Inventory turned out to be far better organized than Henry remembered. The people working there currently resented him when he started making recommendations.
“Everything has a barcode now,” one explained.
“The system is fully digitized,” another explained.
“A MySQL database keeps track of what gets collected and automatically orders more of what’s expected to be in demand when supplies run low,” the first one finished.
The two seemed to have the job down, and did not require a third person, so Henry found himself doing jobs that were less enjoyable, such as inputting new items into the inventory database. They resented his asking questions, especially because he had such a hard time with their names. They were of middle eastern descent, and Henry had a hard time with names from that region. He kept being surprised by the fact that neither had an accent, even though one was from Ohio and the other from Georgia.
Jonathan became curiously absent again, which frustrated Henry greatly. Not only was he no longer able to do his accounting job, the temp still had his superior chair. Because his card no longer worked he could not get it out. He’d never bothered to learn any of his co-workers extensions, and Jonah never responded to any of his emails. Henry really wanted his chair back. He resented that a temp was enjoying the chair he’d spent so much money on.
For a full month this continued to go on. Henry was never able to find Jonathan, or anyone from the accounting department. The inventory boys kept him quite busy when he was not in the R&D department getting the monitors recharged and data uploaded. One technician observed that his blood pressure was creeping up. “Yours would too if you had to go through what I’ve been going through,” Henry snorted. The tech did not say anymore.
Finally, Jonathan appeared in the R&D lab. He looked over at Henry as he entered and excitedly gestured for him to come over. Henry took a deep breath. He’d been preparing a rant for over a week about all of the horrible things he’s had to put up with, but Jonathan never gave him the chance to speak.
“Henry!” Jonathan exclaimed. “Fantastic news. The project is going better than we could have ever dreamed! The company president wants to meet you!”
Henry forgot about his rant. “Really?” he squeaked. He’d seen the company president at a few all hands meetings, but aside from that had never interacted with him before. He suddenly wished he’d put on his nicest suit that day, but he’d been dressing more casual since working in inventory, for fear of staining his better clothes with some random liquid or powder. Jonathan put his arm around him and guided him from R&D to the elevator near the entrance, which they took to the fifth floor. He’d never even been to the fifth floor.
Down the hallway, past a few very nice offices for VP’s, to the end where a pair of doors opened to a palatial office for the president of Privex. Multiple giant screens were suspended over the desk with constant feeds from CNN, a large web browser he could control from his desk, and a stock ticker with real time updates on the company’s stock price. An orb on his desk glowed different colors to show if the price was doing well or poorly. Currently, the color was yellow. Several bookshelves occupied a far well, with one shelf dedicated to different laptops that the president could take on a business trip depending on the situation. Several full, luxurious chairs made of genuine leather allowed for comfortable seating.
But the chair behind the desk, that one really caught his eye. It was an ‘Executive’, just like the one he had in his accounting department. Henry reminded himself to speak with Jonathan after the meeting about getting his chair back.
Henry recognized the president right away, as well as the two VP’s. It took him several moments to recognize the man they were all talking to. It was Henry.
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