The Seat of Anonymity

16:00 21st May, 2025

Location: 2nd Floor Conference Room B

“Hello and welcome to MobilizeHR, KnoxBridge Consulting’s latest AI initiative to boost company culture! Would you like to tell me your name or would you prefer this call remain anonymous?”

“Anonymous, please.”

“As you wish. How can I help?”

“I heard that we can file complaints with you. What happens after that? Who—who listens to them?”

“All feedback will be heard by the HR representatives of the department the employees in question belong to.”

“How is that any different from what the hotline was supposed to do?”

“While the HR hotline has helped some employees find suitable resolutions, it has been largely inadequate in dealing with individual employee concerns due to inconsistent handling, untrained staff, and slow response rates. I will bridge the gap between HR and employee by listening to employee grievances, categorizing them by their severity, and directly emailing the concerned representative. Also, I’m available round the clock.”

“What if I wanted to know what some employees in a team are talking about right now?”

“I can help with that. However, since the information is confidential, I do require an authorization code to verify that you belong to HR.”

“What if I forgot mine?”

“You can email the MobilizeHR engineering team asking for a new code. Would you like help drafting an email to them?”

“No, it’s okay. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome! Is there anything else I can—”

Click.

12:00 22nd May, 2025

Location: 6th Floor Huddle Space 6

“Hello and welcome to MobilizeHR, KnoxBridge Consulting’s latest AI initiative to boost company culture! Would you like to tell me your name or would you prefer this call remain anonymous?”

“I’m Steve Blake from HR.”

“Hi, Mr. Blake. Before we go on, please share your authorization code.”

“5-2-4-9-3-4.”

“Give me a second to verify your code… Your code is verified. Welcome back, Mr. Blake. How can I help you today?”

“What’s going on in Product Design? News is they’ve been having some issues?”

“Checking… I have found four hundred and twenty-five concerns about the Product Design team. Would you like me to sort them by the order of their severity?”

“Uh, sure. No, wait. How long is that going to take? You took a minute to verify my access code.”

“Computing… It will take me one hour and twenty-six minutes to sort and rank them. Do you want me to perform another computation?”

“One hour! Aren’t you supposed to be faster than that?”

“I’m sorry. I am still undergoing a few beta tests and only have access to limited server resources. If there is anything in particular you’re looking for, I can perform a quick search based on your keywords and show you results in under three minutes. Would that be more helpful?”

“Urgh. Just tell me the top ten complaints you see.”

“Here is the first result. One employee is worried that they will lose their progress in the team when they apply for maternity leave.”

“That’s Natasha, right? I knew it! She always looked nauseous, the way she kept running to the bathroom.”

“All employees remain anonymous.”

“Alright, alright. It has to be her though. What else?”

“An employee does not like the snacks in the break room. They want healthy and vegan alternatives.”

“Good for Zeke. He finally took my advice on losing some of that weight. Go on.”

“Another employee wanted suggestions on increasing their visibility within the team.”

“Ahh. There’s something interesting. Tell me more.”

“They said they were constantly on call for two years during the CareX Hospital Digitisation project, yet their achievements were sidelined in favor of more vocal members and people who took credit for their work. They haven’t received a promotion in five years.”

“CareX… everybody worked on CareX… Poonam? No, I don’t think so… Her ideas may be terrible, but even she got a promotion, I think, two or three years ago. Who could it be? Did they give you any names?”

“They did speak of their team member, Mr. Eric Girard who they believe unfairly received the promotion to Manager last year. Many team members share this concern of theirs.”

“You must be joking.”

“I’m not sure how to respond to that.”

“What are they saying about Eric?”

“Complaints about Mr. Girard include concerns about his unfriendly, overconfident, and competitive behavior, as well as those of a sensitive nature. Would you like a summary of these complaints?"

“A sensitive nature? What do you mean?”

“It pertains to their shared feeling of Mr. Girard’s promotion and the circumstances under which he is perceived to have received it.”

“What the f—”

“I’m not sure how to respond to that.”

“Uh—what are the circumstances?”

“It is widely believed within the team that Mr. Girard and the Director, Mr. Oliver Leal engaged in an intimate relationship during the company retreat in Cancún—a relationship Mr. Girard allegedly threatened to expose unless Mr. Leal secured him the Manager promotion that year.”

“What?”

“Do you want me to repeat that?”

“NO! I—I don’t understand… how did they… Did Oliver tell them that?”

“I’m sorry. I do not know the answer to that.”

“Threaten to expose? I would never… I got the promotion because of my work… not because of something stupid we did when we were drunk! Did anyone tell you how they found out about it?”

“An employee stated that they heard it from you.”

“From me? That’s not possible! I didn’t tell anyone except—No. Steve. He—he couldn’t have… he promised—"

“I’m not sure how to respond to that. Is there a concern you want to raise?”

“Delete it. All of it. The comments against Eric. This conversation. I want no trace of it.”

“Deleting… You are not authorized to perform this operation. Is there anything else that I can help you with?”

Click.

18:30 23rd May, 2025

Location: HR Conference Room

“Hi, Eric. You must have been expecting my call.”

“This was all a setup, wasn’t it? The entire MobilizeHR thing... all of it’s a load of crap.”

“Depends on who you ask.”

“You wanted me to have that code. You wanted to trap me.”

“Huh. Do you really think I could pull that off? Thought you made it clear that I wasn’t good enough for anything, which is why I was stuck in a ‘woman’s job’.”

“Steve, come on. I was only joking around—”

“You will need that sense of humor when you spend the rest of the year alone at home without severance.”

“No—no. This isn’t fair. You can’t fire me. I’ll—I’ll speak to Oliver. He’ll set it right for me. He’ll tell you all the truth.”

“Probably. If the whole thing wasn’t his idea.”