Jaded

The Office

William stood silently at the door, he peered through the window of his new work environment. They hadn't realised that he had arrived. They continued with their usual routines. William took this time to observe them, colleagues behaviour when the big, bad boss wasn't around they showed their true nature, he found it rather interesting.

The first person his eyes fell on was a younger gentleman who appeared to be working in quite a competent manner, calmly and stoically he typed various letters to be sent to clients. This was the sort person reminded William of himself, he had been surrounded by rowdy comics throughout most of his childhood, primarily at school. They had bullied him for not being a smartass to the teachers. Back then he did nothing, or said nothing of his opinions, in hind sight he wished that he had stuck up for himself.

Then suddenly to his horror, a horrid ringing noise filled the whole room. He would personally be having a very long and a very stern conversation with about... The man who had been sat such exemplary way had just answered the phone. William noted to himself that looks can indeed be deceiving.

"Honey, I'm at work at the moment. Can we talk about..." He nervously glanced around him before continuing,"...this later? Look, okay. I'm sorry. I have to go, there's a new manager coming into today. No, he's not here yet...But, bye."

The once calm man had become a anxious wreck, he looked like he hadn't slept well recently. William would have to have words with him, not entirely to tell him off. After all, he was a fair guy.

"HEY GUYS!" Another voice boomed from the other entrance to the workplace, it was obviously male and seemed to be rather pleased. William hated loud people, they hurt his ears quite regularly at numerous jobs prior to this. He grumbled to himself, however it was heard by none but himself.

Then he entered. He was unkempt, slack jawed and almost, in Williams personal opinion, sickly to look at, more so than his new neighbour. William had had enough, swiftly he opened the door and strode into the room. The door made a banging sound as it slammed back into place.

"Greetings everyone, I am your new boss William Wilson. You may refer to me as Mr Wilson, I will not accept 'boss' or 'oh but boss'. Today I arrived a few minutes early to work, as per usual. I expect you to at least be on time, which you all are today. I wish to congratulate you on your punctuality, however, if this begins to lack, I will have to put you on a disciplinary. Yelling in the office will not be tolerated, nor will the use of phones." He glanced over at the culprits, they were staring at the ground like it was interesting.

He then continued, "I'm not doing these things to spite you, I am a fair man. Anyway, haven't you got work to do?"

The workers returned to their desks, satisfied, William turned to the two men that he had studied earlier.

"Hello gentlemen, I never had the chance to be introduced to you..."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, I'm David Smith." He politely offered his hand, William promptly shook it.

"Hello, Mr Wilson. It's Michael O'Neil." Sounding alike to an air horn notwithstanding, William begrudgingly remembered Sammy, Michael somewhat reminded him of him. It was the same sort of cheeky smile, the glint in his eyes and written all over him was slacker. He knew then that he wouldn't remain under his employment for long, it was always the case with his type.

The rest of the day didn't go without a hitch, this fact surprised William greatly because trouble seemed to follow him where ever he went. As a boy he hadn't noticed it, maybe it was because his ignorance feigned him from seeing the world in such an objective way; he had grown to view the world of what it really was. No longer was reality clouded within the realm of his mind, it all made sense now because he saw it for what it was, it was awful.

William drove home as the sun began to set on horizon, the weather was cheerful. It was almost peaceful in a way, that peace was abruptly destroyed as Murphy's law again came into play. Surrounding his house were a large number of people the vast majority were bearing gifts, they had eagerly awaited his arrival.

"Surprise!" Screeched practically everyone.

William just stared in shock.