Yes, for a change

When you return to your place the reaction is still visible although still subdued. Perhaps your colleagues look for a sign of Mr Brown choosing to exert further discipline after finding you; this would certainly explain some faces seeming borderline disappointed and others borderline relieved. You **** yourself to keep your head down and get on with work. You are sore, but you can already tell it can get much much worse and previous punishments will not deter anyone intent on teaching you another lesson. Not to mention you will still need to retrieve your clothes, which may entail more pain and almost certainly more humiliation. The bottoms will be even harder to get back later, but you must focus at one problem at a time if you are to get through this at all.

You sort of work out a position where the pressure on your nether regions is lowest but before long your muscles get too sore and you have to shift again, trying your best in avoiding the aftermaths of your bottom meeting the realities of the new world you created with a stroke of a pencil. You even largely succeed in hiding your groans of pain at this point. You also get a decent amount of work done, even if in an attempt to distract yourself from the pain. It does not work as well as you would have wished for, but it is better than to have no distraction at all, not to mention the risk of another spanking for slacking off.

Inevitably the hands on the clock follow their course and your coworkers start to file out. Diana takes a bit longer than normal to look at your face as she says goodbye for the day but she leaves too. You decide to stay for a bit more, waiting for a quieter time to go to meet Mr Brown again; you are quite certain there are no rules against that. Dave stays too, busy typing - presumably he is finishing his report as he promised and initially you are annoyed at it, but then you decide it is for the better. His presence will ensure you do not do anything foolish too soon again.

You decide to use the fact the official working day is over to do some browsing on how this world works. With satisfaction you find out the Rulebook understood and managed your design very well. There are very few cases of **** of power, hurting a girl for the sake of hurting her, or challenging a spanker when indeed guilty. Each instance makes it to the local news and some to the national - you suppose that is a sign of a system working reasonably well. High schools have mandatory courses on the discipline rules, guidelines and safety technique; extra courses are available for those working in positions where punishing miscreants is a part of the job description. Most public places have dedicated facilities to let discipline take place promptly and safely. More serious offences are punished with as severe as safety requirements would permit whippings and canings.

You also find out there is currently a bit of a debate over exemption categories. At the moment there are three - CPE1 gives full exemption for a certain period and can be obtained due to health reasons or a public position of high responsibility; CPE2 gives the same but for short periods only, for instance for an air traffic controller during her shift; CPE3 is also temporary and it gives exemption from the general public but not from one's colleagues, security guards and policewomen covering desk positions are among the protected groups. There is now also an activist group pushing to have public figures' and celebrities' spankings carried out differently as they feel it is unfair that some have their lives under a much higher level of scrutiny than others. They also cite a much higher rate of false discipline claims, which get dismissed but still can cause a nuisance and there were even some events interrupted. Experts agree that likely there will be a change in procedure so the above categories can obtain CPE2s for the duration of their events more easily but greater scrutiny is a good rather than a bad thing; those whose actions influence the minds of millions should have as high a discipline level as possible. You find this reasonable and decide not to intervene.

Dave finally finishes typing, tells you he sent you the report, wishes you a good evening and leaves. You feel you have stayed long enough so you decide to look over it tomorrow morning. You then get up and brace yourself to head to the HR section.