the wrong part of the building. Had it been daylight saving time, and I'm early? Was there an announcement that I overlooked?

My office was empty. The chair, lamp, computer, file cabinet, papers, and the stationary holder were all absent from their previous positions just like everything else in the offices. I hadn't seen anyone since I signed in solitarily at the front desk. It was strange enough that my "office buddy" hadn't shown up at the coffee table for his routine morning drink. In fact, no one was in their positions. Nothing was where it used to be. Even the lights were turned out.

There was only one object: a large cardboard box beneath the built-in table from my cubical with the top taped and stamped as if it were to be mailed. No notes were around, so I was downright clueless about the situation. I tore the tape from the box and opened it revealing all of my office supplies.

"Hey, you," a voice from the other side of the room said, "why are you still here?" I almost jumped. "They left hours ago."

"Who left?" I asked puzzled and turned around. The voice was from one of the janitors. I remember meeting him once after hours.

"Oh, gee. I don't know," he said sarcastically, "everyone seems to be missing, and the place is empty. Anyway, the company is shifting locations. You better take that box and move to this address." He handed me a sheet of paper with a written address.

"Thanks," I replied, "By the way, why are we moving?"

"We aren't."

"But I thought..."

The lights turned on immediately, and all the coworkers, janitors, and administrators came out from behind the furniture laughing.

"Happy April Fools Day!" the janitor said smiling.

[iamawriter]

SACKED

After spending a gorgeous spring weekend in my condo washing windows and curtains, rearranging furniture and painting baseboards, finding Monday morning so dismal and weather-challenged was a letdown. It was windy and rainy. But, I thought after all, it’s back to work so who really cares. I grabbed my lunch and bag, set the alarm and locked up the house. My umbrella went up immediately to cover me from my back door to the garage. I’d have to remember to recommend to our owner’s association that we really could use a canopy to cover the distance between the two buildings in bad weather, especially winter weather. The North East is famous for hard snows and heavy rains.
Fighting rush hour was nothing new and something to be gotten through Monday through Friday and it lasted most of the 11 miles I had to cover to get to my administrative assistant job for an accounting firm on the outskirts of the City. I began to run late. In my rush to span the distance from the parking lot to the elevator, I slipped catching the hem of my dress and shooting a hole through it and sent my umbrella flying away in an updraft. The morning was running so smoothly.
As I reached the third floor I was really looking forward to a cup of hot tea and a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam, my usual at work, then I could really begin to get my bearings, sit at my desk and work on some financial statements. Yeah…
As I entered my office what I found instead was an unnerving sight in the middle of my desk. There sat two cardboard boxes loaded with my personal belongings. I was horribly devastated as my blood ran cold and anxiety washed over me. My thoughts ran wildly from how I’d pay my mortgage and buy food and everything else a person needed to live a modest life. And in addition I wondered…how could I carry on after 14 years at this firm.
Those thoughts were momentarily cut off when in walked, Martha, the office manager dressed in her bright red two piece suit clashing horribly with the green walls of my cube. She asked me to follow her while she disregarded the disbelief written over my face.
Down the hall we went and entered a conference room holding the already seated administrative partner, Charlie. The story went that since the managing partner, my boss, was retiring there was no need for me anymore, no place to absorb me. I was too shocked to retort with the knowledge that the office manager had had a ton of influence in making that decision. I felt she’d wanted me out since the beginning. I was being ‘bought out’ and given a slip for unemployment that I could collect only after I went through that funding. Wow, what a break, my world fell in further making me feel like life as I knew it had ended.
I wobbled back to my office, with the manager in tow and took my things from the office out to my car and drove home as if in a nether world, not here and not there either. The whole sacking was a huge shock to me. It happened every April to the accountants but not support staff. This year was different and I felt a modicum of peace when I heard that an actual partner had been let go the same day. A PARTNER for god’s sake; that’s a lot bigger fuss than me losing my job as admin-assistant.
Next morning at home I realized I’d left behind jewelry and blank checks in the safe of one of the partners. I had to lower myself to call in and ask permission to come in to get them. I was so insulted when I got there and was commandeered from the front door to the safe and walked back out. I can’t imagine how they thought, me of all people after 14 years, would do something mean while in there, and just what mean thing would that be. Even I can’t give you an example of what mischief I could have wrought with 200 eyes on me.
After a week of wallowing in self-pity and looking through the newspapers for another job, I was picked up by another accounting firm in the very same area. The position was gotten for me by the consultant for my previous workplace. I assumed my ex-boss had arranged that for me. I was grateful to be earning again and stayed there for about two years.
Feeling burnt out after so many years in the same profession I turned 180 degrees and entered into the field of certified nursing. When school was done I worked at a nursing home and quickly found that even though the money was very good it was a treacherous job. I worked per-diem and was called every day…one morning I didn’t answer the phone and not the next day either. It was too physically demanding and the head nurse expected far, far too much. I applied to the visiting nurses and was accepted with my good grades and worked with them for two years.
All in all the message here is you may be booted out of a job but look at it as an adventure, an opportunity to reinvent yourself and find something you like just as well, if not more. Regard each closing door in your life as a new way to express yourself, meet new people and enrich your life. Change is constant as they say and such a necessary part of life. Don’t be afraid of it, embrace it, look around corners waiting to join with it and enjoy what it offers.

-Sandra Thibault

[lexaface]

It figured.
First, I trip over my dog who was stretched out like a breathing carpet on the floor. I shouted as many profane words as possible as I hobbled into the bathroom, i flicked on the light and realized that I had a headache. Wait, not JUST a headache. It was a somone-is-hitting-me-in-the-head-with-a-hammer-repeatedly-ache. I squeezed my eyes shut against the light and felt my way to the toilet. cracking my eyes open just a teeny bit, I sit down and go.
You can probably guess what happened next. Instead of toilet paper, my hand grips cardboard. I had only been up for five minutes and the day was already starting to get great.
Sighing, I forced my eyes open and got in the shower. After flushing the toilet, in case you were wondering.
So, when I got to work and found all my stuff thrown into a box, I was already braced for the worst of what could happen during the day. Instead of crying, or getting angry, I started laughing. Rather hysterically, in fact. I got a few glances from my fellow employees, but I couldn't help it. My morning had been ridiculously bad, so this just topped it off. Was I getting fired? I had no clue. Either sacked or promoted. But one would think that if it was a promotion, they would have the decency to stick my stuff in my new office. I collapsed into the computer chair and stared at the ceiling. What the hell was I going to do if I got fired? Go home and lay facedown on the floor and feel bad for myself. That's what I was going to do. So I gathered up my box and headed towards the manager's office. Atleast I could find out why I was getting fired, I decided.

[cazure14@gmail.com]

Today I began like any other day. I got out of bed, skipped breakfest and drove to work. To my surprise I got to my office and everything was packed up.
"What the heck is going on here?"
My secretary doesn't arrive for another hour. So I unpacked all of my stuff and began to work. I worked for three consecutive hours before my boss noticed that I was here.
He entered my office during lunch break, which I also skipped.
"I'd bet anything you are wondering why all of your things were packed into boxes. With no note also..."
Without taking my eyes off of my computor screen I said. "Yeah about that... I just wanted to tie up any loose ends with my job before I was officially fired..."
"And that is exactly the attitude that we need floating around in the higher ups... This was a test and you just passed... You start work tomorrow at 7:00 am sharp. Be upstairs in the office next to mine. You are being promoted and your pay will increase greatly."
I was astonished.