now and forever

32

You entered the meeting room you had reserved to see the majority of your staff there. Some were in casual clothes since you called this meeting on their day off. A lot of them were glaring at you, until they saw Dolores trailing behind you. Then their expressions ranged from surprised to vindictive. With HR's reputation for making boss' jobs harder, you kind of expected some of the smirks cast your way.

You made it to the head of the table, Dolores standing off to the side, ready to jump in if necessary, and you turned to your team. They all looked at you expectantly, and some of them had an impatient look in their eyes. Probably eager to go back home.

"Thank you all for coming to this meeting, especially on such short notice. Something has come to my attention, and I wish to fix it. As long as all of you are okay with it, of course. It IS something that concerns all of you." You started, and a few looked a little nervous at the ominous way you ended your introduction.

"I took a closer look at the human structure of Parts and Service, and I noticed some concerning things. The most prevalent being how most of you were hired for the opposite positions you applied for." Those that weren't too interested before, now looked quite invested. It was clear that none of them were expecting you to bring this up.

"I've been in contact with Dolores from HR," you gestured to said woman who waved at the group, "and we've agreed that the best approach is to hear what all of you have to say about it. Once I have a good idea of what you all want, then we can form a plan that will make everyone happy. Sound fair?" You looked around the room and were met with a sea of stunned faces. After a minute, Kevin raised his hand.

"Yes, Kevin? You wish to share something?" You opened the floor to him.

"Why are you doing this? I thought you only cared about the animatronics." He asked, making you widen your eyes in surprise. You looked around, and noticed others nodding their heads in agreement.

"Wait... did all of you think I was only trying to improve things for the animatronics?" You asked, and the nodding increased.

"Yeah, I mean, your whole first meeting with us was about how to treat them with respect and all..." Maisy said, giving you a mild look of accusation.

"Only because that was the biggest problem I noticed, but I guess I can see where you're all coming from." You took a deep breath, and thought about your next words carefully. You never intended to make your human workers feel like you cared less about them. You just wanted your animatronic friends to be treated with the respect they deserved.

"Look, I know my first impression on you guys wasn't exactly... all that great. But I promise you, I'm not here to make your jobs more miserable. When I look at the animatronics, I see people just like you and me. And my sense of justice wanted to do something about it. That's why I focused on that first and foremost. We are their only source of staying functional, so we should at least make sure they get some form of decency. I know some of you don't agree with me, but I hope you can at least see why I did what I did in the way I did it." You saw that while there was disagreement on some of their faces, they were at least considering your words.

"I'm sorry that I made you guys feel like I didn't care about the human aspect of Parts and Service. I had no idea just how bad things were until I took a closer look. I'm not going to be a perfect boss. I will make mistakes here and there, as is human nature. But I do want to try and make an effort to get as close to perfect as I can. I want to be there for all of you, and in turn, all I ask is that you work with me just a little." You said, extending a metaphorical olive branch. All of them looked at you with thoughtful expressions. Surprisingly, it was Kevin who finally spoke up.

"I guess we haven't exactly been fair to you either. We all saw this newbie come in with the big boss' favor, making Ms. Odwell pissy, therefore making our jobs more miserable than they already were. Then we come back from our forced break to find the newbie has taken the manager's position over everyone else. Add in the fact that you had this sense of arrogance about you well... I guess we judged you far too harshly. So, truce? If you're willing to try, then I guess we can do the same thing." Kevin said, showing a surprising amount of maturity. You honestly didn't expect that from him. You saw others not meeting your gaze, looking a little guilty at his words. You smiled, and nodded in agreement.