Cruelty, Hatred, Greed, Dishonesty, etc. Do Not Disturb!

Lately, everywhere I turn, someone is in pain.

Twenty-eight-year-old Stella Mason woke up tired and in pain. She had just returned from a long overdue vacation in the Caribbean that she saved up for five years. Despite all the fun she had, enjoying different cultures, the exotic foods she ate, the music that touched her soul, and the beautiful white-sand beaches she swam and sunbathed on, the happiness she paid for and wanted didn’t arrive.

Glancing around her, all she felt was pain. In her kitchen, preparing breakfast, pain followed her. Family and friends came over for news on her Caribbean vacation and demanded to know what she bought for them. That increased her pain.

Stella listened as they criticized her for forgetting them while she was away. Her silence alerted them, and they paused, staring at her.

She smiled, then calmly asked them to leave. They left in anger.

At work, the pain returned. She closed her office door. All day, her co-workers eased back. The next day she handed in her resignation at their regular biweekly meeting.

Clive Millard, the new VP, was there and asked, sitting in front of his computer at the head of a long oval table, “Why do you want to leave?”

“If I stay here, I would have to put a do-not-disturb sign on my heart?”

His brows rose up and down several times, then he asked, “What don’t you want to disturb you?”

“Greed, dishonesty, and cruelty are a few,” she said, her eyes on several of their coworkers.

His eyes swept the room, and he questioned, “Can you elaborate. Please.”

“I have been here seven years. All of my ideas ended up on someone else’s paycheck. The Bullworth account. I was told my idea wasn’t good. Yet someone got a promotion for it. So did the Nelson, Hamilton, and Stevens account. Which turns out to be your most valuable account. The Campbell and Green account was my idea too. My ideas were discouraged, then used. Everyone got promoted, salary increased, and I am still here. It took me five years to save for my vacation.”

“Is she telling the truth?” he turned to twelve employees in the conference room.

“We all work on those accounts,” several employees said.

He turned to them and asked each employee whose name was on the account according to the information on his computer. Then asked Stella.

She gave him a detailed description of each account.

When Stella was finished, he stared at her in awe, then said, “We need a manager. You are hired.”

Stella nodded. “No thanks. Greed, dishonesty, and cruelty still will be here. So the do-not-disturb sign will have to stay.”

“You knew more about all of these accounts than they did, and their names are under them. So you are telling the truth. They are all fired. You can hire honest people,” he said without regard.

“Where is she going to find honest people?” someone said. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world!”

“Are you serious?” Stella asked Mr. Millard.

“Like a prisoner on death row awaiting a stay of execution,” he said, his eyes swaying from them to her.

She sighed, then said, “I can hire who I want?”

He nods.

“I am in.”

“What’s your plan?” he asked.

“Everyone I hire will be warned they can be fired for being cruel, greedy, and dishonest,” she said.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“They will be encouraged to leave those habits at the garbage disposal at the entrance and pick them up again on their way out,” Stella said.

“Think it will work?” he asked.

“I will create a positive, comfortable, and productive work environment they will want to come to work every day and keep their jobs,” she added.

“So none of them will have a do-not-disturb sign on their hearts,” he said.

“When an employer creates a positive work environment and maintains it, honest, caring employees will do their best and stay. I will give them reasons to stay. Then they will be more productive,” she said.

“You are firing us?” one of the six employees who stole one of her ideas asked.

“You got paid for a job you didn’t do. You also took credit for it. Your supervisor didn’t do her job either. Clive is leaving, so that’s why we need a manager. I am firing everyone in that department. How can you take credit for work you didn’t do!”

Turning to Stella, Mr. Millard said, “I like your idea of putting a do-not-disturb sign on your heart to prevent what you don’t want entering.”

Lately, the hell raging in our world pain, cruelty, dishonesty, and insanity is everywhere and in almost everything. I have decided to put a do-not-disturb sign on my heart to keep hell away.

What do you think?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.