helpful, considering how turned around all of them are
How this will play out is anyone’s guess. But Fred certainly hits the ground running, and days later for example is in Edgar’s office, trying to get a brief rundown on what this pricing/data coordinator job entails, a chair pulled up to his desk. If nothing else this is much more than Todd has thus far attempted. A couple weeks later, Fred makes his first real suggestion, which is that they schedule a little bitch session (not that he phrases it as such) in the conference room, so that everyone can air their miseries about whatever, and give Edgar the opportunity to respond to them. Fred will sit in as an observer, nothing more, and take notes.
So they move forward with this concept, announcing it well in advance. Otherwise Fred has no immediate changes to send Edgar’s way, except for the minor nuisance of this daily reporting. In the space of two months, this is already the third iteration of the concept. It went from Vince poking his head into the office every morning, to ask what “the numbers” were from the previous day, in other words the sales figures. Following Todd’s arrival, Vince still sticks his face in every morning to ask for the numbers, even though Todd has instructed Edgar to email everyone — store managers, department managers, merchandisers and him — a PDF report encapsulating all this information. Now Fred wants something else entirely.
“I see that you’re emailing everyone a report every morning, and that’s fine, you can keep doing that. But what I want you to do is, start putting that information in the body of the email, too. This way everyone can see it at a glance, it’s all right there.”
Which is a bit more time consuming, but not a major deal. A much greater question is where they’re going to fit everyone, with an additional person now in this building every day. To that end numerous projects have been undertaken already, some already completed, some a work in progress.
For the time being, Vicky is moved into Park and Valerie’s office, as it’s the second roomiest and can just barely support a third desk. This allows Fred to at least share the office closest to Todd, alongside Dale. Yet in the remainder of the building, Todd has also commissioned some major renovations. His plan is to wall off half of the main room, creating three more offices there. Even better, to make room for these, he has already told the foot massage lady to take a hike.
Regarding the rest, how this is expected to shake out is that Vicky, Dale, and Park will move into the three new offices, upon completion. As for Valerie, Todd is having a receptionist’s desk built for her in the middle of the remaining central room, because he has decided she is now basically his personal secretary. The conference room table they will move into the back corner room that she and the other two are soon vacating. Meanwhile, the little kitchen area, which is on the same side of the building as the three new offices, will be separated into a clearly demarcated space once that last wall goes up.
Brian and Vince are stuck rooming together still, ditto Edgar and Barbara — but maybe not for long. One afternoon, as Edgar is busy working behind his desk, Todd sticks his head in, peeks around the door. Observes that Barbara’s is currently gone, as she walked over to Central a few minutes ago.
“This one worries me,” he tells Edgar, pointing at her empty desk. Motivations for saying so unknown, not that he’s all that far off the mark regardless of what they are. “Keep an eye on her,” he says, and exits the office himself.
Edgar can’t help but laugh about that comment, every time he thinks of it. Say one thing about their new boss, however this does or doesn’t work out, he’s frequently amusing if nothing else. Another afternoon right around this time, a quiet midweek that finds just three of them in the entire building, Edgar’s once again behind his desk when Vicky pops in and explains that she and the other one, Todd, are driving to some office supply store clear over in the Selworth part of town, and asks him if he’d like to ride along. A conversation that Todd overhears and emerges to agree with, too.
As always, yes, he does have a mountain of work, much of it pressing. But for the most part, the only person setting the pace at which he flies is himself, he doesn’t have a gun to his head. It wouldn’t kill him to break away for an hour like this every once in a blue moon. Particularly as this might prove beneficial from a getting-to-know-you standpoint, as he still doesn’t know a ton about Todd and vice verse. For that matter, the same might apply to him and Vicky. It also occurs to him to wonder if Vicky didn’t pointedly extend this invite because she didn’t want to ride somewhere alone with Todd.
So the three of them climb into Todd’s vehicle and fight cross-town traffic all the way into this retail saturated neighborhood south of downtown. Along the way, it’s determined that they should grab some lunch first, and so after a little driving around, they pop inside a Chicken Empire franchise, one that is thoroughly jumping and requires an eternity for them just to reach the counter. The actual eating portion of this lunch passes in a blink, possibly because their president talks basically nonstop, a pattern which continues as they get back into his car and…return the way they came, back to their own HQ, without having ever actually stopped at the intended office supply store.
