She held out her hand for me to shake it. I did, obligingly. Even though meetings like this never seemed to go well, on average, it was good to start on a friendly footing.
Even though I had presided over quite a few sackings in my time, this was never easy. In fact, these were pretty awkward.
"Chloe, isn't it? Chloe Dolan?"
"Yeah."
"Chris Hayes."
She sounded just like Jenny too. But what was that, a bit of a Birmingham accent there? I'm firing a brummie. A brummie that looks like a younger photocopy of my wife. I may have found it difficult to read her emotions, she seemed as if she wasn't fully aware of what was going to happen here, or she was hiding it well.
"Do you want to have a seat? Do you want a coffee, or some water, or anything?"
"No thanks, I'm fine."
We both sat down at the table and I opened up the proceedings.
"OK, Chloe. I don't think met you before? Sam's your Team Leader, isn't he? I am Sam's manager. First of all, did you get here OK?"
"Yeah, fine, I've been here a couple of times before for training and that."
"I'm sorry Sam couldn't be here. Normally, Sam would have been here, but he's on a course himself today. Did he explain why we're having this meeting?"
"I know what it's about. I know what happened, but you say your bit and I'll say mine."
"Well... I can't really put myself in your shoes, I can only see this from my point of view, from the company's point of view, that's why I've asked you to come here, so we can have, you know, a bit of dialogue over this matter. As you may know, something happened which was actually quite severe for us, that the company has to go through the process of dismissal. Even so, we need to have this talk to come to some understanding over the matter."
"Wait... what? You're actually giving me the fucking sack over this? Hold on, no, no no no no, Sam never told me you were gonna fucking sack me! I thought this was just a disciplinary or something. You bastard!"
She was quite angry. I hated seeing Jenny angry and seeing her like this reminded me of arguments me and Jenny used to have.
"Chloe. Please-"
"Don't Chloe me, you fucking bastard! I've driven all the way over here just so you can tell me I ain't got a job no more? Why?"
"It's... company procedure, that we have to have a review of your employment. And... I am actually interested in hearing your side of the story, in case we have the wrong understanding. We never dismiss anyone without just cause."
"OK. Whatever."
I could feel she wanted to lash out - physically - and she was trying to keep herself calm. She gave herself a moment to compose herself, then carried on.
"Could you tell me why I'm being sacked then, please?"
"There was a complaint about one of your calls to a client, and this complaint was so significant that we've had to take action over it. I know.. I know you know which call this was, but I have to play the recording of it now and explain what happened next, just to put you in the loop."
"OK."
I took the iPod from the dock and browsed through the tracks to find the recording of the call, then put it back. The call began.
"Hi there! My name is Chloe, I'm calling from PharmaX, the pharmaceutical company. Am I speaking to Mr Amit Parekh?"
"Speaking."
This call started well.
"Hello, Mr Parekh. Are you able to spare a few minutes of your time today?"
"Well, it depends on what you're calling about."
"Mr Parekh, all I want to do, if you have some time free today, is to see if PharmaX is able to save you money with our range of pharmaceutical products. Do you have some time free, Mr Parekh?"
"Look, I don't want to be rude or nothing, but I'm getting calls all the time from people about this sort of thing. I run a small chain of pharmacies and I tend to look for cheaper suppliers myself."
"Exactly, Mr Parekh, all we want to do is just to see, really, if we can help reduce the hassle of you doing this."
"Well, how exactly would you do that?"
"What I could do, Mr Parekh, I can arrange for one of our specialist advisors to come and see you at your convenience, to discuss what we can offer you."
"Well, look, I like the sound of your voice, I know this is your job and that you have sales targets to meet though, Chloe, isn't it?"
"You like the sound of my voice? Mr Patel, you're not so bad yourself."
"Where are you from? Are you West Midlands way?"
"Walsall, originally, moved south ages ago though."
"I've got a cousin near Walsall. It's alright there. Might go up there sometime again."
"I sometimes go back there too. Might bump into each other."
"Heh heh. We might do."
"So anyway, what are you up to, Mr Parekh?"
"Call me Amit. I'm just here on my own, catching up on a bit of finance work, am a bit behind on it, to tell you the truth."
