Break It Tony And The Legal Meeting (Part 1)

Day Off Plans

Another fine day of blissfully carried sleep and as the morning is still early, I have much ahead of me. This past weekend has been a blessing on sleep, having those full eight to ten hours, just lazing in bed, not having any big nights. That helps me twofold as I feel replenished as well as manageable with my chronology. Today I’m supposed to head out to the City on my day off and explore the shops down there for my window shopping fiasco.

However, I’ve realized that there won’t be much down there to do as I’ve seen it all and know all that I will be buying come Thursday. The only curtail at my expense is the fact that I can’t check out contact lenses but I guess I can do that in Campbelltown. Therefore, with two hours at least ahead of me before I decide to step out of the house, buy my weekly train ticket and explore the innards of Campbelltown, I’ll effectively produce chronology to the umpteenth degree today…

Train Ticket Complaints

Almost as if in a time machine, jumping way back to Thursday now, we shall capitalize on such events rather untold of last months final days. The day began late-waking as usual, unable to spare the key details of such a cliché event. Anyway, getting to the details of my being at work, after getting the mail in the morning I greeted Najla and then we began our usual routine of doing the incoming mail. While the mail was being shoveled into their piles for solicitors, Kelsey started arguing about the prices of train tickets and how they were going up in this coming month.

“How do they expect someone earning $30,000 a year to pay $40 weekly for a train ticket” she argued. As I sat enlightened, I was also surprised that Kelsey was earning less than what I was expecting her to get. More of a humble payment than anything else, she was just getting $10,000 more than me and that’s just a small step up in my opinion. That made me think to myself “What kind of pay increases am I set to look forward to in the future, being lowly in Administration” and my assumptions didn’t look too great.

Najla Dodges The Filing

In the early morning routine, Najla and I were to find out that when noon arrived, the whole of legal department was to have a meeting. “What’s going to happen for lunch” was the familiar word going around but we all figured that the most of us would be heading out at 1:00 p.m. Once the mail was done, I had a plan created before we started the day where both Najla and I would get stuck into the filing.

However, as she reminds me of Lyssa in squirming her way out of responsibility, when I asked “Are you going to help me do filing now” she blurted out “Nah, I have to look for some files first to send to photocopying”. As much as this pissed me off while I started on filing, she aggravated my tendencies all the more when she further procrastinated away from filing. In addition to her temperament, I was also pissed off with the fact that Najla got out of paying for David’s birthday party on Friday.

Jana came around to everyone at the end of Wednesday asking for at least $5 to put forward for David’s present. As I said goodbye to my weekend with my forfeiture Najla insisted that she pay the next day because she didn’t have any change to hand over. However, for the whole of Thursday she was forgotten about and Najla didn’t bother stepping forward probably thinking “Yes, just a couple more hours and I’ll be scot-free”.

Despite this loathing of her avoidance, the both of us had another rubber band fight during the morning over the barrier as Esme was away. This did give some enlightened credit to the day and I forgave Najla partially when she began on Joselyn’s filing at the end of the day but her obligation is still half of David’s filing. She treats David’s filing like a big problem that’s gone too far, leaving it all to me in her oblivious unconcern.

Lunch Plans With Linh

Before heading out for our meeting at noon, I had a chat with Linh whom I was looking forward in having lunch with. Making my way over to his desk, he was always busy so walking back to my desk, I decided to give his phone extension a call. With Najla gone to get some photocopying done I explained to him how I couldn’t head out for lunch that given day and how I would make amends on Friday or Monday.

Break It Tony

Chatting with Najla a touch later she allowed me to have lunch on Friday so with that news, I headed down to advise Linh. Heading back to get some photocopying done, I’m now labeled with a middle name of ‘Break it’ due to Jana’s belief that everything that breaks has some link to me. When getting some photocopies done with the photocopier right near Thalia, my struck luck pulled its chord.

