Performance Review

Friday was the last business day of the month and Kevin was on edge. It was his fourth week at EA Tech. Entertainment Acquisition Technical Enhanced Network, the global credit card company with headquarters situated in Southern California had also partnered with the leaders of cable, phone, hotel and restaurant industries to prompt consumers to spend as much of their money on entertainment. The company’s business slogan was ‘Acquire your Entertainment’.

As Kevin stared nervously at his computer, he was vividly aware that he was somewhat isolated in his cubicle. His thoughts turned to the several youthful employees that had been seated near him. In recent days, their numbers had simply dwindled. It was a mystery to him as to why that was. In fact, more than mysterious, it was very frustrating as he depended on their input for his on-the-job learning.

Still, getting a job at this company was highly sought after. It had huge benefits, awesome pay, and seemingly negligible turnover – at least he had never heard of anyone who left the company, granted it was rather new on the block, so to speak, and had taken the credit card industry by storm, skyrocketing after it’s IPO. It didn’t hurt that it was well known that the company recruited very attractive people on both sides of the spectrum.

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Reflecting back to his start, Kevin had thought it was a strange company from the outset. He had spent the first few days at the company in orientation, where it seemed the company wanted to know everything about him, including his favorite food items and his workout routine. He found that strange and a bit invasive, but he neglected to voice such thoughts to the all female Human Resources employees that ran the orientation. He had been weighed and measured, with many photos taken, which would have been ok for an athlete-in-training, but not typically for an IT engineer, which was his occupation. When asked, they had said something about long term health of employees, healthy body=healthy mind, yada yada.

Another item he found strange was that all the new hires (and it was a substantial group at over thirty people) were young men, well dressed, professional and attractive. Most looked younger than him, this being his 2nd company in the field, and he was aged twenty-five.

At the end of orientation, the managers, all young, attractive women ranging in age from mid-twenties through early thirties, had then come in and taken turns selecting the various ‘talent’. Kevin felt like it was almost as though they had been in a draft, where all the managers selected a person and once they got to the end, the picking swung from back to front and vice versa. He didn’t know whether or not to feel honored when his manager, Andra Milker, picked him with her first selection. When the picking had completed, each manager had retreated to their respective departments with the new hires in tow – Andra had five new hires, including Kevin, whereas most of the managers had four.

As Kevin walked to his new technical job, he was instantly aware of how affable and attractive Andra was. Her mannerisms could be considered bordering on flirtation. There was much laughter, and gossip, and playful banter as she interacted with her new talent. As she escorted them to their new cubicles, all situated near each other, it was not uncommon for her to brush up against one of the men’s bodies, or lightly touch someone on the upper thigh or shoulder.

Andra was, simply put, a babe. In IT terms, where the percentage of attractive female professionals was notoriously low, that made her a goddess. Her curly brown hair, high cheekbones, emerald eyes, light tan, slim athletic build and cuteness of face and personality made her stand above even the other managers at the company, who were also unusually pretty. At 5’4”, her looks were a cross between mid-20s versions of Danica Patrick and Jennifer Garner.  She was also the youngest of the group of managers, being the same age as Kevin, twenty-five. Often, there was a breathless quality to her voice that would come out when she was being flirty or joking. Something about her just always seemed…fun. Even her attire had a casual, sporty nature to it. On top of that, she seemed to have a business savviness. There could be no doubt that she had obviously been fast-tracked into management and Kevin could see why.

A single man, there were multiple times a day when Kevin thought to himself as he surveilled her body or watched her speak, her vibrant persona spilling forth, What I wouldn’t give to become a permanent fixture in her life! He had become quickly enthralled by her. He remembered the group sand volleyball game they had played together once. Normally a very good athlete, he had been distracted watching her play in her short shorts which displayed her toned, tan legs, culminating in her powerful and seductive thighs.

  (Kevin observing Andra at a recent work co-ed volleyball game)

On multiple occasions, he had sat next to her as she talked to the group of new hires in her office, whom she referred to as her ‘gang’. Sitting beside, he had found himself staring at her delectable mouth, listening to her speak, her voice delightful to his ears, but also entranced by the way her lips moved. At times, she would flex her fingers, illustrating her perfectly polished nails. Occasionally, she would sweep away her hair and present her naked and flawlessly smooth neck, which was an apparent source of pride.

 However, fraternizing with your manager was very much frowned upon in the field and he had found out soon enough that she was, in fact, already married. Therefore, Kevin contented himself with simply enjoying her presence and flirtations. For him, romance would have to come from other avenues.

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For the most part, the first couple of weeks had gone well.  He had begun to learn the system and been mentored briefly by a couple consultants on how to run the internal finance reports for the department.

Kevin felt he was on good terms with Andra, as they shared some common interests, particularly when it came to food and humor. For the last several days, he had typically began his day by checking in with her, going to her office and letting her know what he had worked on the previous day and what he intended to learn and work on for the current day. She seemed to encourage this.

This had abruptly changed starting on Wednesday, where her office had been closed from early in the morning on and she had been unavailable for most of the day. Kevin figured that she must simply be busy. Perhaps there were end-of-month items which required her attention.

There seemed to be a tension in the air, though Kevin was unsure what the origins of it might be.

To make matters worse, the consultant he was supposed to be shadowing that day, David, had not shown up to his cubicle. David and he were working on a new project together, assigned at the start of the week, with David being the senior technician. He was going to go over some of the project code as well as some additional reporting features with Kevin.  David was highly looked upon by the company and had stayed on after many projects, acquiring lots of internal knowledge of the department’s systems.

Than Thursday afternoon rolled around and Andra had stopped by Kevin’s cubicle, asking him if he would run the weekly financial reports the next day. It had been Josh’s turn to run the report (the new hires had taken turns on a weekly basis), but Josh had mysteriously not come back to his desk after lunch. Kevin, attempting to look good in his manager’s eyes, had readily agreed to run the report, even though he had been assigned to a new project at the beginning of the week.

Later in the day, the project lead, a middle-aged woman name Helen, had swung by his desk and asked for a status, which Kevin gave her. He also let her know that he would be spending a portion of his time the next day working on the weekly financial reports, as Andra has asked him earlier. Helen shook her head as she walked away, apparently not happy with that information, though he could not be sure as he only saw the back of her head.

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