Awful Boss -5minutefreewrite

For https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-684-5-minute-freewrite-wednesday-prompt-awful-boss

What a terrible fellow. He reminded the humans working for him that, to him, they weren’t humans. They were either cost effective profit machines or they were fired. The idea that they could be trained or guided rather than ordered didn’t seem to cross his mind. The idea that being understanding on a bad day would lead to more good days didn’t seem to matter. But above all, the idea that they were people, and people were the reason people built society, was anathema to his theme.

Jumping Jason, he’d been called in high school, because he was easily startled. He used that startle reflex to startle his own company (ha). And he didn’t like it. It made him feel weak. So he tried to startle everyone else to make himself feel strong. He’d sneak up on employees and try to catch them in the act of not doing work. He’d yell HA! And if they were working, he would just act like the bully he is and chortle at their fear. And if they weren’t working, he’d lambast them. It meant nobody got any decent work done. They were afraid he’d sneak up on them… so they all just opened word files and put stock images in front of themselves and move the mouse around so that it always looked like they were working but they’d never get in the zone so much that they could be surprised. They certainly never did anything to relax their brains, so they still went home stressed and miserable.

It was awful, and the company failed. Not sure how it ever didn’t fail to begin with. Huh. We’ll have to workshop that.

This is the photo that showed up in my old photos when I searched for "office". I have no idea why it's labeled office, but it's gorgeous, isn't it?

Photo credit: me

in San Francisco