Thesis Topic 23

Lillian was paralyzed, "I... I am...."

"We have been looking for that box, that box wasn't scanned yet you moron!"

Lillian tranquilized for a second, maybe she didn't see me.

"It didn't have the red flag, remember that I told we mark every box ready for destroying with a red flag"

Lillian panicked again realizing that she had made a serious mistake. "I thought it had fallen, there was a flag just outside the box"

"You let that flag there. I told you to put them over the table when you return them but you simply let the last one fell on the floor".

"I am sorry"

"Just wait here and don't touch any more papers. OK?"

"Yes Jen"

Jen took the box with the remaining documents and returned half an hour later.

"The Boss want to see us", she said.

Suddenly the entire world seemed to fall over Lillian's head. She couldn't see her boss now, not after that stupid mistake, and not dressed like this. Nothing good could come out of that. She started to babble.

"I can't go inside the office dressed like this... it breaks the dress code... and I ... "

"I know it breaks the dress-code but you may tell that I authorized you to use shorts at work given that you would work in the warehouse. However, to be frank, I didn't expect that you wear a short so tiny or so tight, and the decision to wear that tight sport blouse without a bra was entirely yours"

"Please", Lillian begged.

"Come on the more we delay this, the worse for both of us. The boss hates to wait. So come on, lets go"

Lillian was pale, she started walking toward the west part of the warehouse.

"Where are you going? The office is this way."

"I know, I only want to put on my tennis shoes and my pants, I let them near that bunch of boxes"

"There is no time for that. I won't be scolded for being late in top of the punishment I would have to take for your stupid mistake. And who authorized you to take off your shoes. This is not an amusement park as you may think little lady", she said the last phrase with scorn and Lillian blushed realizing that she had been caught. Jen who was at least 8" taller than Lillian quickly grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her like a little girl towards the office door. Lillian was to shocked to resist, and soon it was too late because when they entered the office any attempt to stop now would necessarily cause a scene that only would draw more attention to herself.

She walked without taking her sight from the floor. She was hearing whispers, gasps and even muffled laughs all the way. They presented a bizarre image, at least by office standards. The young brunette high school intern was carrying her shorter and probably younger companion like if she was a little girl. The younger girl was barefoot and her sporty clothes looked more apt for a pajama party than to play sports and much less to be in the office.

"This is got to be a nightmare, this couldn't be happening to me", she thought ashamed. She was leaving faint prints with her soiled soles all over the gray carpet as a probe that the scene was not part of the imagination of the employees. Lillian realized that she never had been so badly dressed in public. She wasn't wearing underwear and her tight clothes did nothing to conceal the fact, her shorts showed a clear camel toe and her nipples were poking thru the shear fabric of her top. All the humiliation hadn't stopped her horniness or maybe it even contributed to it. She had many times mocked or scolded women dressed much more decently than she was now. "What would everybody will think of me now? Sure that I am a little bimbo". She regretted her clothing choices and was on the verge of crying when they finally arrived to Mr. Palmer office. She paled, he was the very same person that had sent her to the file department as a punishment. "I am dead", she thought. The surprised face of Mr. Palmer when she saw the little red hair girl wearing a pony tail, no make up at all and just barely dressed was fast replaced by a gesture of disapproval. He motioned the pair of girls to sit, then he directed his talk to Jean.

"So tell me Jean. What did happen there?"

Jean cleared her throat and controlled her fear and nervousness. Then she repeated what she had been mentally rehearsing.

"Mr. Palmer, as you already know we made a serious mistake, the box labeled A-345-01 was partially destroyed before we scanned it, right now we have stopped the operation and my team is identifying the missing documents. When we have the complete list we will try to see how many we can recover from other sources"

Mr. Palmer said, "Your plan of action is good, but we can't afford these kind of mistakes. Didn't you tell me that your system was fool proof? Tell me what happened".

