As Vicky ended her most recent call she noticed Joshua Jones, the Director of Sales coming down her aisle. He was at least six feet two inches tall with an amazing athletic build. He kept his hair tapered and low. He had a smile that would melt stone and make you want to do all kinds of kinky things. All the girls in the office just loved to stare at him as he’d walk past our cubicles to meetings. He was a smooth talker too. Vicky had heard he was single but left a trail of broken hearts everywhere. She’d met him one afternoon in the cafeteria and knew instantly that he was nothing but trouble and whenever she did run into him it always seemed as if he was flirting with her. However, Vicky couldn’t be exactly sure. She couldn’t be sure because it always seemed like an innocent compliment here or an accidental touch there. Mr. Jones did this with just about all the women in the department so maybe it was nothing. Today, Mr. Jones made a pit-stop at Vicky’s cubicle on his way into his meeting “How are you Ms. Martin?”. She was surprised that he would remember her name. Before Vicky could answer his question, out of nowhere came “Ms. Martin please come into my office” from her headset. That voice was Sandra Catchings, Vicky’s supervisor. She sat in a glass windowed office where she could see the entire floor. At the moment she was staring directly at Vicky. The tone in Sandra’s voice always made her very nervous and would make her start retracing her earlier conversations with customers. Vicky gathered her pen and paper as she spoke to Mr. Jones “I’m fine. Thanks for asking Mr. Jones. I apologize but Ms. Catchings has requested to see me”. Mr. Jones gave Vicky his mega watt smile, tipped his head to her, and continued to walk to his meeting.
As Vicky made her way into her supervisor’s office she took a deep breath. She never knew exactly what mood she’d find Sandy. Today it seemed Sandy wasn’t Dr. Jekyll but Mr. Hyde. “Good evening Sandy you wanted to see me?”. Sandy was a beautiful woman. You couldn’t help but be mesmerized by her beauty. At thirty-something she had an amazing figure. She had curves in all the right places. She wasn’t too tall but not too short either. Her hair, her makeup, and her nails were always on point. Not to mention, her clothes seemed to always be of some designer sort. But her most amazing feature was her eyes. They were an incredible shade of blue. Looking into Sandy’s eyes was like looking into a deep blue lagoon. Today those eyes were piercing blue and iced-cold. She’d been with CkR for more than a decade in customer service. That might be enough to make anyone have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality. For some reason, it just seemed as though Sandra didn’t like Vicky. Vicky could never quite put her finger on it but she was always cool towards her. “Yes, Vicky. I wanted to talk to you about your time off request for next week. I’m not sure how we can work that into our schedule. We are going to be short staffed and I’ll need you here.”. Vicky was baffled. When she made the request her name was the only name on the vacation request board. Vicky really needed this time to take her daughter Angel to get her immunization shots. The appointment had been scheduled for weeks. “Sandra, I made the request well within the two week’s notice period and I’m not sure if I can re-schedule it in time to meet the daycare’s deadline. It took a couple of months to get this appointment. I really need this time off”. It seemed people without children just didn’t understand the challenges of people who did have them. If your child wasn’t up to date on their immunizations then they couldn’t go to daycare. If they couldn’t go to daycare then the parents couldn’t go to work. This had the potential to be a big problem. Sandra looked at Vicky with an ice-cold stare “Re-schedule it. I can’t grant you the time off. Your problem is not my emergency. Oh and by the way, we don’t need you to stay tonight. You’ve exhausted your overtime for this month.”. Vicky stood there stunned “Now, I’m on my way to a meeting so, I’ll see you on Monday morning.”. Just like that Sandra had dismissed Vicky. As Vicky left Sandra’s office she was angry at her callousness and thoughtlessness. She never knew there was an overtime quota and had serious doubts that there was one. There didn’t seem to be one last month when Vicky had logged more overtime hours than she currently had for the month. Vicky couldn’t figure out why Sandra had it out for her. As she made her way back to her cubicle Vicky had no idea what she was going to do. She didn’t have any family or friends that could help her. As Vicky gathered her things for home her co-worker Janice put her phone on mute, “What did Sandy want and why are you leaving? I thought you were working overtime tonight”? With a sigh, Vicky signed off her phone. “Yeah, so did I. Apparently, I met my overtime quota for this month so I’m off for home”. “That’s odd I didn’t know we had a quota. Or, is Sandra being a dragon lady? Wait…I have a call coming through, I’ll call you later on tonight” Janice whispered. Vicky turned around,
