He closed his office door quietly, then let out a loud sigh. He leaned against the door, his forehead resting against the solid wood. He would have never guessed that turning this operation from a one-person show to a huge bureaucracy would end up quite like this. Instead of working on his projects, alone, and feeling overwhelmed, he spent his days in meetings, at the occasional big production, and still felt overwhelmed. It felt so performative these days, and like he didn’t really know what was going on in his organization anymore.
He let out another sigh, then ambled over to his desk. He might have some time to sketch out a few new designs before his next meeting, and he really needed the break. Just as he sat at his large desk, the office door flew open.
“I’m so sorry, sir, but I couldn’t stop her!” Gary, his assistant, said, glaring at the woman who had burst through the door and wiping a bit of sweat from his brow.
“Mr. G, sir, I really need to talk to you,” the woman said at the same time, and glared right back at Gary.
He leaned back in his chair, appraising the situation. He needed a break, but she seemed determined. He smiled wearily.
“It’s fine, Gary, I have some time.”
His assistant blinked, then nodded, leaving the office and closing the door behind him.
The woman before him suddenly looked a little lost.
“Why don’t you sit down, and tell me why you are here, Meryl.”
She seemed surprised he knew her name, but recovered quickly. She sat in a comfortable chair across from his desk (he always made sure his furniture was comfortable).
“Thank you. As you know, I’m Meryl, and I work in the North American office. We’ve been having some…” she glanced around, as if looking for the right word, “difficulties, for a while, with some of the section heads.”
He frowned. “Have you brought this up to your supervisors, or anyone at the Northern Hemisphere Division?”
“I have!” she said in exasperation. “And no one will listen to us.”
“Us?”
“Yes,” she continued. “I’m not the only one with concerns in the department. Several of us do, and none of us are being taken seriously.”
“What, exactly, is the problem?” Mr. G asked, frowning slightly.
“Well, some of the senior designers have, well, gone a little nuts. They thought it would be funny to try and install a joke politician in Country A-76. And then the guy started getting traction, and they thought, ‘hey, this is working, let’s run with it,’ even though many of us raised concerns about the ramifications of such a choice. We were told to shut up and just stay on our assigned tasks.”
“That doesn’t seem right,” he muttered, more to himself than to her.
“But it’s happening,” she replied. “I think-” she hesitated, then barreled on, “I think that some of the human behavior is rubbing off on them. We’ve rarely had problems like this before, but… a lot of us are getting reassigned. They’ve tried to delegate our work to match the human gender dichotomy.”
“But there is no such thing as gender,” Mr. G replied, confused. “It’s something the humans made up. It has no real bearing, it was just a method of language and organization.”
“I know!” she cried. “But they are still doing it, and we can’t stop them. If we speak up, we get reassigned or bullied until we stop.”
“Have you gone to HR?”
She let out a despairing sigh. “Of course I’ve gone to HR. They just filed a report and then buried it. Do you think I would be busting into your office if I had any other choice? Things are getting bad, sir. The other departments keep trying to work with our section heads, trying to make them see reason, but they won’t stop their little experiment. Even the European department couldn’t talk sense into them, and they made the same mistake years ago! We are doing what we can, guiding the people of A-76 into fighting back, but it just isn’t working. They are giving up.
“I’m sorry to say it, sir,” she finished, “but there are some bad apples in your organization, and they might bring the whole thing down.”
Mr. G sat silently for a few minutes, considering. It had been a while since he had checked on the North American office, and even then, he had noticed some odd things. Maybe he was getting too wrapped up in meetings about running his offices, instead of what they were actually working on. He knew something had been going on. His latest meeting with the Western Hemisphere Division had been a little tense.
Maybe it was time to take a more active hand in his organization again. Maybe he could go undercover in each department, see what was really going on. He could pull that off, easy. Then he could decide what to do, and more importantly, how to do it.
“This was all so much easier when it was just me,” he sighed, scrubbing his face with his hands.
Meryl gave him a sad smile. “I know you were trying to give all your projects more attention than you could by yourself, sir. You were just trying to help.”
“Thank you for that, Meryl, but I should be held accountable for these new developments. I got so wrapped up in running Heaven, Inc. that I forgot why I started it in the first place.”
He rose from his desk, and she followed suit.
“I will follow up with you, once I have had some time to investigate on my own. Thank you so much for bringing these pressing issues to my attention.”
“Thank you, Mr. G.” She seemed like she wanted to say something else, but wasn’t sure if she should.
“What is it?”
She sighed. “I wouldn’t take too long, if I were you. Things can change very quickly, even in a bureaucracy.”
And with those words lingering in the air, she left his office.
He sat back down, and laid his head on his arms. How had he let things spiral so out of control? Well, he thought, as he sent a message for Gary to come into his office, he had wanted a project, hadn’t he? A thorough sweep of his whole organization would keep him busy for a while, and maybe renew his waning sense of purpose.
“Gary, we’ve got a big project. Sit down, this will take a while.”
© The Lightning Tower, 2020