"Oh I don't want to intrude, Amit! Well, maybe I could pop around sometime and help you out."
"Heh, I could do with a little help. Well, anyway, well, you've got something to sell me, haven't you?"
"I do. Only I'd have to send someone else over to talk about this and that. I've been training to do the Field Sales side, so maybe I could come over, if it would help."
"Hmm. Maybe. Yeah."
"If I come over there to you, who knows what might happen?"
"Heh. I'd like that."
"Maybe you'd take us up on something, and, I dunno, something extra?"
"Something extra?"
"I like the sound of you, Amit, I could have ways of, you know, closing the deal... hehe."
"Sorry. I'm sorry. What? Are you coming onto me? I wasn't flirting with you, yeah?"
"What?"
"You're coming onto me. I was just being friendly. Do you have a manager or someone there? I want to speak to somebody higher up."
"Hey, I thought we were just talking-"
"No, I want to talk to a manager now!"
"I wasn't trying to come on-"
"For fuck's sake, you're trying to do phone sex on me. Is that what your company does for sales? Is this call recorded?"
"No, no, no. Oh shit."
"I'm going to write to your chief executive. Don't bother giving me his name, I'll Google it. It'll be on Google. And don't even think I want to buy your company's stuff, I'll go somewhere else. I have connections as well. I'll tell them all about your company and the dirty sluts they have."
The call ended rather abruptly.
"Look, he started it! He started flirting with me first!" bursted Chloe, pointing frantically at the iPod.
"Chloe. Whether he started it or not is not the point. You're here to do a job, not to proposition clients."
"If he wasn't going to be a prick with me, I could have had a sale out of that!"
"Chloe. You went too far with this one. You crossed the line and what happened after that was unforgivable. I have to tell you what happened."
"Go on."
"Mr Parekh wrote a three page letter to the Chief Exec, and sent copies to major newspapers. Luckily, none of them wanted to go with the story. I can't describe in words how pissed off the boss was, basically, and we've all had a telling off. Peter, my boss, got shouted at, and it's all cascaded downwards. Mr Parekh told his contacts, and we've lost them. Because of what you said, we've lost a major amount of income from this, and the damage has been done."
"It sounds like you've already made up your mind, to be honest. You guys put targets on us and tell us we've got to do what's necessary to get them, else we're in the shit. So this is what I've been doing.
And this is where Peter's favourite word came in.
"We at this company have to maintain our... integrity, it's central to everything we do. If we let things like this happen, we look bad in the marketplace. That can have the knock on effect of people losing jobs and things like that."
"Well I definitely won't let it happen again. And I'll beg if I have to. You've just got to give me one more chance! One more chance."
I could see the determination in her eyes. She wanted to fight this.
My god, she looks just like Jennifer, right now. But she isn't her. I've got to sack her. She did such a bad thing.
"Chloe... it is with regret that-"
"Right. I know what you men want. And if what I do next lets me keep this job..."
She lowered the straps of her dress down, and pulled it down to reveal her bra, which held some remarkable assets, good sized breasts.
"Let's face it. You've got a job to do, but you've got a certain amount of leeway. I've seen the way you looked at me when I came in."
And she was right. Shit.
"I thought it would come to this. I fingered myself in the car before I came in. I'm so wet. Come on, Mr Hayes, people do this sort of stuff all the time."
My god. And this.
"And nobody's gonna hear us."
She got me. I was speechless for once. I may have had a staggering boner, but thanks to Bal-Shaggaroth, it just wasn't there.
"Chloe, I know what you're trying to do. I'm a man of integrity, I don't do this. I'm a married man."
"It's OK, I've got condoms. You don't have to fill me with your spunk if you don't want to."
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I'm giving you a warning, and I may have to call Security."
Part of me really didn't want to ask her to leave. She was ready to go. I could actually do with a good fuck. But I stood up and walked around the table. She got up too and blocked the door.
"I want you to fuck me. All I want is for you to fuck me and then you can go."
She was desperate, and I don't know what she would do if I resisted. I could reach for my mobile and call security, but she would come for me. And I can't find it in myself to hit a woman.
I could fuck her, but that- no, that's unthinkable. Was it? She'd bring me down with her. I could keep her job, but she'd have a dirty secret.
