Good morning all. This morning is not as chilly as yesterday. In fact we are a whole fifteen degrees warmer. I suspect it is because we have rain moving in, but I’m not going to worry about the rain for now. I’m going to enjoy the sun while it lasts. Today, the sun actually feels more friendly than it did yesterday. No longer as jagged around the edges. It is a nice change from yesterday. In case anyone ever wonders why I end up commenting about the weather so much, it is mostly because I’ve noticed that I often forget about it in my writing or I just go for either sunny or rainy and I’m trying to pay attention more to some of the daily differences and I find this is an easy way to do it. I hope you don’t mind. But the weather report is done, so let’s jump into the morning writing prompt shall we? Excellent.
I’m not entirely certain where this story is going. It might be interesting to figure out. I reached the end of it and decided that someone was going to approach him with an interesting offer, but I didn’t have time to think about what that would be before the timer went off. I will add that to the bottom of the prompt before I save it in my files though, just in case I do come back to it.
Wednesday, December 15th: He could no longer keep pace.
He could no longer keep pace. Years, decades even of sixty, eighty hour work weeks were taking their toll. He was tired of having his phone on twenty four hours a day in case, just in case someone in a different time zone had an issue during their working hours. He couldn’t remember when he hadn’t jumped and automatically answered the ringing phone at the first sound to emerge from its speakers.
He couldn’t remember when he had a full night’s sleep.
And lately it had been worse. The company was reorganizing under a new team of COOs. To Andrew they seemed to be only the minions of the Efficiency Coordinator, Gary Talbot. He was terrifying. He looked as though he stepped out of a drycleaners box every morning and went back there to sleep every night. Andrew had his suspicions about Gary spending his lunch breaks there as well since he looked as freshly pressed after lunch as he did first thing in the morning.
It was Gary putting the fear of god into everyone. Or at least the fear of layoffs and redundancy ratings. Oddly Andrew wasn’t concerned about the layoffs. There were several rounds of streamlining throughout the years and slowly his department was downsized to simply him. His work was vital and there was no one else to do it. It was why everyone justified the long hours.
They compensated him of course. The pay was good. Andrew socked most of it away. He saved, he invested and he lived modestly. He found no need for a large home since he was never in the small apartment he rented now unless he was unconscious. He had a very nice mattress and a large at home work desk. He was pretty sure his kitchen was still as clean as when he moved in since he never used it. He woke up in the morning, dressing and running out of the door after his shower. Coffee and breakfast were picked up en route to the office and consumed while the computer warmed up and he scrolled through his morning e-mail.
Lunch was taken at one of the food trucks near his building and dinner was almost always out with clients. In the fifteen years he lived in the apartment, he never once used any item in his kitchen. He couldn’t see buying a house to have a bigger one. Vacations too were a bust as there was no time to take them. Even the mandated vacation days he ended up working through so the thought of spending money to go somewhere only to work there wasn’t all that appealing. He had no spare time for hobbies or extra activities. Andrew slept and worked.
When Gary called him in and reviewed his performance, all of the comments were praise worthy. He may have been older than many of his compatriots and even older than the new management team, but his efficiency and productivity outstripped them all.
Despite knowing he did his work and did it well, Andrew felt a twinge of unease with the praise. It felt like he was being set up for a fall. The hammer fell when Gary informed him that other departments were being streamlined and their tasks added to his own. Apparently he did well enough that he was trusted with even more work. At Gary’s words and bright smile, Andrew felt something inside him softly snap. It wasn’t a violent snap, he felt no anger or rage. It was just a small but definite snap. He always told himself he would work until he was done. He always knew he would know when enough was finally enough. With that small snap, he knew that his limit had been reached. He was done.
Ten til Midnight 