“Can you meet me in the conference room?”
“Okay.”
We recently got the conference room back from one of the businesses which had been leasing the storefront. They’d been using it as a stockroom. It’s empty now, except for a few tables and chairs and an old fridge. We sit down at one of the tables.
“How long have you worked here, Michael?”
Three years, I tell him. Though it’s more like three and a half.
“You’ve got an excellent record. You keep the place clean. We get a lot of positive comments from the guests. You don’t take days off. You even drive in on your RDO’s when we need you. That hasn’t escaped my notice.”
“Thank you”, as if I don’t know what’s coming.
“You might be aware that it hasn’t been a great year for us…”
That’s stating the obvious, really. People are spending less and travelling less. Add to that a shocking winter, and it’s hard to see how I could possibly not be unaware that business has been poor.
“… and we’ve been getting pressure from Adelaide…”
You can probably fill in the rest of the details yourself. I did before he even completed the sentence. We chat for a while after that, shake hands, it’s all very friendly, and I leave for home.
It still seems kind of surreal. Like something that happened to someone else. What do I do now? I was already planning to quit, and even looking forward to it a little, but not until after Christmas and my being accepted by the University.
I guess I should go into the city tomorrow and register with Centrelink. Start applying for jobs as soon as possible. At least I’ll have a good reference. I still have a month of night classes and two major assignments to deal with. Maybe right now a little bit of extra study time is a blessing in disguise.
