Evaluation Day

As I was reading this one, I realized that I had written about someone who both broke an unwritten rule and followed an unwritten rule and that his fate was determined by.choice of which rule he followed.

James Patterson, a middle manager of the Orion's Sword consulting firm, the most sought after consulting firm in the country, got in his little Prius on a wet morning, turned on the radio and started listening to Marketplace, turned on the headlamps and wipers and made his way to the office.

He pulled out of the driveway trying to concentrate on just the driving and the comfort of his routine in hopes of drowning out the noise in his head and the sea anchor that suddenly decided to take up residence in his stomach.

"It'll be okay," he said to himself, taking a sip of coffee he purchased from the mini Mart. "All companies have evaluations. It's normal. There's always a metric to be met.

He was right about this, of course but... he was still more worried than usual on his way to the office but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

He had gotten a promotion in the company about one year ago and he felt that after working for the company for about 10 years or so, that the title of Middle Manager was a step up in the company. 

He was sure that his mother was proud of his accomplishment of making it this far; however,she warned him continually about the world. 

She told him that he would be evaluated constantly by his work in school,.workplace, his neighborhood, church and even strangers on the street.  

"Just keep your head down and work, and you'll get noticed", she had said.  

This sort of "don't rock the boat" attitude always made him uncomfortable,scared and angry all at the same time.

 Why Couldn't he stand out in a crowd or get noticed? Others did and they moved up the ladder a hell of lot quicker than him. Yet no sooner than the thoughts had entered his mind, he would feel the a sudden vice grip on his head and an eerie voice would tell him that every one in the world as watching him and wanted him to fail.

 Evaluation Day usually brought all those memories to bubble to the surface just like a soda that has been shaken and jostled in a hot truck. So most of the time,James kept his head down and worked and barely interacted with many of his peers.  

James kept it together as best he could as he arrived in the office parking garage and crossed the breezeway to the elevator. 

He barely noticed the security guard who greeted him with a smile as he exited the elevator on the fifth floor and quickly open his office door and turn on the desktop to check the numbers.

The screen came to life as usual requesting the login information, passwords, etc. He sat his coffee cup from the mini Mart down while he accessed his teams records. He wasn't sure what he was looking for in there, but he looked just the same.

Ben Harmon's numbers came first and and at a glance, they looked good. He had gotten 10 new accounts in the past month and brought in over $50.000 to the company over the course of 3 months.   That looked good to him and as a businessman, who knew that the bottom line was always going to play a factor.

Sean Wallace was next and his numbers were equally impressive and the company had given him an award last month.

April Masters had good numbers too and she been the organizer of the company's fall festival as well. She was definitely an asset to the company.

So far, as he went through all the files, he couldn't find a single instance of any issue that would cause any problem for the company, yet he was still worried. 

Ken Thompson, his predecessor had gone into his office one day on evaluation day last year and it was said that he had never returned. James had asked around the office but no one knew what had happened to him. In fact, some of them didn't even seem to know him. He thought this was odd at the time. Perhaps, Ken left early while James was on a break or something and the people who did not know Ken were probably new hires who wouldn't have remembered him anyway. That was to most reasonable explanation, anyway.

He remembered looking for Ken on LinkedIn and Facebook and other social media platforms but, Ken just seemed to have dropped off the grid.

James tried to banish these terrifying musings out of his mind and got up from his chair and walked towards his office door. He paused for a moment, trying to decide what to do and then he turned the knob and pushed. As he opened the door he heard the sound of another door being opened and shut that sounded like a stairwell door. Curious, James moved towards the sound and noted as he passed the main row of cubicles that it was strangely empty. 

He walked down the hallway and for what seemed to be about 10 minutes and turned to the right, heading for the stairwell itself but found himself back in the same hallway leading to his office. He felt a drop of water fall down his face and realized that he was sweating and the tempo of his heartbeat was increasing.

"What the hell?" Turning back the way he came he walked towards the other end of the center looking for that stairwell that he knew was there. It had to be there but no luck,.no stairwell and no elevator either. 

"Oh, No! No! No No!!", he shouted aloud feeling like a little child that had just been caught in a big lie and was about to be severely punished.

He wiped a tear from one of his eyes as he continued to search the whole floor and nothing. No stairwell , no elevator, no people at all no windows and so far, no way out. Maybe he died on his way to work and this was his Hell.

"Not me! Not me! Noooo!!".

Whirrr, beep beep beep. Shhhhpa, shhhhpa shhhhpa

James recognized that sound. It was the printer! 

He found some reservoir of energy and ran for sound at a breakneck pace. His lungs strained under the pressure and his ribs protested as he tried to find that office printer. Maybe he wasn't dead after all.

He slowed down and bent over to catch his breath before he continued approached the printer. He pulled himself up and walked it and picked up the single sheet that he just come out. It was still warm.

He read the page with his eyes wide and he tried to keep the tears from flowing but it was useless as he dropped the page on the floor and collapsed right beside it.

Had anyone else been nearby, they would have read the following

" To James Patterson: Middle Manager

"You have been evaluated and found wanting. The work from your department was the same as it was under the leadership of your predecessor and after a years time, there was no improvement under your leadership and you added no benefit to the company at all."

"As such we have decided to go in a different direction and your contributions are no longer necessary."

"We wish you well on what awaits you now"