Page 66 of Rich and Bossy

“At what? Scaring our people?”

“What’s with you? We’re running a goddamn billion-dollar business we have to protect. You need to act like it.”

“Thank you for the reminder. Sometimes I forget.”

“No, I don’t want to hear your sarcasm. I’m the operating officer, remember? I’m in charge of operations.”

“That dude all but told everyone a bunch of them would get fired if they try to unionize.”

“Would you rather we let that little girl form a damn union? Be able to shut down the whole warehouse if we don’t bend to every petulant little tantrum they throw about three-ply toilet paper in the fucking bathroom? And even if she’s not capable of getting anything going, people start talking, they start getting ideas. If anything, she started the ball rolling. No, maybe they need a little fear, and then we can come in and make a couple minor changes, and everyone’s happy.”

Now I know what it feels like to be torn in half, the same way Hazel said. I can’t play both sides. That’s precisely how it feels. I’m getting ripped down the middle. Caught between CEO duties and a girl who I can’t get off my mind, even if she wants nothing to do with me now.

That should have made it easier, too. The way she flipped out and then gave up. It should make this simple. I should thank her for that.

How can I do it when I agree with her that changes need to be made? No, I think a union is a bad idea and there are better ways to solve this. At the same time, I wasn’t the one behind that meeting, but it still falls on me. I’ve always prided myselfon taking credit and blame in equal measure. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t voice my disagreement about this?

“It’s wrong. There are other ways to go about it. Maybe we’ve been pushing them too hard anyway. Maybe some of the new policies aren’t worth the extra performance.”

“What else do we have?” He leans back like he’s waiting for ideas. “The board and shareholders love it. Can’t stop raving, want it rolled out faster everywhere. Not to mention, we start caving to demands and it’s a never-ending cycle. The investors and board won’t go for it. They watch us like hawks, and they’re worse than Sensei Kreese. No mercy. Besides, I’m sure this put an end to it.”

“What makes you think that?”

He takes a long pull from his pint glass. “She only talked to, like, twenty people. Sure, it’s easy to get people to nod along during a bitch session. It’s a whole other thing when the stakes start getting real, and the pressure gets ratcheted up, which is what the meeting did. This let them know. We know what they’re thinking, and it’s a horrible idea.”

“How do we know how many people she talked to anyway?”

“Come on, man. Don’t be naïve.”

“Enlighten me on the nuances of how operations run.”

He leans in, like someone might be listening. This doesn’t look like I’m going to enjoy what he has to say.

“Of course the place has cameras and mics everywhere. Don’t be ridiculous. It’s for this exact reason, to measure warehouse morale. There’s an algorithm analyzing any sound the mics pick up, certain phrases and words. Then it spits the clips out to my IT guys, so they can quantify everything, the moods of employees. Starts to dip, we do something to ease it. Going good, we’re fine.” He leans back with a satisfied smile. “Makes my job easier.”

“Sounds a lot like spying on people. I mean, that’s exactly what it is.”

“We don’t have them in the bathrooms and shit, pervert. It’s not illegal. We’re allowed to have cameras and monitor everything in our own buildings within the law, for security reasons.”

“Jesus.” I shake my head.

“Look, it’s one thing to get a couple dozen people riled up in one location, but she would need to reach thousands of employees if there was any hope of this pipe dream of hers, and she just doesn’t have the resources.” He offers a lazy shrug. “I mean, she set up some social media stuff. My guys infiltrated it easily with some sock puppet accounts so they can watch it. She’s trying to collect email addresses, but that’s a dead end. It’s not like she has access to employee directories. If she gets a meaningful number of people to join any of her groups, we have accounts ready to push back on anything she posts. Ask questions that will get people thinking. Very subtle stuff that sows doubt and looks organic, like legit concerns. It’s dead in the water. Without help, which she doesn’t have, this will fall flat.”

“You sure about that?”

“I have connections at the company she uses for her newsletter. Sometimes the servers go down for maintenance. Sometimes all your emails end up in spam folders. These things happen, totally at random.” He wears a satisfied smile on his face. “Like I said, I have this under control.”

Goddamn. I know him and this isn’t who he is. He’s seriously spooked about this thing, and what could happen to us if we don’t end this.

All I feel is pain. I tried to tell Hazel she doesn’t have a damn chance in hell, and to do it my way, but she wouldn’t listen. And she got crushed, just like I knew she would.

“It could get a lot worse. Trust me.” He takes another sip of his beer. “I hope it doesn’t, but fuck. This isn’t gonna happen for her. It’s my job to make sure it doesn’t.”

My hands ball into fists, because I don’t want my best friend pitted against her. I just don’t.

Why do I have to like her so much? Why do I have to care?

I didn’t want to see her go through any of this.

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