THE NEW LIFE, THE NEW ME - an Apple Loving Individual Thriller

Chapter 5 - Laid Off Indefinitely

Chapter 5 – Laid Off Indefinitely

Monday, April 30, 2046
7:50 AM
Walker's CPA and Partners, Inc.

Now usually I arrive to work ten minutes earlier, before I clock in. This was also that day. I do so to get a $5 bonus added to my daily pay. However, today wasn't going to be one of those days. I arrived before clocking in at eight in the AM. No sooner that I arrived, my boss came up to all of us and huddled us up.

"Rally up, comrades!" said Jeremy North, my supervisor.

Jeremy was a CPA for ten years now, having been a retired US Army colonel. The man was born in 1996, and just turned fifty. As a matter of fact, today was the comrade's golden jubilee.

"Before I get you started on today's shift, you will receive an email from HR before you clock out. We're making a change effective tonight after the day ends. The email will be given to you shortly before you clock out tonight at 7." Jeremy said. "Please don't be alarmed, but this was going to happen someday."

Okay, stop right there and recap all he said. For one, I didn't like the sound of that. Secondly, what the hell is he talking about? Anyways, I sucked it up and went about my day, to earn my pay, even if today seemingly was my last day.

"The fuck is he talking about?" Nancy looked at me in worry.

"Hell nah, I dunno. But I've honestly got a bad feeling about this." I said, trying to give her and myself the benefit of doubt.

Trying not to think about what Jeremy said earlier, I went about my day, doing my job. Taking in calls, greeting and catering customers, and making that money. It was then when we were told around 6:45 PM, to open our email webpage. Then it came to us. All seventeen working in our department were quite scared. We then opened the email, which was under the subject: "New Workplace Amendments – April 30, 2046"!

The message we read proved to be really unpleasant. This was what the assholes, known as HR, gave us, and this was the last thing we needed to see. Ugh, it's like what Millennials invented, back in the early days of IM and social media, "WTF?" and "FML!", in the late-2000s decade, the second half of the one prior to the 2010s!

Y'all can bet your next-door neighbor's grandmother that we were pissed off indeed! And this goes without any dramatization and further explanation. It basically and no ifs and buts about it informed us bad news. To be honest, we all were shocked having to read this. And please don't think I'm making this up. This wasn't really a good day for me, as it may have been for you. I began to cry, and Nancy along with a few others followed suit. It was already bad enough we lost janitorial and custodial staff to robots, about twenty years ago.

Long story short, this is what the message read:

ATTN:

To all wonderful team members of the company,

Greetings, with lots of great reluctances and a heavy heart, we in HR regret to inform you that due to recent budget cuts and various financial restraints, we at Walker's CPA and LLC, Inc. have made the final decision to upgrade the workplace, and we regret to inform you that these changes will take place effective immediately, when everyone ends the day.

First of all, this was really not our decision to make; however last week, the Federal Labor Standards Act (FSLA) passed news laws that were scheduled to go into place today.

The following new changes include but are not limited to this:

1) All junior level accountants, bookkeepers, floor supervisors, financial advisors, and shift managers will be displaced in favor of bookkeeping and financial advising apps online. Also, anyone who already has been with a company for over 12 months, will receive a severance pay of $5,000 for each year onwards.

2) Anyone in the mid-level salary range, such as IT and database administrators will still retain their positions, albeit with shorter workweeks. Which are now by law, only 30 hours per week. Overtime cannot exceed any more than 8 extra hours per week. No exceptions.

3) HR also will face overtime cutbacks, with salary cap restrictions becoming tougher; unfortunately, our workhours have reduced to 30 as well. As mentioned before, this was not our decision to make.

We have been through a great journey together, if you need any assistance in moving to a new job, feel free to see me in my office as you clock out. I bid you all the best of luck in the future.

Charleston J. Walker
CEO and Founder

Now, this truly was a sad thing. Me and Nancy met here four years ago, when I started working here. She was here two years before me. I got this job just in my last year at UT in Austin, before I graduated with an MBA. However, I never finished grad school. I was only nine credit hours away. Oh, well! At least, I had a college education. So did Nancy, she didn't graduate and only earn ninety-six credit hours, but she had professional certifications.

"Kimberly?" Nancy said in concern. "You alright, baby?"

"Yes!" I couldn't help it.

I started shedding tears. I knew one day, my job would become automated, but not this soon. I thought I'd have another ten years here. Unfortunately, technology had sped up it's rate of change so significantly, to a point that to be honest, it's been already a year now since I've even driven a car. Since the accident in which Sarah died, I bought myself an SAE Level 5 autonomous car, which didn't even have a steering-wheel. Only thing it had was Google™ Maps, and vehicle navigation powered by Intel™ cloud servers and Nvidia™ Drive Labs.

Not trying to boast here, but this was a joint effort venture with those three aforementioned companies. Dad, being in this industry for almost thirty years now, since he and Mom met back in 2019, over the whole women-trafficking affair then, also contributed to AI and machine learning, by donating a huge sum back in 2026. Kevin Cross, the Hero of Miami, also Mom's cousin's Sandra's husband. also did the same back in 2033.

Well, as much as I love my parents and their family, I must say they set my generation up for failure. Me and Nancy once again decided to pick up Eliza and go to Neil's Bahr tonight for beer. Apparently, Eliza knew that she also had three more weeks to go, before they showed her the hatch.