In 500... (or less)

Tobacco-Free Zone

He was certain someone had stolen his lunch, but he slid the various bags and containers around in the refrigerator one more time looking for his.

"Which one of these jerks took my..." he said under his breath before finally locating his lunch.

Agrazal strolled over to the table and sat with Carter and Fulton.

"I don't know how you guys keep up," he said as he pulled up a chair. "It's been quite a while since I had to work this hard."

Fulton nodded, his mouth was stuffed full with a bite of sandwich."Think the strike will end soon?" Carter asked Agrazal."

Tough to say. The boss seems pretty adamant about it."

The younger executives shook their heads in disbelief.

"Seems like he'd just give in," Fulton chimed in. "I mean, how long has it been now?"

"Starting into the fifth week now," Agrazal answered flatly. "The numbers keep going up. I don't see how we're going to keep getting by with having management fill in."

"At least you've had experience before," Carter said. "I've always been on the management team. Never once worked on the floor."

"The boss used to make us all work the floor. Even he did back in the day. That was back in the original location. Before we had to expand to keep up with demand."

"You'd think he would have just automated the whole thing by now," Fulton said, glancing at his phone to calculate how much of his lunch break remained.

"It's gotta have a personal touch," Agrazal answered. "Boss has always insisted on that. Each person gets personalized service."

"I'm on my third double this week," Carter complained. "I'm just going through the motions now. Actually had one laugh in my face the other day. I can't blame him, it was a horrible effort on my part."

"I can't imagine the union will hold out much longer," Agrazal said, aimlessly plodding his fork into his salad. "The boss always gets his way. I can remember when they were fighting for an 8-hour workday. He told me was going to do that on his own, but wanted them to fight for it, just so he could look like he was giving them something."

"This one just seems silly though," Fulton said. "I mean it's one thing to mess around with the health insurance, but banning smoking from the property? Seems a little harsh."

"I could see banning the smoking," Carter interjected. "But banning vaping too? Seriously, there's like no second-hand vapor and it doesn't even smell. I'd let them vape out on the floor if they'd quit smoking."

Agrazal gave his co-workers a disapproving look. Disagreeing was one thing. Saying it out loud was a whole different thing. The boss wasn't the forgiving type. Fulton however, couldn't resist piling on.

"There's brimstone smoldering here all day," he railed. "We're demons, for crying out loud. I think a guy deserves a smoke break after a hard shift of tormenting!"