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Employee appreciation

"Sir, I think morale has been low lately," Ms. Fredrickson said to her boss. Her boss, Mr. Green, was the manager of their regional office.

"What makes you say that?" huffed Mr. Green over his morning cup of coffee that Ms. Fredrickson had made for him.

"Well, sir, people have been muttering about how the changes to the healthcare plans are very unfair and will put a lot of them in tough spots."

"Mine didn't change," Mr. Green said, taking another sip.

Ms. Fredrickson sighed. She knew Mr. Green didn't remember the changes, they didn't affect management, but they affected pretty much everyone else, including assistants like her. "Well, while management's plans didn't change, the rest of the office's plans did."

"I don't have any control over that."

This was true. Healthcare plan changes came from much higher up than Mr. Green. "Still, it might be nice to do something to raise the office's morale."

"And what would you suggest?" asked Mr. Green. He wasn't the friendliest of bosses, but he knew that low morale made for a bad workplace and no boss wanted a bad workplace.

Ms. Fredrickson smiled, she was glad when Mr. Green asked for her ideas. "I was thinking a surprise employee appreciation day."

The two then discussed a budget that would come out of the annual party budget, plus a little donation from Mr. Green himself (Ms. Fredrickson said it'd be a nice touch). They decided that it would be next Friday. Ms. Fredrickson was happy with that date because, in the next week, a change to the company's dental plan came down and people needed some appreciation more than ever. Ms. Fredrickson noticed many hushed, unhappy conversations by the water cooler, by the microwave, and even in the bathroom.

She came in early on that Friday and set up a buffet of coffee, tea, donuts, bagels, and fruit in the conference room. She also put up some decorations and set up some employee appreciation games. She thought it would be nice if everyone took turns writing down nice things about other people in the office (she told Mr. Green to prep these since he wasn't good on his feet).

After breakfast was all set up, Ms. Fredrickson checked that the lunch order for pizza and cake was all set up. She was happy to see that it was.

Mr. Green was the first one in, which wasn't unusual, besides, Ms. Fredrickson said he needed to be. He nodded approvingly at the buffet and settled in to his office. Then the clock struck nine.

But the office was empty.

No matter, thought Ms. Fredrickson, there must be traffic.

But then it became 9:30 and no one was in.

Mr. Green popped his head into the conference room, "Where is everyone?"

"I'm not sure," muttered Ms. Fredrickson. She went to her desk to quickly check her email in case she'd missed something.

She had.

Sitting in her inbox was an email from all of the office employees saying they weren't coming back unless their old benefits were reinstated. It had been sent to the CEO and Mr. Green was cc'ed. She looked over at Mr. Green, who had also opened his email and was staring at his computer wide-eyed.

"Well," she said to him, getting his attention, "how do you feel about eating 15 pizzas for lunch?"

(Prompt by Kimisha Cassidy)

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