Page 25 of The Revenge Agenda

“How is that possible when he’s not here?”

“Do you only work between the hours of nine and nine thirty?”

“That’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point?” The patient smile he gives me makes me feel like I’ve walked into a trap. And that he’s had this conversation before.

“I get the feeling that whatever I say next, you’ve already got an answer for.”

He leans forward. “I’d assume so. Look, when it comes to Carey, I’m … protective. Your role has had a higher than usual amount of turnover in the last few years, for a number of reasons, but one of the sticking points that keeps coming up is Carey. He’s a wonderful man. Very friendly. He has systems in place for doing his job, and he has amazing rapport with his customers. I’d love to see you find a single other person out there who has notes as detailed on their clients as he does. But with all of his positives, there are also negatives for a traditional workplace. He’s never on time. He works odd hours. He gets distracted and distracts people around him, and his to-do list gets wildly out of control before he’ll randomly decide today’s the day to get it all done.”

“That’s a lot of negatives,” I point out.

“And it’s your job to manage them.”

“I’d like to request a performance plan to help him fix his lateness.”

Ted shrugs. “Go for it, but it won’t work.”

“Why?”

“It’s been tried before, it failed before, and I still refused to fire him. Wanna know why?”

“I’m on the edge of my seat.”

“Carey has ADHD. It’s ableist to expect him to be anyone other than who he is.”

Well, fuck. I didn’t know that, and I like to pride myself on being a pretty cluey guy. Ted is right. That changes things. I’m not sure yet exactly how, but if I do stay with this job, I’ll be figuring it out. Of course Rush is the one I’m going to have to devote some of my focus to. Of course this is one more reason for me to be thinking about the last guy I want to think about.

Of course.

Because that’s the shitshow my life is at the moment.

“If I relax the start time for him, then I need to relax it for my whole team. It’s unfair otherwise.”

Ted smiles. “That could be one way to handle it. I didn’t hire you to supervise a neurotypical team, Hunter. I hired you to supervise a team. Of people. And all those people are different. I’ll give you the same spiel I’ve given the other people before you: your only job is to ensure your team hit their goals. However they do that is up to you.”

That’s way more freedom than I’ve ever been given before. Jobs come with a list. A set structure you need to do to get through the day and go home. Anything outside of that and you need permission from higher-ups. It’s been drilled into me from bussing tables during high school to the two jobs I held down while in college to my position at WCX. Corporations have structure, and people get hella pissed when you fuck with that structure.

“Just to be clear,” I say, sitting forward a little as the freedom goes to my head. “My team, my rules?”

“Don’t break any safety guidelines, meet your KPIs. That’s it.”

“Okay.” A million ideas are already flying through my head as I stand. “Okay.”

“And no firing Carey.” Ted rubs at his forehead. “I’m done with hearing people complain about that man.”

“Got it. Thanks for the chat, boss.”

My mind is whirling when I leave his office as I try to figure out what the hell I got myself into. Quitting still isn’t off the table, but it’s looking a whole lot less likely now I’ve been given that kind of direction.

That direction being that I don’t have direction.

Anything.

At all.

But before I get carried away with my ideas, I need to talk to my team. If I’m going to make changes, if I’m going to shake things up in a good way, I need to make sure it will be welcome. Do any of them want to start late? Start early? I won’t know until I actually ask them.

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