Jean stammered a bit but then recovered her composure while Lillian was blushing bright red. "Well as you know we mark boxes ready for destruction with a red flag, but during our lunch hour Lilly took one box because she saw a red flag near it"

"Jean, just tell me that was what you tough her?"

"No sir. She knew that the red flag must be stick to the box and that the box must be handed to her by one of the scanning girls. I am sure she was capacitated properly, I have here her written exam on the procedure, she was trying to be helpful but she forgot the procedure".

"One more thing Jean. Do you approve her attire?"

Jean was silent for a couple of seconds and then said, "I authorized her to work using shorts and fresh clothes because the warehouse is very hot as you know, but to be frank I didn't expect her to dress so ... well.... You know".

"That's ok Jean. I think you handled yourself very good giving the circumstances, but you surely understand that we can't afford more loses, so we will apply the penalty for this cases as stated in your contract. Your whole team will be charged with one day of salary. But Jean.... You impressed me, I am pretty sure you will be a very good executive once you finish college. Now you may go, I need to talk with Ms. Lillian for a moment"

When Jean left the office, Mr. Palmer exploded. "What are you thinking? Are you deliberately trying to make look bad or what?"

Mr. Palmer was in a tall white man in his late forties. He was normally very controlled but now he was red with anger.

Lillian felt afraid, she was pale and started to stammer some excuses when he interrupted her.

"Lillian, when I sent you to the filling department, I expected that you being the most educated and experienced would rapidly take charge and will give the operation more certainty, maybe reviewing the procedures to make them even more secure. Instead of that you accommodated yourself as the lowest employee of the group and not only that but you showed less maturity than them and made a costly mistake"

Lillian was on the verge of crying, "How could I have been so stupid? It wasn't a punishment job, it was a new challenge, He still trusted me when he sent me there to improve the department, and I failed miserably, I didn't even fight them when they put me in the lowest position". She was so ashamed that she just said, "I am sorry", in a barely audible voice and looking at the floor.

Mr. Palmer, didn't want a conversation, he just wanted to release his anger. "You know Lillian business is war, war against competitors and war against inside rivals. That is the name of the game. I have been competing with Bob Carling from the west office for a new position as a branch director. You just have sabotaged one of my pet projects. I was the one that made the bet to hire young women to do that job, they are not only cheaper than other alternatives but they are careful and pay attention to the details. Bob mocked me, but I knew that if I took the risk and got the results he had to eat his words at the next meeting. Now I won't be able to report a 100% error free operation that I promised, all because your mistake".

Normally Mr. Palmer wouldn't talk about his personal affectations by his employees, but he was seriously distressed that day. He was in the course of a very nasty divorce and just that morning his soon to be ex-wife had won a very important legal battle. He continued reveling his thoughts, "You know Lilly, we are in the business of predicting people's success at certain job or career. That is what we do, all the interviews, all the tests are just for that. It is very bad that I have failed to predict your failure, and this is going to cost me, just yesterday Bob was bragging about one of his interns that comes from your university, maybe you know him, John Wallace. Bob said that he is doing a thesis researching factors to predict women success in business careers. He had already interviewed Carly Fiorina, Heidi Miller and many local business woman. See, that is the kind of thing that I would like to brag about my interns in the regional meetings. And what would I tell them now? That my supposedly star intern was not only a failure as an interviewer but she was a clumsy filler, not to mention the way she is dressed".

Mr. Palmer took a moment to catch his breath. He felt more relaxed now that he had ranted all that he wanted. "You are fired Lillian".

Lillian was pale, the whole conversation, the firing, the fact of being a disappointment, and the way she was dressed while she listened to all that, were things that never in her life crossed her mind as a possibility. She had often imagined herself conversing with executives but in her dreams she had always impressed them and either was receiving important assignments or receiving praise for her work. She was paralyzed but then regained some control, she knew she must do something, if she was fired, she won't complete the required professional practice hours and won't graduate on time, and would have to hear a lot of crap from Ms. Barbara. Then she thought, "unless the school is not informed".

