The Proviso

34: Pink Slip

Sebastian had completely exposed weaknesses Eilis didn't know she had. Thus, she was very careful not to be at her window over Cubicleville Wednesday morning, even though she wanted to watch him come in the door, watch how he talked to people.

The lunch room was underneath her mezzanine office suite. She had made it her business to take her breakfast of a bagel and fat-free cream cheese to work and eat there so she could watch him without being seen.

A little after eight, he walked in. The people he talked to yesterday greeted him by his first name, and he remembered every one of theirs. He very deliberately stopped and talked to different people today, even going so far as to enter the cubicle paths. He passed out of her sight when he did that.

He emerged a while later and she heard snatches of conversation as he drew closer.

"Hi. I'm Sebastian Taight. Who are you and what do you do?" Direct, which was characteristic of him, as was the lack of smile. No one seemed to take offense. Firm handshake, warm smile on the employee's part.

That person, whose name and job description were a mystery to Eilis, told Sebastian everything about himself except his social security number and his job description.

"Yes, but what do you do?" Sebastian asked after this recitation.

"Well, a whole bunch of stuff."

"Like what?"

"I run reports and stuff."

"What kind of reports?"

"Customer databases and other stuff."

"Do you like your job?"

The man's face dimmed, but only for a split second. If Eilis noticed it, Sebastian definitely would. "Sure. HRP's a great place to work."

Eilis felt a sharp pain behind her sternum. He was lying through his teeth. He stayed because he had bills to pay and a family to provide health insurance for.

"Glad to hear it," Sebastian said, shook the man's hand and called him by name.

He only stopped in two more cubicles with the same routine, the same reaction, the same lies. She had sworn, when she was twenty-two years old, that when she had employees, she would never treat her employees as badly as rank-and-file employees were treated everywhere in corporate America. It was why she'd gone into human resources in the first place.

Yet ... how conscientious had she been, how much had she endured, how much had she sacrificed and was still sacrificing on her employees' behalf to keep HRP from being one of those companies, only to find out ... it was?

Her employees didn't like HRP. Didn't like her personally. They'd rather be anywhere else. Salary and benefits didn't matter when one dreaded going to work every morning.

Then he got to Karen Cheng, the ad executive who had great marketing ideas, but did what Eilis asked and did it well.

Karen wasn't an inexperienced executive straight out of college; she was Eilis's age, with an impressive portfolio. She was short and rather roundish, like an apple. Her bad perm did nothing to improve her nondescript brownish hair. Her glasses did her no favors, but didn't do anything against her, because her face was pretty in an exotic way.

Sebastian ran through the same routine, but unlike the others, Karen stood to speak to him, shook his hand firmly and with complete detachment. "What do you do?" he asked her.

"I am supposedly in charge of marketing," she said coolly and Eilis could see the surprise in Sebastian's face. Eilis began to get a bad feeling.

"Supposedly?"