A Workplace Disaster?

Jax slept through his alarm clock and rushed to get ready for work. Jax made a mental note to tell Julie to wake him up in the morning the next time they see each other. Jax quickly got dressed and drove to work. Jax thought that while he may not get in serious trouble with Julie anymore, he still has to deal with his supervisor, Janice. Even though Jax rushed to work, he was still late getting to work. Jax thought that Janice probably won’t catch him coming late since she’s usually in her office working in the mourning. Jax was sorely mistaken as the first face he sees is Janice. Jax curses his own luck as Janice walks up to him.

“Jax, just the person I’m looking for. You’re coming with me today.”

“I am?”

“Yep, I got the boss’s approval already. You’re coming with me to discuss the new business arrangements between our company and Starlight Industries.”

“You’re saying that the deal that’s been in the works for the last couple of weeks has been settled.”

“Yes, we are now going to be working on a few projects together for the foreseeable future. I’m moving you off the RPG game to manage a new team with the people from Starlight.”

“What about the project I’m currently working on?”

“Well, we’re handing your work and duties over to Mike to complete.”

“Okay, who’s going to be on this new team?”

“I can’t name all of them but some of them are Alice, Kim, Thomas, Joe, and the members of Starlight.”

Jax doesn’t know Kim or Thomas well, but they seem like decent people. Jax hasn’t worked with Alice much but he wouldn’t refuse a chance to work with her.

“Alright, that’s enough questions for now. Let’s go.”

Jax went with Janice to Starlight Industries, and he had to say he was pretty impressed. All their equipment looked state of the art and everybody seemed to be dedicated to their jobs. Starlight does have a reputation for creating amazing games but they take an absurd amount of time to make one. It usually takes them 5-10 years to make one game. I don’t understand how they're so slow but I’m guessing the reason why they're working with our company is to speed up the process and create a game more quickly. Janice left to discuss some things with the supervisor of this company while she left me in the testing room for the games that Starlight is creating on the second floor.

Jax quickly got bored after Janice left so he decided to test whatever game was still left on the computer. It was called the Great Jumper and it was heavily inspired by the old Frogger game. Jax wasn’t impressed with the game though. While it looked really nice, it was filled with bugs and errors. Jax knew just from playing it that it had many errors in the coding that needed to be fixed. If Jax didn’t know he was in Starlight, he would’ve thought there must’ve been some kind of mistake. While Jax was playing with the game, someone came inside the room, however, it wasn’t Janice like he thought it was.

A curly-haired brunette walked in wearing workout clothes with a towel over her shoulder instead of formal business clothes. Her skin shined and glistened with sweat from the workout Jax assumed she did. The woman noticed someone else was there smiled and walked over to Jax.

“Hey, what are you doing in here?”

“Waiting for my supervisor to get back. What are you doing in here?”

“Playing hooky.”

“Are you honest with every stranger you meet?”

“Honesty is my policy after all.”

“Do you know anything about this jumper game?”

“Yeah, Gio made it fairly recently and tried testing it out in here but it didn’t go well.”

“I’m just asking but why is his game so bad. I thought Starlight Industries would have better employees.”

“Since I’m being honest, you’ve only seen the first two floors working hard right. Everybody on those two floors deals with customer service, shipping products, advertising, and other essential jobs that don’t deal with making the game themselves. Everyone who makes the games like myself usually skips out on doing our jobs or take shortcuts when we have to meet deadlines.”

“Why?”

“Everybody can get away with it and there are so many fun places to relax at the company rather than doing work. I just finished a great workout at the gym on floor 3. The only person who diligently does her work is Linda, but I’ve never met her before so I’m not sure she actually exists.”

“What have I gotten myself into?”

“Paradise?”

“Who are you anyway?”

“I’m Helen, an animator.”

Part of Jax wondered if he was in a dream because he definitely wished he could unhear everything she just said.

“Is this company filled with sexy, lazy female employees that would rather spend their time goofing off than doing their job?”

“Yes, yes, it is.”

“That was a joke.”

“I know, I’m not stupid.”

“Are you though?”

“Look, I…. whatever.”

Helen stormed out of the room as Janice entered.

“Alright Jax, we’re going to meet the team you’ll be working with for the foreseeable future.”

“I have very low expectations regarding their work ethic if nothing else.”

“Well, I don’t know what gotten you so depressed so quickly but look on the bright side. Since you’re going to be working here, you will be getting access to the many facilities they’ve given to their employees.”

“Like?”

“I’ve heard that there a swimming pool, a spa, an indoor gym, a big cafeteria, and other perks that I’m sure I’m not even aware of yet.”

“I can see why the employees are so lazy now when they have their every need catered to here.”

Jax and Janice made their way to the conference room where all of the team members are supposed to be gathered.