"Mr. Palmer. I would... would like to ask you... ask you a favor.... Could you delay for a while to inform this to the university, you know so I have chance to get another internship?"

She half expected for Mr. Palmer to yell at her or something, but he kept quiet, which encouraged Lillian to continue, "please Mr. Palmer, I am very sorry for everything and I understand that you fire me but please don't inform my college, I'll do anything", she said the last phrase without giving it too much thinking.

Mr. Palmer pondered the situation for a second, on one hand he was really pissed at Lillian, after all, at least in his view, she had damaged his reputation in two ways: She had destroyed the possibility for he to brag that he got a great intern after taking the risk of selecting the youngest candidate. He couldn't talk about his vision and ability to pick the candidates more likely to succeed. But his candidate turned to be a shame and not only that but she also hit his pet project. On the other hand, however, he understood that firing her after just two weeks will look bad on his image too. But he really wanted to punish this girl. Maybe he was projecting toward Lillian his rage against his soon to be ex-wife but anyway she deserved it.

"I can't do that Lillian, the moment I put you out of the payroll an automatic message would be sent to your college...", Lillian paled but he continued talking, "however I could maybe retain you on another position", Lillian saw a glimpse of hope, "What position sir?", she asked timidly.

"Lillian, it is a fact that I can't have you near our job candidates or customers because it would severely damage the image of our company, just look at yourself", Lillian blushed and she was so nervous that she couldn't even defend herself, "you may not be anywhere near our important documents because they would be at risk, so the only solution I see is to send you to do janitorial work, we have the warehouse #2 already empty and we need to clean it because next month we will receive the documents from the west office. Of course we will adjust your salary accordingly", Lillian was stunned, a week ago she was a rising star and now her boss said that she could not be trusted more than janitorial jobs. She had to fight back, she had to ask for a more dignifying way out.

She was trying to organize her reply when he continued. "Of course I said I could retain you, not that I would, unless your promise to do anything is real".

"What....?", it was all that she managed to say, her lower lip was visible trembling by then. She had to make up her mind quickly, "I may find another internship and I just have to inform the university about the change and that's it. No big deal.", but she wasn't as sure as she tried to convince herself and finally her doubts started to surge in her mind, "But it could take days or even weeks and what if the internships are already closed?, I simply can't risk that, I have to stay focused to graduate on time, I am still able to graduate with honors and he will see who am I. But I need to buy time."

He interrupted her thoughts, "So, Do you want this chance or not?"

"Yes sir", she said in an almost inaudible voice.

"Ok. I am willing to concede your wish but you have to earn it. Take off your blouse".

She was stunned; she couldn't be asking that, "but sir... People will know... and this is sexual harassment".

"Let's stop the bullshit. You are already fired and may walk out right now, you may accuse me of sexual harassment if you want but I don't think you will get much sympathy after I show the prosecutor the videos of you walking the aisles in your skimpy outfit and you know your contract termination is perfectly justified after your costly and documented mistakes.", Lillian swallowed, she knew he was right, her credibility would be extremely low. She remained quiet while he continued, "and regarding what people think, let me tell you two things: First, if I don't fire you everybody would think bad about us anyway and second as long as real evidence does not exist, rumors of mixing power and promiscuity seems to be good for a man's image in the executive world. At least Bob had benefited from his womanizer fame. Everybody admire him and envy him. So would you give me your blouse or should I call the guard to escort you out of our facilities?".

She was trapped and she needed time, she wasn't ready to fail yet, she rationalized, "I can make sacrifices to get my goals. I can't give this pervert a peek show, it is not like I am a slut or something, I just want to keep this job for a few days until I am on my feet again", the reality was that part of her, a small part of her she wished to think, wanted to do it. The whole scene reminded her the scenes of countless videos of submissive girls that she had seen in the last few days. She started to slowly peel off her blouse and blushing deeply she handed it to Mr. Palmer.

