DramCorp Design Inc, 10th floor. Friday, 4:30 PM.
Fridays were always busy at DramCorp Design. At the end of every week, management notoriously sends out a slew of memos asking for tweaks and changes that infuriate the designers and product managers before the weekend.
One frustrated employee sat at her cubical furiously combing through a recent batch of memos on her computer; she was trying to come to terms with an ask for a total redesign of her project. Her name was Carol, a mid-30s brunette who wore her hair in a bun; a style she used whenever she was in concentration mode.
After transferring to the St. Louis branch last year, Carol quickly rose through the ranks and currently served as a middle-manager who oversaw product realization for soft drinks. Even though she had some authority in the end products, her bosses could nuke any hard work that her and her team would put in. In this case, the most damning memo was from her supervisor, Edith.
Around the office, Edith was known as a cold-hearted uptight boss who lacked any empathy for anyone below her title. Unfortunately for Carol, Edith was especially mean to her. Maybe it was because Carol rose through management faster than anyone had expected and started to threaten her status. Or maybe because Carol's personality was her polar opposite. Whatever the reason was, Edith sought to make it a living hell for everyone in the office and a special hell for Carol.
Carol dug her unpainted nails into her hair while continuing to stare at her monitor. For the last month and a half, her team worked on one of the company's biggest contracts with the makers of Pepsi. Ever since the project kicked off, Edith became more and more neurotic as the project neared its presentation milestone due date with their director. At first, she started mandating daily emails from all her middle-managers. Then she requested that both managers and individual contributors should expect to be on-call; even during the weekends. And just recently, Edith started to penalize employees if they didn't adhere to the new policies by deducting their pay. Along with managing each extra policy, Carol also fought threw her supervisor's daily temper tantrums all while trying keeping a cool head; almost snapping a few times when they neared the deadline. And now it seemed like Edith was at it again, this time with redoing the new Pringles account.
As she contemplated her boss' memo, she overheard Edith talking to the director of their division.
"I gotta hand it to you Edith, you did wonders with the Gatorade account; $550k worth of sales in the first week alone," their director said excitedly.
"Oh that was easy, I got it done mostly by myself," Edith replied; claiming her team's success for her own.
"That bitch..." Carol thought as she eavesdropped on her supervisor's conversation. The PepsiCo account was her team's responsibility and now Edith publicly took all the credit.
"Well I'm glad you pulled it together. And actually, some of the PepsiCo executives are in town tonight. Would you like to take my place? The wife and I already made dinner plans," her director asked.
"Yes! I'll be delighted to go," Edith replied.
"Great. Here's the invite; they're taking a party cruise at the riverfront," he said while pulling out an envelope.
"Thank you sir. I'll do you proud," Edith said as she took the envelope and walked away from their director.
"Hey Carol! Did ya get my email for the changes?" Edith asked. Carol turned around to face her supervisor and just nodded.
"Great. Now have the Pringles account done by next week with all the changes. Toodles~" Edith waved while sauntering back to her office.
Carol sighed but after a few seconds, another employee came up to Carol; her coworker Peggy.
"Hey Carol! I couldn't help but overhear Edith. She wanted more changes to our project?" Peggy asked.
When Carol first joined the branch, she and Peggy quickly became fast friends with their first joint project. In an environment where Carol was constantly pushed to the brink with added stress from their supervisor, Peggy's bubbly personality and positive attitude kept her from having nervous breakdowns at work. And even personally, she was a great friend and a breath of fresh air compared to Carol's previous relationships.
Carol sighed again. Peggy, sensing the tension in the air, tried to quickly defuse the awkwardness.
"Ah no worries Carol, it'll all be fine..." Peggy looked down at her watch. "It's almost 5 anyway, maybe let's leave it here and just enjoy the weekend~"
Peggy infectious smile grew on Carol and the two giggled together while Carol started to pack her belongings for the commute home.
Hopewell Apartments, 4th floor. Friday, 7 PM.
On her way home, Carol stopped by the nearby Aldi supermarket and picked up some groceries for her little picnic date with her current boyfriend, David. She picked up all sorts of charcuteries and wine; especially red wine.
When she arrived at her one bedroom apartment, she unpacked her groceries in her kitchen and noticed a notification pop up on her phone; it was from her boss. Carol rolled her eyes and tapped on the unread email. As her eyes scanned through the email, she slowly started to feel a mix of hopelessness and anger bubble within her. Not only did her boss want her to rework the entire Pringles project but now Edith was asking her to take on a whole new project both with the same deadline; next Friday.
After reading half way into the email, she haphazardly chucked her phone on the kitchen counter and grabbed a bottle of Merlot and a nearby glass. She sauntered over to her couch and poured herself a nice tall glass of wine. Drinking was her most recent way to calm down and take her mind off of reality. Unfortunately for Carol, wine alone wouldn't help her unload.
Carol reached for the television remote to turn on the news. But as she pointed the remote towards her TV, she saw a familiar face smile back at her; or rather someone who closely resembled her but with an emerald head.
"Welcome home honey~" the mirage spoke to Carol in a sassy voice. "How was your day?"
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