"Here is how it works: They got no set log in times you log in whenever you like. As long as you do not log out you are at work."
How it in reality worked was clear to all those who lived next to or across the building. In pyjamas, they went to the office. Not to get at work but to log in. Once done they left and went back to bed, bed and breakfast at home.
For years it worked out great. The insurance company was a modern organization where employers had to work as a team. Team building was the key to everything. As long as the team's presentation was good everyone was. In reality, this meant two or three did nearly everything while the rest recovered from their last drinking festival and got paid for their absence or a presence of only two till three hours a day. A presence where they were too lame to work and looked busy because the files piled up on their desks. Files they got rid of by storing them into the drawers if they could not make their colleagues handle them. The collection department was a mess. Everyone was aware of that but since they were the ones who dealt with defaulters no one cared.
"What happened, eh, what happened back in the day, things weren't so fucked up... I like to say a few words..."
The reason he decided to make a statement wasn't caused by bad conscience but the need to be liked and to blame someone else. Liking the man in front of me was hard. He was a narcissist and a drunk. He had been a drunk for the biggest part of his life and used the goodness of the company for many years, the company and his colleagues. He had lied, cheated, used all the benefits he could find and filled his pockets without working for it. We, the company even rewarded him with profit shares but the only thing this low character had done was taking everything for granted. He thought it would last forever. He smirked at me.
Suddenly I understood why some employers behave like bullies, even use a whip, why they shouted at their employees, refused to let them have a coffee or smoking break and humiliate them. His face, that snigger... I no longer listened to the complaints of the man in front of me. A guy who should have been kicked out years ago. I imagined how it would be to work with a team of ten lazy, complaining, drunk and spoiled to death narcissists.
Chills ran down my spine. This man was an alcoholic but I did not feel mercy on him. He chooses to be this way and he wasn't special, not different from the rest. He denied, kept denying everything although a long list of evidence was printed and in front of him. He blamed the others, the company for giving him a good and easy life. They shouldn't have done that, we shouldn't have made his life that easy, his working place so comfortable.
"It's over," I said while handing over the envelope, "it's payday."
He smirked and I... I grinned back. Enough evidence was collected against him and no matter what he thought he wasn't the smartest guy in the world.
Gladly he had taken the well-filled envelope his thoughts clearly shown on his face.
"We are finished," I said, "you know the way out." I looked at the door and knew what he didn't know yet. An escort waited for him all thanks to a fingerprint on the glass of the cam.
