The New Job Offer

Christos, but people who knew him well, called him Chris. I called him Chris and sometimes, I called him Iceman. Why? Because Chris was a Top Gun fan. The movie from 1986 and he adored the character played by Val Kilmer.

   Chris had been working for a long time for this major telecom player in the country. A good decade. He was good at what he did. I would say to him: Chris, you are the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be. Yes, Chris was also a WWE/WWF fan. And…a huge Bret Hart fan. So, using this famous quote from the Hitman himself, Chris felt great when used to describe him.

   My friend, and good colleague Chris, was in the tech support department. He has been working for several years in the same role and he was great at it. The knowledge he had acquired was phenomenal. I would sit right beside Chris. When I was stuck on a case with a client or a colleague, I would seek help from the Iceman. The normal procedure would be to contact over a chat support our help desk team. When help desk was busy, I would just shout out my question to Chris. Many times, he has helped me and fixed the issue or at least find out the root cause.

   Chris was great in his role within our company. Lately, he had been thinking perhaps to look for a new challenge. Expand his knowledge. Not necessarily to move up the ladder. He told me he enjoyed what he did and wanted to stay in a support role. I could compare him to a teacher, an educator.

   It was mid-March. A posting came out about a position to become help desk. A tier two support within the tech support department. Chris was the best for this position. He already was answering and helping a lot of his team members. Myself, I was getting my answers from my complex cases from him.

   The knowledge was there. The proper attitude was there. Chris also embraced the culture and values of the company. Everyone, that I know, loved him.

   The day finally comes about submitted his application. He did. A week later he goes through an interview. It had two parts. The interview part and, the second part was an exam to test his technical knowledge. When he left the room after two hours, he was very confident that he will get hired. He was told by management that they will render a decision in about ten days.

   On a beautiful Friday spring day, it was April 1^st. I was working that day and sitting beside Chris as usually. He was my best friend at work and the best colleague someone can have. We were talking. It was a quiet Friday. We were not getting too many calls, or chats, from clients. Chris was letting me know that if he does not get this position, he would be extremely surprised, and not only that, he would want to know who could beat him for this position.

   After lunch, our manager decides to call up Chris to come over at his desk. First, I thought it was a one-on-one meeting. We have those, once a month, and can last thirty minutes. What is odd, I did not see a smile on Chris’s face. Usually during those meetings between a team member and manager, it is always very friendly. We have a culture of not being too serious but we take our work seriously. After five minutes only, Chris return to his desk.

   ‘’What happened Chris? You did not get the role of help desk?’’

   ‘’No…worst. They claim I accessed an unauthorized tool that is meant only for help desk. I honestly don’t recall doing that. I maybe could have accessed it with the login of Phil. Phil was showing me on how to use the tool and how to run a trace call to analyze it. I think he logged in to my computer with his log in credentials. ‘’

   ‘’What? Really? What did Jason want?’’

   ‘’He wants me to go see Claude, our union rep, and to meet up with him in the conference room.’’

   At this point, Chris was not smiling at all. His eyes were wide open. It felt like he was going to kill someone. Feeling like someone who was waiting in a long line up to be served with ordinary food while hungry…

   Myself, I could not do anything for Chris. I told him to stay positive and there must be an explanation to this incident.

   After the big meeting between a few managers and Chris, along with Claude…I see Iceman coming straight to his desk. Extremely angered. Fuming! He felt like he was betrayed.

  ‘’Raj, my journey at T-Cell is over!’’

   ‘’What are you talking about? I know you are very sincere, honest and hard working when it comes to your job.’’

   ‘’I was one hour in the conference room defending myself while Claude, a real clown, did not say a damn word to defend me. He is our union rep!’’

   ‘’Chris, what happened exactly???’’

   ‘’I went through one hour of torture. I felt like a culprit. Guess what? I did get the job! It was a prank they pulled off. Why? I forgot that we are April 1^st, it is Friday, and they wanted to announce me the good news today. With a surprise…’’

   ‘’Chris! Shit! This is great! Don’t be mad. It was a friendly prank.’’

   ‘’Fuck it! This went too far. I am grabbing my stuff and leaving.’’

   As Chris was leaving, headed to his car, in the parking lot, I was looking from the window on the second floor, that Jason was running after Chris and screaming out loud that it was only an April Fool’s prank.

   Chris was in his car. Sitting, engine on, when Jason and a few others from management were behind. When Jason got to the car, Chris was smoking a cigar, I guess, to celebrate his new role that he was offered and at the same time, for pranking back the people from management.

   ‘’Smile Jason! I filmed this from my car’s dashboard. You should have seen your face, Mike’s, Camille, Emerson and Jen.’’

   When Chris came back upstairs to tell me the story in detail, I was in awe. I did not believe Chris could be a prankster. I believe, we will not see another April Fool’s prank of this magnitude soon from the management of this big company.