Mr. Palmer took the blouse and stored it in the top drawer of his desk. Lillian felt a knot in her stomach and a tingle in her pussy. Mr. Palmer was high on his power, after all this time on the receiving end because of his humiliating divorce and the way that everybody looked at him with condescending sights, he was finally feeling with satisfaction his old power return. "It seems like you forgot your bra. Looks like you are not smart enough to pay attention to such details. Are you? Well, it's no problem, it speeds up things. Now give me your short".

This time it was almost too much. She was being treated like some bimbo and now he was asking for the last piece of clothing that she was wearing. She tried to resist to regain some control of the situation but she was getting hornier by the minute and that was clouding her mind. Her heart was beating fast and she really wanted to submit, to act like the sluts in the countless videos that she had narrated and described in first person, she was biting her lower lip with shyness and anticipation, she really wanted to do it but she wasn't ready to admit it to herself, she was thinking, "I need to comply with his orders, after all he is blackmailing me and if I don't obey it can seriously harm my career. It is not that I am slut or something, it's just that I need to comply in order to gain time".

She pulled her shorts down and handed them to Mr. Palmer. Her hand was trembling slightly and her respiration had become short and fast. A thousand emotions overwhelmed her, she felt fear, shame and arousal, and in someway she felt more alive than ever.

Mr. Palmer smiled with satisfaction. He silently folded twice the little garment and put it over some stack of papers at the right corner of his desk. "You are a very dirty girl Lilly. Don't you ever wear underwear?"

"I... I always... I usually do... sir", she felt very self conscious having that conversation without a stitch of cloth covering her body.

"Well. I see that you are really willing to do anything to get this position, but I am a professional man, I need to know if you are really qualified. Do you have experience as a cleaning girl?"

Lillian blushed. "What is he talking about? I already took off my clothes wasn't it what he wanted?", she thought.

The long silence was interrupted by Mr. Palmer. "Listen Lilly, if you don't want to be interviewed for the position, then you may leave. Maybe you can't manage an interview not even from the job candidate side"

"OK. Sir", she said resigned, "I really don't have... you know...", she felt very nervous, being naked made her very insecure, " I never worked as a cleaning girl sir, but ... but I am sure I can do the job... I clean my house and ...".

He started filling a form, "Ok, no professional experience", he said out loud while writing in the form. "Most other candidates have professional experience, why should I choose you over them?"

She had prepared herself a thousand times to answer such typical job interview questions, but she never expected to answer them naked and in regard a cleaning girl position. She didn't know what kind of game was Mr. Palmer playing but she knew she had to convince him somehow. "Maybe if I do a good interview under this circumstances I'll gain his respect again", she thought.

Lillian breathed deeply and tried to abstract herself from her situation and return to her well-practiced interview script. "Well, I know other candidates could have more job experience than me but, I can bring a lot to compensate for that...", it was her old script but now it didn't sound as good because her voice was slightly trembling, she continued," I am a team player... and I am a smart person... I... I can learn fast and... I am very responsible... and have initiative.... I am a very successful person... and".

Mr. Palmer interrupted her. The whole scene was surrealistic and he was enjoying the situation a lot.

"Let's go for parts, you said you are very successful but I understand that in your last job you were first demoted and then fired, Isn't it?"

She slightly nodded her face full of shame, "but in school...".

"Don't interrupt me, I have not finished yet. You say that you have initiative but when I put you in the filling department instead of changing things for good you complied with everything and just followed orders until you made a huge mistake in just your second day, which speaks very bad of your touted intelligence. Your responsibility is a joke, and your team play well, you seem more like a team drag, you cost your team a day of salary for each one of them. "

Lillian was getting more nervous by the minute, she didn't know how to handle Mr. Palmer answer, she replied what came to her mind first in regard his last phrase.

"I... I...really can be a team player, i... I can make mistakes but I take my responsibility and protect the team".

"Well, you may have the chance to prove that later, anyway Team play is not nearly enough to get a job so You better tell me some real assets or I could not give you the position"