“Just another day at the office.” - Anon

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As Patrick walks to the door to of the conference room in the Human Resources Department he passes a young red-headed woman sitting outside. She stares him in the eye as he walks by and gives him a curt nod. Entering the room, he scans around the table to see who’s in attendance.

“This can’t be good.” He thinks to himself.

At the head of the table, on the far side of the room, is Ellen Jones, the head of HR. Flanking her on each side are David Aaron, Company Counsel and Nigel Kalfas, Head of Security.

A secretary is in the corner with her notepad out and a video camera set up on a tripod.

Patrick takes a deep breath and wanders over to the sidebar and pours himself a cup of coffee.

Rather than sit across the table from the three he walks over and plunks down next to Kalfas, raises his chair as high as it will go and takes a sip.

“How’s it going Kalfas?”

Kalfas sips his Earl Grey with a desultory expression on his face. “I must say I’ve had better days, Sir.”

“Ellen, you called this meeting. What’s so important that I had to get pulled out of my weekly briefing?”

“We have a situation.” She begins, “There’s been an assault that took place on company property this afternoon.”

“Between employees I take it...”

“Yes.”

“Who is involved?”

“One of your middle managers, Curt Soule and one of our junior analysts, Sue Flanagan.” Ellen replied, squeezing the bridge of her nose.

Patrick looks off into space for a moment. “Soule… Soule… Recent transfer from the European office, right? I remember something funny about the circumstances of his transfer...”

At this point Company Counsel jumps in. “Sir, the laws that cover our European subsidiary are different from those here in the states. The circumstances around the decision to transfer him here are locked up in privacy and non-disclosure clauses.”

“Interesting.” Patrick muses. “What’s the story with Ms. Flanagan?”

Ellen looks at her notes. “Ms. Flanagan has been with JDC for two years now as an admin.

‘Came to us fresh out of high school, with good grades and a strong recommendation from...” Jones flips through a few pages, “...Dr. Jackie Woods in R&D.

The only red flag at the time of her hire was a sealed juvenile record we weren’t able to gain access to.”

Patrick tilts his head. “I guess that’s what sealed means, no?”

Jones purses her lips and continues,”Anyway, there were no problems until today. Actually she had very good reviews from her previous supervisor. She received an Employee of the Month trophy six months ago.

When her boss got promoted into another division three months ago he tried to get her transferred with him but our policies wouldn’t allow it… Soule became her new manager when he transferred over.”

Patrick looks up a bit startled. “Breaking up a good team might not be the best idea for the company. That’s an issue for another meeting. What the hell happened?”

Ellen and David turn to Kalfas. “Well...” He starts, “...there have been reports of inappropriate behavior on the part of Mr. Soule. Maybe HR is better positioned to address those points?” he asks hopefully.

Patrick slowly swivels his head to Jones. “How many?”

“Sir?”

“How many reports of inappropriate behavior?”

“Four sir...”

Patrick’s face starts to change color. “What is the nature of this behavior?”

“Several of the admins in Mr. Soule’s line have complained of ‘inappropriate touching’.”

Patrick stares at Jones and the temperature in the room drops about 10 degrees. Very, very slowly, Patrick asks, “And what did we do about it?”

Jones looks over to Council who gives her a slight nod and replies slowly, “We conducted an internal investigation and deemed that there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing to justify disciplinary action.”

As Patrick continued to stare at her she added, “Oh! And we did update our policy manual around the topic of sexual harassment and implemented an optional annual training class for management!”

Patrick turns back to Kalfas. “Ok, Nigel. Tell me about the assault.”

Kalfas looks down at his notes. “Around 14:00 this afternoon, staff report they saw Soule enter Flanagan’s cube. Unfortunately, the layout of the cubes in that area made it impossible for those seated at their desks to directly see into Ms. Flanagan’s work area so we don’t have any eye witnesses of what took place.

A few minutes after Soule entered Flanagan’s cube, staff reported that they heard Flanagan shouting at Soule.

When they moved to investigate, they saw evidence that an assault had taken place and immediately called my team. We arrived roughly 4 minutes later to find Mr. Soule bleeding on the floor of Ms. Flanagan’s cube.”

Patrick raises and eyebrow and asked, “So it was Flanagan who assaulted Soule?!”

Kalfas nods slowly, clearly trying to contain himself. “That seems to be the case, Sir. – She freely admitted it.”

If Patrick hadn’t already sitting he would have had to now. He sinks deeper into his chair. “OK, what did Ms. Flanagan have to say?”

Kalfas flips through his notes for a minute. “Ok, here it is. When we asked what happened she said, ‘I told that asshole if he tried to grab my boobs again I was going to lay him out. He did, so I did. Any other questions?’”

“What does Mr. Soule have to say?” asked Patrick.

“Er...”

“Kalfas?”

“So far he hasn’t been able to comment.”

“Why the hell not?!”

“He’s over at the hospital getting his jaw wired. – It seems Ms. Flanagan hit him with her “Employee of the Month” trophy.” Kalfas lets slip the smallest of smiles and says, “Those are very nice trophies, Sir. Excellent construction. Did you know the base is made of real marble?”

Patrick holds it together. Barely. “Interesting observation, Mr. Kalfas.”

Turning to the head of the table Patrick asks, “Ms. Jones, is that Ms. Flanagan I saw outside on my way in?”

“Yes sir. I assumed you’d want to be present for her termination. We have a zero tolerance policy for workplace violence, you know.” she answers primly.

Patrick thinks a moment and says, “Please have her shown in.”

Ellen nods to the secretary who scurries out to fetch Flanagan.

When the door opens, Sue pushes past the secretary and strides into the room. She stops three feet from Patrick, looks him in the eye with her hands on her hips and says. “I guess I’m out of a job.”

Patrick nods. “Yeah. You don’t currently have a boss.”

Sue shrugs and squares her shoulders. “I’ll get my things.”

Patrick raises a hand. “Don’t bother. I’ll have someone gather them up for you.”

“You know,” he continues, “we can’t have some trophy-wielding maniac running around unattended.”

Sue looks confused.

Patrick turns to the Head of HR. “Ellen, I’d like you to write up transfer papers to have Ms. Flanagan assigned to my office. – That is, if she’s interested?” He asks turning to Sue.

Sue pauses for a moment, confused with what is actually happening. She looks over at Patrick who tilts his head and raises an eyebrow.

After a moment, she breaks into a huge grin. “Hell, yeah!”

Jones is sitting at the end of the table with her mouth hanging open as Patrick continues, “When you are done with Ms. Flanagan’s transfer please write up “Termination for Cause” paperwork for Mr. Soule and yourself. I expect to see them on my desk by the end of the day.

Thanks for setting up this meeting!’

Patrick turns to Sue and whispers, “You can pass a background check, right?”

Sue looks off into the distance and after a rather uncomfortable length of time comes back with, “Maybe...”

Patrick shrugs. “We’ll work something out. Let’s go find you a desk!”

Next Chapter: Special Projects Center, Kuwait City, 1989