The new laws affected everyone, both small and not so small. Which naturally meant men and women. The divide between both genders was wider that it had ever been and it was painfully clear which one society favored at the moment. In the span of a month or two, men had already become marginalized citizens of the United States, fearful of doing anything wrong lest their size be forfeit under the Three Strikes Law. Of course some people still broke the law, however there was certainly less of them. Turned out being shrunken as a punishment was a rather nice deterrent to wrongdoings.
Men were lucky if they could find employment and even then that employment came with massive strings attached. Due to vastly less strict laws on corporations, businesses could actually submit punitive strikes against their workers for poor performance or ‘disciplinary’ action. Women were naturally universally exempted from this and made up a much larger margin of the work place as a result. Abuse of the system was common and widespread, with numerous reports made on how flawed. Interviews with victims of harassment, both from co-workers and otherwise revealed a rather unfortunate trend among the male population.
Kyle had gotten lucky. Right before the background check measures that made employment frustratingly difficult to get, he’d managed to get a decent job. It was office and cubicle work granted, but it was work. Which was more than over half of men in the United States had access to at the moment. Once a modest 5’5”, the president’s executive order had knocked a foot off of that. Fortunately, he knew how to keep his head down at the water cooler and kept himself from underfoot from his taller colleagues. A few were sympathetic but most working here had voted for Dianne Trent.
Currently he was sitting in his heavily raised chair and clacking away at the keyboard, his cubicle neat and tidy with the barest of personalization. The young man finished his project for the day and stretched, joints popping slightly after having been sitting in one place for hours on end. It was going to feel good to get back to his apartment and just relax with the girlfriend over some dumb movie. The world continued to spin after all. Yeah the new president was a lying bitch but he figured it was just 4 years.
A knock came at the cubicle. He turned in his chair and sat a little straighter as his boss was standing there. The dark haired woman pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, the mid-thirties chief dressed in what could be described as business casual attire. Rather too plain faced for Kyle’s taste and possessed of a modest form, but easy on the eyes. She cleared her throat.
“Hey there, Kyle. Think we need to talk. Got a few minutes?” The woman asked, a genial smile on her face.
Talk could have many interpretations. Kyle kept his expression cool, collected and confident. “Sure, Jenna, what do you need?”
She lifted a cup of coffee to her lips and took a light sip of it. “So, the director is a little… concerned. Your last couple of reports had some errors on them. Nothing too major, but enough to give her some notice to your performance.” She said at length, managing to sound like an unwilling messenger.
Kyle leaned back in his chair. “Ah, I see. Well, I’ll make sure to keep a closer eye out for those, Jenna. Won’t be a problem again.”
“…Then she noticed you’d come in an hour late last week. Hey, I get it, traffic and such around here is awful. However she isn’t exactly understanding.”
The young man felt his blood run cold for a moment. “What are you saying?” He didn’t actually want to put words to the possibilities running through his head.
Jenna shuffled slightly. “Well, she was looking to terminate you. You know how it is these days. Harder to keep men in the workplace than women, liabilities etc. I managed to talk her down to one Strike since you do good work here. Wouldn’t want to lose you. I suspect it was just recent events affecting your performance. So I’m going to need your ID card.” She held out her hand expectantly for the shorter man.
Kyle didn’t actually process what he heard at first. It had sounded like Jenna had just said she’d given him a Strike. He stared at the hand offered out in an almost uncomprehending manner. Then he looked at the almost apologetic look on his boss’s face. It was clear she had her hands tied here and had been doing what she could to keep him on. A Strike though. Strikes happened to people in the news. They happened to people his friends told him about. They couldn’t be happening to him.
Still, what was his other option? Unemployment? Like the majority of men now faced? Not really an option. So it was Kyle reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out his ID and looked at it. Below his picture there were three circles. Once they got filled in with a special type of marker, there was no erasing it. He handed it out to Jenna with hesitating hands, fingers trembling and his heart fluttering in his chest.
His boss took the card and pulled a red marker from her pocket. It had some technical words talking about proper use, only for authorized personnel, prosecution for illegal use etc. However, what it really did was turn Jenna into the arbiter of his fate and wellbeing. With a simple click she leaned over and marked Kyle’s ID. It was the simplest thing for her. In fact he knew she had done it more than once, even giving some employees their third Strikes. The last strike it was said.
The effects were felt immediately by the young man. There was a strange, almost sickening tingling before he found himself reducing in stature down by another whole foot. His legs hung from his raised chair rather comically and Jenna towered over him. She dwarfed him easily, effortlessly. With just a simple click she’d made life vastly more difficult for Kyle. Just a part of her job. The dark haired woman smiled not unkindly.
“It’s only one Strike. I’m confident we won’t have to do that again. I have to say, it is an unpleasant part of the job. Especially the third strikers. Nasty business there since I have to fire them after that. I mean, not much one can do here at three inches. Maybe a foot massage? Shoe shining?” Jenna managed a chuckle at those bits that failed to comfort Kyle in the slightest.
She leaned against his desk, displaying just how small he had become compared to her. “Though I hear a few companies are doing that to keep up being equal opportunity employers. I’ll have to bring it up to the director. I mean, in this economy a job is a job you know. Plus I could use a good shine job on these.” Kyle glanced down at her black heels and suppressed a shudder.
“Gets depressing having to fire some good guys. I mean, think about it. Sure, it’s not exactly a desirable job or well paying probably but it’s better than being out on the street. You’re a smart guy, so I know you’d probably do it. I mean, and let’s be real here, Kyle. What else is a three inch guy gonna be able to do? Gotta broaden the service industry a bit if you ask me. Make men useful again. ...Not that I’m saying you're useless, Kyle, heavens no. One of my top employees. Just want you to know, you’d have some kind of job security if the worst happens okay?” Jenna said with that genial smile of hers plastered on her face.
Job security… as the office’s glorified bitch boy. Job security, licking at Jenna’s pedicure until he couldn’t taste anything else. Job security, by being made less than human. Kyle wasn’t sure whether he wanted to throw up or just scream at that possibility. One thing was for certain he was not getting another Strike. He managed a weak smile that didn’t convey his horror properly enough.
“Gah, speaking of that. Need to get to Jerry. Poor guy ended up losing company files when that virus hit his computer. Third offense for him. Hey, I bet we could move you into his office. Already built for smaller guys. So silver lining and all that. Have a good one, Kyle.” Jenna offered as she clomped away, ready to go tear away everything a man had left.
At the end of the day Kyle packed up his stuff and was on his way out of the office. People were indeed packing out the things from Jerry’s cubical. Supposedly he’d gotten on his knees and started begging Jenna not to do it. Gave her black heels a nice shine with his tongue before she’d dumped him outside like yesterday’s trash. Kyle shuddered, trying not to think too hard on it. As he got out to the parking lot he walked to his car… only to realize he couldn’t drive because he was too small. The man felt a swirling of emotions swirling inside him. Burning shame became most prominent when a few of his female coworkers across the way noted it and snickered at him.
Kyle sighed, dug in his pocket for his phone and hit one of the contacts. “Hey, babe. It’s me. Can you come by work and pick me up? There was an… accident.” Try as he might he couldn’t bring himself to say it over the phone.