About halfway there, Edgar realized that this was happening, Todd totally zoned out as he rambled on about all his magnificent, grandiose plans, chief among these something about how they’ll be able to “break away from Bellwether,” by this time next year, whatever in the world that means. Maybe Todd believes he is going to buy out their interest in the Wholesome Shopper enterprise? Whatever the case, Edgar is kind of chuckling to himself in the back seat, wondering at what point either of those two sitting up front will remember the whole point behind this excursion. But no. Well, it’s possible Vicky did, but found herself in the same category as he, considering it highly amusing and not about to mention that destination at this point, fading farther and farther behind them by the second. They then reenter the building and go their separate ways, with nothing else said about this office supply store.
Others are understandably a little less amused by Todd’s antics, however. Billy has already left Palmyra before they reach a decision on his replacement, meaning that Michael is running the store on an interim basis. He expects that Todd will eventually decide to remove the “interim” part of that title, which is a reasonable forecast, considering he’s certainly capable enough, and the numbers come in just fine. Instead some outsider named Russell is brought aboard, recruited from parts unknown, a middle aged farmer type who nonetheless does have a great deal of retail management experience. At least, that’s what his resume says.
Michael and Shelly are remaining exactly where they are, then — as far as their positions with this company are concerned, anyway. Nothing can stop someone from just up and quitting, however, and moving on. Which is exactly what happens when Michael, who never comes out and says this is the reason behind it, becomes the next to submit his two weeks’ notice. One long gestating offshoot of this, however, twelve years in the making, is that Shelly at long last is given the assistant store manager’s job, with a figurative shrug from Todd and Fred.
Concerning the relative logjam down at Central HQ, nothing is changing as the new year approaches. Construction continues, yet as Valerie’s reception area goes up and she’s able to relocate there, the new offices aren’t quite ready, meaning the conference table remains might where it is for the time being. Still, the renovations look nice, they’re getting some snazzy new equipment for the kitchen, such as this monolithic Keurig machine, and a refrigerator, so they don’t mind temporarily withstanding the tight quarters until this is completed. It’s even kind of exciting, to have such improvements enacted in such a relatively short time frame. For those who are sticking around, anyway.
It’s debatable on which side of this fence Barbara might fall down from, given Todd’s private little heads up to Edgar. Even less so after the first Christmas party under this new regime. Whether stampeding forward in oblivion, or as an active measure taken because she suspects something amiss, this time around Barbara somehow selects Todd’s wife as her target, and corrals the not at all pleased looking woman for half the night, gabbing her ear off.
Whatever the intention, though, this move clearly backfires. The wife even more clearly in turn burned a hole into Todd’s eardrum on the way home, because he arrives first thing the following morning and announces that he’s canceling Barbara’s radio show. She can continue working two days a week, to post her personal rants on the company website if she likes, or maybe help Valerie with some projects, and that’s about it.
Todd actually tells Edgar this that morning, and a bunch of other people around the office, before Barbara has even shown up. Thus when she does arrive and is given the news, and she storms into their office red-faced, more angry than anything else, Edgar has to pretend like he wasn’t already aware of the cancellation. A situation made unspeakably more uncomfortable considering that not just Todd but Friendly and Unfriendly HR both happen to be conversing out in the main room right at this moment, not too far beyond the open doorway.
Though Todd and Unfriendly HR have their backs to him, Carla’s facing in his direction, even, as she chats with the other two. Whatever they are discussing, it appears light and convivial, not the least bit related to Barbara or her radio show. But this doesn’t make the situation any less mortifying as Barbara launches into this hissing rant, in a voice one might describe as a raised whisper, as she jabs an insistent finger in Todd’s direction and rails against this new regime. Her desk is safely buried in the half of the room behind the door, but Edgar’s is not. Carla’s sight line to him is wide open, therefore he’s attempting to nod and look concerned without really saying anything of substance, though continuing to focus upon Barbara and not dare glance over into the main room, as he suspects his horrified expression might speak volumes.
Later that afternoon, after the trio outside his door has vacated the premises and Barbara pointedly stomps off as well, a beaming Valerie, looking very much like someone halfway relieved and halfway glancing over her shoulder, drifts in to gather Edgar’s take on this explosive situation. As such, presented this request for his honest opinion, he can’t help but reenact Barbara’s angry whisperings from earlier, with the HR department right outside his door.
“Yeah, that’s not awkward or anything,” Valerie deadpans. Then adds, “Park actually texted me before I even got here this morning, he said, heads up, Barbara’s been acting weird(er) this morning. They canceled her show.”
“That’s funny,” he chuckles, but then, in a much more pensive move, partially because he’s debating whether he should even say this, throws in, “you know, my wife was actually asking me awhile back if I thought Barbara might come in and shoot up the place.”
“Oh yeah! Totally!”
Edgar nods and then muses, “so if she brings in a plate of cookies…”
“Don’t eat those! Those are straight up D-Con cookies! Those little green pellets, those aren’t M & Ms!”
