Diversity Hire

Sitting in a double cubicle Lincoln added a little sign here sticker to some paperwork before putting into a file and tossing into the outgoing stack. Standing stretched his arms to the sides and then above his head, feeling his back pop and releasing some of the tension in his body from sitting at his desk doing paperwork. While standing he was able to take a few seconds to actually see out a window, or even see a window.

Outside of the Florida Mega Corp office the sky was azure blue with a sprinkling of light white clouds. It was the type of day he would rather be at the beach, but taking a day off during the week would not help him turn this low paid internship into a real job with real pay. He was about to sit down and start his next assignment when he felt something jab into the back of his head. Turning around he saw a paper airplane that must have hit him, falling to the floor.

Picking it up he looked over at the only other person in the double cubicle raising an eyebrow. His office coworker, fellow intern and good friend sat at his own desk with his feet up and chuckling to himself. He looked his friend over, Jackson Heart was about four inches shorter than his five foot ten, baby face while he couldn’t go a day without shaving. Jackson kept his dark brown hair long saying it was one of the last things left from his less than thriving rock career, while he kept his own short in a stylized messy look. Today Jackson hadn’t even bothered to wear a tie to the office and now he was just goofing off.

“Don’t you have any work to do?” Lincoln said, holding up the paper airplane before tossing it into the trash.

“You know there is always more work to do, get close to being finished and someone else drops some of their work load off on the interns. Why bother rushing through it when it will only get you more work.” Pulling his feet off the desk, something he had been told was unprofessional more than once by their boss Alexander Dunn.

“Great work ethic, with that attitude you can forget rising from being an intern. I’m sure they will jump you right up to a vice president position.” Lincoln sat back down in his chair, he didn’t need his voice carrying over all the cubicle for others to hear.

“Come off it Linc, we met last year in an intern program. That program is over, yet here we are still doing the same job for a wage that isn’t livable. For what? The chance to have a career at the prestigious Mega Corp?”

“You saying you don’t want to have on your resume you worked in marketing or accounting at Mega Corp?”

“Marketing.” Jackson said, pointing to himself. “Where the popular kids go.” Then he pointed to his cube mate. “Accounting, with the nerds and yes of course that is what I want otherwise I wouldn’t still be here or sharing that two bedroom apartment with you. I mean really Linc, you could pick up more around the apartment.”

“I do pick up, you are the lazy one.” Jackson gave a little shrug, glancing at his monitor screen seeing an email come in, but didn’t bother to click on it. “Yeah and if you picked up more I would have less to do. Besides, who was it that paid for that maid service last month?”

“You, because I refused to clean up the mess you made.”

“See? I got the apartment all clean. You are welcome, you know it isn’t easy to afford that when we make peanuts.”

“Look Jack, they didn’t promote us I’m betting because of the stupid pranks we do on each other, but don’t fire us because we do good work. Not you today, but what we could still get what we want. A few years in a real position here and we can go anywhere.”

“We should buckle down, your right. It's kind of hard to ask girls out when you can’t afford to date and I for one have seen a few girls I want to ask out here. Besides, ending the prank war with me on top seems like a good way to end things.”

Lincoln shook his head, he had just gotten his hair to grow back like he wanted after Jackson’s last ever so innocent prank that made him have to shave his head. He agreed with his friend about some of the hot women around the office, he had even got on first name basis with a few. Though he hadn’t asked any out yet, not after the last girl he brought home from a party. When he had come home Jackson had greeted him at the door wearing a sheet like a toga and held up a roll of condoms welcoming the girl to the orgy. She had left right then, and he didn’t blame her. Jackson enjoyed being the center of attention, and thought his pranks were hilarious. No way he was going to stop, even if he said he would.

Their friendship wasn’t some long lasting one over years, they had met in the intern program both fresh out of college and very broke. They got a two bedroom apartment they split with two other guys in the program, but they were long gone now. Making the rent go from doable with enough spare money for fun, to uncomfortable with spending money on fun being a luxury. They were friends of convenience as far as Lincoln was concerned, though he imagined if they worked in different departments instead of sharing a cubicle things would be better.

“Great so no more pranks and we focus on work?”