"You could finger my wet pussy, at least, Mr Hayes."
This is madness. I had to end this right now.
Even though I had presided over quite a few sackings in my time, this was never easy. In fact, these were pretty awkward.
"Chloe, isn't it? Chloe Dolan?"
"Yeah."
"Chris Hayes."
She sounded just like Jenny too. But what was that, a bit of a Birmingham accent there? I'm firing a brummie. A brummie that looks like a younger photocopy of my wife. I may have found it difficult to read her emotions, she seemed as if she wasn't fully aware of what was going to happen here, or she was hiding it well.
"Do you want to have a seat? Do you want a coffee, or some water, or anything?"
"No thanks, I'm fine."
We both sat down at the table and I opened up the proceedings.
"OK, Chloe. I don't think met you before? Sam's your Team Leader, isn't he? I am Sam's manager. First of all, did you get here OK?"
"Yeah, fine, I've been here a couple of times before for training and that."
"I'm sorry Sam couldn't be here. Normally, Sam would have been here, but he's on a course himself today. Did he explain why we're having this meeting?"
"I know what it's about. I know what happened, but you say your bit and I'll say mine."
"Well... I can't really put myself in your shoes, I can only see this from my point of view, from the company's point of view, that's why I've asked you to come here, so we can have, you know, a bit of dialogue over this matter. As you may know, something happened which was actually quite severe for us, that the company has to go through the process of dismissal. Even so, we need to have this talk to come to some understanding over the matter."
"Wait... what? You're actually giving me the fucking sack over this? Hold on, no, no no no no, Sam never told me you were gonna fucking sack me! I thought this was just a disciplinary or something. You bastard!"
She was quite angry. I hated seeing Jenny angry and seeing her like this reminded me of arguments me and Jenny used to have.
"Chloe. Please-"
"Don't Chloe me, you fucking bastard! I've driven all the way over here just so you can tell me I ain't got a job no more? Why?"
"It's... company procedure, that we have to have a review of your employment. And... I am actually interested in hearing your side of the story, in case we have the wrong understanding. We never dismiss anyone without just cause."
"OK. Whatever."
I could feel she wanted to lash out - physically - and she was trying to keep herself calm. She gave herself a moment to compose herself, then carried on.
"Could you tell me why I'm being sacked then, please?"
"There was a complaint about one of your calls to a client, and this complaint was so significant that we've had to take action over it. I know.. I know you know which call this was, but I have to play the recording of it now and explain what happened next, just to put you in the loop."
"OK."
I took the iPod from the dock and browsed through the tracks to find the recording of the call, then put it back. The call began.
"Hi there! My name is Chloe, I'm calling from PharmaX, the pharmaceutical company. Am I speaking to Mr Amit Parekh?"
"Speaking."
This call started well.
"Hello, Mr Parekh. Are you able to spare a few minutes of your time today?"
"Well, it depends on what you're calling about."
"Mr Parekh, all I want to do, if you have some time free today, is to see if PharmaX is able to save you money with our range of pharmaceutical products. Do you have some time free, Mr Parekh?"
"Look, I don't want to be rude or nothing, but I'm getting calls all the time from people about this sort of thing. I run a small chain of pharmacies and I tend to look for cheaper suppliers myself."
"Exactly, Mr Parekh, all we want to do is just to see, really, if we can help reduce the hassle of you doing this."
"Well, how exactly would you do that?"
"What I could do, Mr Parekh, I can arrange for one of our specialist advisors to come and see you at your convenience, to discuss what we can offer you."
"Well, look, I like the sound of your voice, I know this is your job and that you have sales targets to meet though, Chloe, isn't it?"
"You like the sound of my voice? Mr Patel, you're not so bad yourself."
"Where are you from? Are you West Midlands way?"
"Walsall, originally, moved south ages ago though."
"I've got a cousin near Walsall. It's alright there. Might go up there sometime again."
"I sometimes go back there too. Might bump into each other."
"Heh heh. We might do."
"So anyway, what are you up to, Mr Parekh?"
"Call me Amit. I'm just here on my own, catching up on a bit of finance work, am a bit behind on it, to tell you the truth."
"Oh I don't want to intrude, Amit! Well, maybe I could pop around sometime and help you out."
