Jeff was sitting at his desk in the last lone hour of the work week. He had overworked himself, again, and he was still only "the new kid," just like in high school. Only recently had he graduated from business school, and he found himself trying to get used to his new workplace, as well as the workload. He was still only a secretary, and had a long climb up the echeladder before he would reach success. Yet, in some way, the thought of staying busy and making progress was a comforting thought.
The clock ticked to six. If he didn't clock out now, he'd be working unpaid overtime. Which isn't actually a bad thing in his mind, but this place was still so strange, and he longed for the comforts of home.
And still, he couldn't help but feel like he was...missing something.
"Hey, kid!"
Jeff nearly fell out of his office chair. The loud voice of his boss startled him every time. It was just one more thing he'd have to get used to, he guessed.
He turned around to face him.
"Yes sir?"
The man's overly-sized index finger pushed his round glasses higher onto the bridge of his thick nose. After a minute of glaring at the calm young man, he pointed his chubby finger at the analog wall clock.
"What does that clock say?"
Jeff didn't even need to glance toward where he pointed. He knew the time like the back of his hand.
"Six o' one, sir."
The man leaned forward into Jeff's personal space. Jeff dared not to show any sign of feeling the least bit uncomfortable or awkward, but it was all he could to fight the urge to push his large, round face away from his own. In the end, he sat on his hands.
"That's right," he whispered. He straightened up, and in his usual loud voice, he announced "And time to go home! You wouldn't want to spend such a nice evening as this, sitting inside doing work, would you?"
Jeff blinked. One thing he knew about his boss was that he was more of a workaholic than he was. He certainly wasn't expecting him to say something so cheery, not to mention the weather wasn't even nice. The clouds created a dark, heavy blanket in the sky, but the wild winds below kept it cooler than necessary.
But he went along with it, nodding.
"Well, then, I'm sorry to disappoint you son!" He dropped a stack of business licence applications into Jeff's lap. "I want these done by tomorrow morning."
He blinked again. This must be where he was going with that, he thought.
"Yes, sir."
The big man sallied forth from the office, clocking out on his way. Jeff, now alone with his paperwork, definitely needed to clock in for that overtime.
He pulled out the first paper from the stack and went back to work.
What a great first week, he thought.