“That is what I said Linc, though I do need to hear you say I’m the winner. Just to clear the air, it was you who started all of this after all.”

“I put tape on your mouse so the sensor wouldn’t work.”

“It counts.” Jackson said with a smug smile. Lincoln could see a piece of food in his slightly yellow teeth and shook his head. If Jackson didn’t work on his personal hygiene he wasn’t going to get any girls, let alone some of the high class women around the office.

“You get Chinese from the place around the corner for dinner tonight and you can be declared the winner of whatever you want.”

“Done, don’t ever say I didn’t do anything for you.”

“Then Jackson, you are the winner.”

“Damn right I am!” Jackson said, turning around in his seat to click on the email that came in to see what else was on his agenda for the day.

Lincoln went back to work, but after a half hour and more than a few glances at Jackson who seemed to be actually putting in effort, he couldn’t help but feel irked at the winner comment. Lincoln had gotten a bunch of odd looks, most of disapproval when he had to shave his head, and leaving it at that and knowing Jackson wouldn’t keep to his word just bothered him. He could still let Jackson be considered the winner, but he really did need to get him back and he had a good idea of what to do.

Late in the workday only a half hour before quitting time on that Friday Jackson opened up an email from the HR department.

“Good afternoon to everyone on this wonderful Friday, I hope you all had a productive week. We are late in getting this out, but we wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to participate. We wanted to announce a company function for Monday and we hope everyone participates. Last quarter we had everyone wear their favorite sports jersey and everyone that participated got put in a raffle for a new F-150 XL Pickup.

This time around we are doing something a little different. We here at Mega Corp are a diverse company and we wanted to show that. All participants this time around will be put in a raffle for a Ford Mustang GT, but you will have to actually put in real effort. While the person that is deemed to have put in the most effort will get two raffle tickets and a bonus added to their next paycheck of $2,500! To win all you have to do is participate this upcoming Monday with the theme of Gender Swap. Remember this is still an office, so dress accordingly.”

Turning around in his chair Jackson let out a small snort and a laugh. “Hey, did you see this email about Monday? Ridiculous right?”

Lincoln held up his hand with one finger pointing up to indicate he needed a second to finish typing up what he was working on. When he was finished he turned around in his chair to look at his friend. “Yeah, a new car would be nice but I’m not going to do it.”

“No? Come on, it could be a laugh seeing you in a dress and lipstick with your five o clock shadow on your face.”

“The email said something about having to put real effort in and I know participating in the work culture stuff could really help me… well us get full time here, but I can’t see myself doing it. What about you? Going to maybe ask your sister for some help to earn two raffle tickets and a windfall of cash?”

“I really could use the money, I don’t think so though.” Jackson paused for a second, biting his bottom lip. “Do you really think doing this could help get us out of the intern pool?”

Giving him a shrug Lincoln stood up from his desk and re-tucked in his shirt. “I dunno, but I can say on my last review it said I needed to be more of a team player. Course all I do all day is other people’s work so not sure what else it could be other than me not doing things like this.”

“Yeah, yeah. You heading out?”

“Almost five, going to hit the bathroom then get out of here. You need to work a little later?”

Jackson nodded his head, he was behind from doing almost nothing productive that morning. “For a bit, but I will swing by to get dinner on the way home. Need to finish off some stuff here.” As they said their goodbyes Jackson tried to focus on his work, but he kept thinking about that email. The car and the cash prize would be great, but the thing he really did want was to stop being an intern. Soon he was going to have to start paying back his student loans and his family that helped supplement his income weren’t going to be understanding about him still being an intern for much longer.

That morning he was considering just going somewhere else for a job and giving up on Mega Corp, but with the corporate event in their office it could give him another chance to show he was willing to do the work and wasn’t afraid of getting a few people to laugh at him if it meant getting the job done. Besides, wearing a skirt for a few hours for a chance to win a new Mustang was worth the price. If this didn’t show Mr. Dunn, he was a team player then he would just follow through with looking for another job, not that it would be much better, he was sure.

Giving one last look to Jackson before he left Lincoln smiled. He wasn’t sure if he was going to get Jackson to actually do it, but if he even said he was considering it tonight he would consider the fake email well worth it.