The Company Party

Jack leaned back in his office chair feeling good.  The week had gone very well, production went quite well this past week.  Only a few minor hiccups in the production line, orders were filled and shipped.  There was a bit of a snafu with the NWS order, they decided to redo the order just before the change window closed which caused the order to ship about half a day late.  They were understanding about the slight delay, so that shouldn’t cause any lasting issues.  

 

Things were going well.  The year seemed to be flying by, here it was the start of July and already all the numbers for the year were above expectations.  Not wildly high, but higher than anticipated.   Yea, it’s a good year he thought. 

 

This would be a great year for a company party, say at the end of August, that would be enough time to plan for one, Jack started to think.  Yes, it’s been a while since we had one.   

 

He suddenly felt a pang of anxiety.  Who would be at the party?  So much of the company was now automated with AI agents and robotics there was hardly anyone was really employed by the company anymore.  The relatively few workers on the production line to monitor the robotics and do repairs were contractors, and they came and went like the wind it seemed some times.  Just Dave and Janice, who were the line supervisors, were full time company employees.  

 

The office staff was about a dozen folks now.  Half were contractors as well.  And mostly worked on an as needed bases.  There were some sales folks out in the field, but most were remote and would unlikely come back to the home office for a party.

 

A memory popped into his head of when he laid off a bunch of folks and one mutter on the way out the door, “profits over people”.  At the time he had sluffed it off.  Profits were the reason any company was in business of course, he remembered thinking at the time.  He had given all of them a good separation package.  Most of them, as far as he knew, had been able to land new jobs within a few months at most.  A few had retired rather than try to get a new job.  At the time he recalled he felt that the layoffs had gone well.  Most had a month or more of pay when they left, even the ones who had only been employed for a relatively short time. 

 

But now that statement seemed haunting.  Profits over people.  He had the profits, but the people were gone.  

 

He ruminated on this while he looked out the window as some barn swallows darting by catching some insects in the early evening light.  They shot off and were out of sight.  After a few moments, Jack shut down his computer, shut off the lights and headed out of the office.  The euphoria of the good year was gone like the barn swallows.