The Conference Room
Gerald felt like a naked man standing there, the eyes of his subordinates glaring at him, silently judging and cursing him for the message he bared. The employees listened with perked ears and wounded postures in their shoulders, hunched over in their seats, absorbing every passing word with a mix of confusion and uncertainty. The news of their coming unemployment struck like a devastating tidal wave through the conference room, all those murmurs and moans passing through in hushed tones.
He understood their anger on a conceptual level, what it meant for their livelihoods and for the burden it placed on their loved ones. However, Gerald lacked the life experience to truly get a handle on what was coming their way. He had cruised on easy street since the day of his birth, a silver spoon digging into the abundant dish of his everyday existence. Though he claimed to be a man who worked his way up the corporate ladder, the truth of the matter was he had got there because the blood that ran through his veins remained the same as that of the man who founded that failing company. And that is why when he said he understood their pain, the mocking hisses with which some of them replied stung deeply into his rigid spine.
He answered their questions, trying to maintain a well-rehearsed tone of optimism and concern. No, since they were all on contract, they would not be receiving any exit packages. No, their insurance coverages would not continue for a temporary time past their termination. Every point of clarification he offered only plunged him deeper into the throes of their mounting resentments. It felt like infinity to him, being in there with them, but all told, the meeting lasted only five minutes. When it was over, he retreated back to his corner office, with its spacious view of the corporate park outside, all that turf, all those fountains decorating the feet of those glittering steel boxes. And though he was not one to drink while on the job, Gerald surmised that perhaps he had earned the right to that premium bottle of gin behind the company mini bar. And treated himself he did. He thought about how much he was glad the ordeal was over, for good he thought. No more dealing with the underlings. Within a few weeks, the algorithms would come, the machine learning systems that would replace that entire floor of needy people.