Meetings

Today at work we had a meeting with everyone on staff, I immediately cringed and began expecting mass firings. Everyone was going nuts about whether they would get to keep their jobs all last week when the rumors started and at the meeting the mood was full of anxiety and worry.

The head of the sponsor-board for the newspaper walked into the room (all major decisions are voted on by the board because they provide the money that keeps the paper alive) and everyone suddenly became silent with his entrance.

“Good morning everyone, as some of you may have heard changes have been planned for our newspaper, changes that will hopefully take it to the next level. George has stepped down as Editor-in-chief due to personal issues and we have his replacement here to meet with all of you. Ladies and Gentlemen: This is Kevin . He starts tomorrow.”

A dark haired man walked into the room and I immediately blushed and looked for a way out of the room. It was the guy I’d made out with the night before! At least I knew his name now.
All the employees spent the next half hour drinking coffee and eating the fruit platters catered by one of the local restaurants and mingling. Of course, the point of this meeting turned meet-and-greet was to get to know Kevin but everyone was really trying to figure out why George had left. Suzy and Dina were talking to me about it with a mixture of confusion over George and relief over still having their jobs.

“Do you think his wife has cancer again?” Suzy said with an air of concern.

“No,” I said, “I have no idea why he left, he seemed perfectly fine when I spoke with him yesterday.”
After a few more theories about why George left I thought I should introduce myself to Kevin more, uh, professionally and sidled over.

“Hi, I’m Faith, I’m your head of HR, welcome to our paper,” I said as I extended my hand.

“Hey, Faith, it’s nice to see you again, I’m Kevin,” he smiled and shook my hand and we awkwardly tried to make small talk until the meeting ended.

This should be interesting.