"Heh, I could do with a little help. Well, anyway, well, you've got something to sell me, haven't you?"
"I do. Only I'd have to send someone else over to talk about this and that. I've been training to do the Field Sales side, so maybe I could come over, if it would help."
"Hmm. Maybe. Yeah."
"If I come over there to you, who knows what might happen?"
"Heh. I'd like that."
"Maybe you'd take us up on something, and, I dunno, something extra?"
"Something extra?"
"I like the sound of you, Amit, I could have ways of, you know, closing the deal... hehe."
"Sorry. I'm sorry. What? Are you coming onto me? I wasn't flirting with you, yeah?"
"What?"
"You're coming onto me. I was just being friendly. Do you have a manager or someone there? I want to speak to somebody higher up."
"Hey, I thought we were just talking-"
"No, I want to talk to a manager now!"
"I wasn't trying to come on-"
"For fuck's sake, you're trying to do phone sex on me. Is that what your company does for sales? Is this call recorded?"
"No, no, no. Oh shit."
"I'm going to write to your chief executive. Don't bother giving me his name, I'll Google it. It'll be on Google. And don't even think I want to buy your company's stuff, I'll go somewhere else. I have connections as well. I'll tell them all about your company and the dirty sluts they have."
The call ended rather abruptly.
"Look, he started it! He started flirting with me first!" bursted Chloe, pointing frantically at the iPod.
"Chloe. Whether he started it or not is not the point. You're here to do a job, not to proposition clients."
"If he wasn't going to be a prick with me, I could have had a sale out of that!"
"Chloe. You went too far with this one. You crossed the line and what happened after that was unforgivable. I have to tell you what happened."
"Go on."
"Mr Parekh wrote a three page letter to the Chief Exec, and sent copies to major newspapers. Luckily, none of them wanted to go with the story. I can't describe in words how pissed off the boss was, basically, and we've all had a telling off. Peter, my boss, got shouted at, and it's all cascaded downwards. Mr Parekh told his contacts, and we've lost them. Because of what you said, we've lost a major amount of income from this, and the damage has been done."
"It sounds like you've already made up your mind, to be honest. You guys put targets on us and tell us we've got to do what's necessary to get them, else we're in the shit. So this is what I've been doing.
And this is where Peter's favourite word came in.
"We at this company have to maintain our... integrity, it's central to everything we do. If we let things like this happen, we look bad in the marketplace. That can have the knock on effect of people losing jobs and things like that."
"Well I definitely won't let it happen again. And I'll beg if I have to. You've just got to give me one more chance! One more chance."
I could see the determination in her eyes. She wanted to fight this.
My god, she looks just like Jennifer, right now. But she isn't her. I've got to sack her. She did such a bad thing.
"Chloe... it is with regret that-"
"Right. I know what you men want. And if what I do next lets me keep this job..."
She lowered the straps of her dress down, and pulled it down to reveal her bra, which held some remarkable assets, good sized breasts.
"Let's face it. You've got a job to do, but you've got a certain amount of leeway. I've seen the way you looked at me when I came in."
And she was right. Shit.
"I thought it would come to this. I fingered myself in the car before I came in. I'm so wet. Come on, Mr Hayes, people do this sort of stuff all the time."
My god. And this.
"And nobody's gonna hear us."
She got me. I was speechless for once. I may have had a staggering boner, but thanks to Bal-Shaggaroth, it just wasn't there.
"Chloe, I know what you're trying to do. I'm a man of integrity, I don't do this. I'm a married man."
"It's OK, I've got condoms. You don't have to fill me with your spunk if you don't want to."
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I'm giving you a warning, and I may have to call Security."
Part of me really didn't want to ask her to leave. She was ready to go. I could actually do with a good fuck. But I stood up and walked around the table. She got up too and blocked the door.
"I want you to fuck me. All I want is for you to fuck me and then you can go."
She was desperate, and I don't know what she would do if I resisted. I could reach for my mobile and call security, but she would come for me. And I can't find it in myself to hit a woman.
I could fuck her, but that- no, that's unthinkable. Was it? She'd bring me down with her. I could keep her job, but she'd have a dirty secret.
"You could finger my wet pussy, at least, Mr Hayes."
This is madness. I had to end this right now.
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