An Unexpected Offer

The day began like most others for me as I sat in my cubicle in the Marketing department working on promotional ideas for the imminent release of our latest game, "Gangsta 4."

The company that I work for, DumpsterDawg Enterprises, started out in a garage about twenty years ago when a few friends began writing a computer game based on building an urban crime gang. Their first effort was rather crude but sold well enough for them to move into a small office building and hire more developers, software engineers, and artists to expand on the concept. Their second release became a huge hit and since then the company had grown into a multi-billion dollar corporation with a reputation for developing edgy, controversial urban crime games, first person shooters, and fantasy RPGs for the PC and consoles. DDE, as the company was commonly called, was known for pushing boundaries in sexual content, nudity, and **** in their games and was frequently the target of grandstanding politicians who claimed they were corrupting the nation's youth. The founders of the company actually loved this type of publicity which they knew would only help drive sales higher. Lately the company had begun producing movies based on their games and was rumored to be developing a series for HBO.

I'd been with DDE for about a year and enjoyed the atmosphere which was a long way from the usual stuffiness of most corporations. "Work hard, play harder" was the unofficial motto here for the relatively youthful workforce and long days days at work were frequently followed by hard partying together on days off.

About an hour after arriving for work my typical day started becoming very untypical when I got a call from Barbara Anderson's secretary. "Is this Danica Peterson?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Barbara Anderson is requesting that you meet her in her office at 10:15. Will you be able to make it?"

"Um, sure."

"Do you know how to get here?"

"I'll be able to find it," I answered.

"Great! See you then."

After hanging up I sat for a minute wondering what this meeting could be about. I knew Barbara Anderson by sight and by reputation but had never actually met her. Her office was in what was referred to by employees as "the tower," the section of the sprawling DDE complex where the company's suits - its senior executives and managers - had their offices. I'd only been there once, during my initial employee orientation, so I was excited and nervous about being invited there for a meeting. I had aspirations about someday having my own office there.

I gave myself plenty of time to get to the tower and find Barbara's office. When I got to the reception area I found Kelly Darby, who was also in the company's management training program, waiting as well.

"Hey Kelly, do you know what this is about?" I asked her.

"No idea," she said. We spent a few minutes engaging in small talk about work as we waited. We'd been hired at the same time and had gone through initial orientation and training together but had been assigned to different departments, so it was a chance to catch up. It was nearly 10:30 before the receptionist waved us into Barbara's office. She was on her cell phone as we entered and motioned for us to sit down.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she said after finally hanging up. "Danica, Kelly, it's nice to meet you both." Barbara shook our hands then pulled a chair around and placed it in front of ours. She was barely in her seat before she began speaking in the direct, no nonsense manner of a busy executive. "I don't have much time so I'll get to the point. We have a new project I've been placed in charge of and I've been told that you two ladies would be good candidates to help me out with it."

"Sure," I replied eagerly. "What is it?"

"Have you two ever heard of mailgirls?"

"You mean where naked women run around delivering packages?" Kelly asked.

"That's right. What do you think of it?"

"I think its kind of nuts," Kelly responded.

Barbara smiled and looked at me. "And you, Danica?"

I pondered for a second wondering how to answer, then decided it would be best to tell the truth. "I think it's exploitative and demeaning to women. Why? Are we planning on making a Mailgirls game?"

"No," Barbara laughed, "but that's actually not a bad idea. I'll pass it on to one of our devs. No, we've signed a deal with Hiromoto Industries in Tokyo to be the launch customer for their Mailgirls program in North America and I've been placed in charged of it. The powers that be felt it would be best if the program was run by women so I've been given your names as a couple of promising candidates from our management program who could help me with it."

I looked over at Kelly in shock. It seemed incomprehensible to me that the company would do something like this or ask me to be involved in it. "Do we get to keep our clothes on?" Kelly asked.

"Yes, of course. The two of you will help me set up and manage the program."

"Why are we doing this?" I asked.

"Dan Evans, our CEO, is intrigued by the idea. As you know he's never been shy about creating controversy, and since our games and movies are marketed primarily toward young adult males it won't exactly hurt us with that demographic. Hiromoto is providing the technology and training for free as launch customers in exchange for a promise to stick with it for a minimum of two years. If it works out we'll partner with them in promoting and selling the program in the U.S. and Canada."

"And if it doesn't work out?" Kelly asked.

Barbara shrugged. "Then we'll dump it and move on."

"How is this even legal anyway?" I asked.

"There are a number of businesses that require nudity as a condition of employment," Barbara replied. "Strip clubs are the most obvious example, but there are also Broadway plays, movie sets, naked news websites, that kind of thing. We're producing a movie right now with a lot of female nudity in it and the actresses have had to sign waivers acknowledging that nude scenes are a required condition of employment."

"I don't know if I could do something like this though," I said. "I mean, promote something that I feel exploits women who think their only value is in their bodies?"

"You've already helped us promote films and games with copious amounts of female nudity, Danica."

"I know, but I guess that seems different to me somehow."

"It seems different to you because artistic nudity has become relatively commonplace in our culture while nudity within the corporate workplace is not. But nudity hasn't always been commonplace or accepted in movies or gaming. The culture changed over time and that may eventually happen within corporate culture as well. It already has to a certain extent in Japan and other Asian countries."

When neither of us responded Barbara leaned back in her chair and spoke again. "Listen, I tend to agree with you both. This Mailgirls program is exploitative, demeaning and a little bit nuts, but it is going to happen and I've been put in charge of it so I'm going to do everything in my power to make it work. I wouldn't blame either of you for turning this down, and if you do you can return to your cubicles with no hard feelings."

The "return to your cubicles" remark sounded a little like a dig to me and I began to wonder if turning this down might negatively affect my career chances here.

"Before you decide though," Barbara continued, "hear me out and let me try to sell you on it."

"Alright," Kelly replied, and I also nodded in agreement.

"The jobs I'm offering are considered management level positions and will be a promotion for both of you along with a considerable pay raise. On top of that, this will be a high profile project that will be followed closely all the way to the top of the company. A strong performance in helping me with this project won't go unnoticed."

The prospects of the raise and the opportunity to advance my career sounded intriguing but I still wasn't convinced I should get involved with something like this. That's when Barbara set the hook.

"Let me ask you guys this," she said. "You each have six years invested in getting your MBA's. How much do you owe in student loans? $75,000? $100,000? More?"

"More," I said.

"Yeah, more," Kelly also replied.

"I thought so. I've been authorized by the company to pay off each of your student loans in full if you'll agree to sign a two year contract to help me set up and run the Mailgirls program. You'll also each receive a $50,000 bonus upon the completion of your contract."

I looked over at Kelly in disbelief and a huge smile spread across her face. The thought of getting out of from under the weight of our huge student loan burden was almost too good to believe.

"I'm in," Kelly said. When I hesitated she said, "C'mon, Danica, this will be fun. It's not like we have to take our clothes off."

By the end of the day the contracts had been drawn up and signed by both of us. In retrospect I should have spent a lot more time reading over the fine points of it or, better yet, had a lawyer do it. But I was inexperienced in dealing with contracts and had never had a lawyer so I signed it trusting the company would be fair to me. That would turn out to be a huge mistake.

A week later Kelly and I found ourselves on a flight to Tokyo to observe Hiromoto's Mailgirls program firsthand.