Now before I started using the photocopier I recall chatting with Thalia in which she got one or two pieces of paper jammed inside. When I tried photocopying, instantly, the paper got jammed and opening it up, I fished out the problem as Thalia did half an hour before. Trying my luck again, the photocopier entrapped the paper, bidding me to fish out the paper and leave it alone.

However, this paper was well stuck in the machine and as I drew the attention of Thalia and Blythe who is always casual, we all stood around, trying to get the paper out. Jana and Tallulah were also in the section and as Jana looked at me she sarcastically announced “Oh Tony, you always break everything”. Grabbing a ruler and trying to fish out the paper herself she looked at me and uttered “Just go, before you see me get frustrated” knowing she was being playful in her frustration.

There Thalia sat, knowingly the culprit but saying “Tony, what have you done”. I let it slip that someone else was using the photocopier before me but as Jana asked “What, are you trying to blame it on someone else now” I thought it the noble thing to just take the rap. Tallulah ended up taking the troublesome paper out of the printer but as I explained “Don’t use the photocopier again because it will only get stuck again” my words sung true when Jana tried.

Jana was treating the photocopier as if it was her baby saying “Come on baby, work for me”, patting it on the sides. This was a great side of Jana that I always knew was there, being an attractive side to her personality. Through these days, I have gotten to know Jana more on a personal level through her actions and our conversations and as I hold respect for her being my superior, I also deem her as a playful whim to the likes of Lyssa…

Just after the photocopier was fixed and a few minutes before it was time to head out for our meeting I headed over to Jana’s desk to retrieve something. Holding a rubber band in my fingers, she dubbed me the ‘Break it’ guy in which that stigma always follows me around. Being playful along with Jana, I held a rubber band back at her as she flinched her hands towards her face with a smile. This day was one of the first in which I am starting to get on an amiable level with Jana, more of a friendship than a work relationship.

Meeting On Level Eight

The meeting drains my mind even now as I feel a large dissection coming forth but yet, I shall make amends of it. As legal prepared for the outing, Najla, Thalia and I stuck together in our little group of youngsters to which we were all heading up to Level 8. Being the only guy heading out with plentiful female energy, we squashed into the elevator and a joke was made at the expense of my being male.

When arriving at level eight, I along with Jana was being my quirky self and as they looked lost to themselves, they asked and found out we had to make our way through a door to the meeting room. Trying naively to open the door, Jana soon found out that she had to use her identification card to gain access and as she flashed the card and it beeped, the door didn’t open. Tallulah tried her card and even Margot had herself a go but the door just wouldn’t give them access.

“Here I’ll get you’s in” I exclaimed confidently and sure enough, my card beeped the door open. Mysterious as it was, I thought to ride the train of gender bias already evident by cockily noting “Now you know that they’ll only give it to a guy”. Heading into a further hallway, all the women were like chickens, bucking their heads around in search of our nest. Subdued and restrained to their attempts to finding our meeting room, all of them seemed to pass it except for Tallulah and myself. “Here it is” Tallulah noted as everyone else made their way into a beautifully furbished room.

The table setting was as long as the room itself and as we all found our seats like musical chairs, Murphy’s Law would always allow one to be left out. Thalia was the one left out and as I moved myself over towards Joselyn and Margot at the front of the table, she squeezed herself in between Najla and myself.

What It Was All About

The chairs themselves were beautiful to sit on, made of a mesh substance with plenty of air holes and just the base of the chair. There were two people already in the room in which they were to be the heads of the meeting. I won’t shed too much about the meeting but from what I’ve heard, I think it was brought together because a scuffle of words broke out between the legal and claims section triggered off by Shayma.

From what I heard, Shayma headed over to claims asking them to do something they normally do and when it all went sour, she started yelling at the worker “I’m disgusted” asking for his supervisor. Linh was relaying this story to me when we had lunch on Friday and from what I gather, the meeting was triggered off for that. Shayma wasn’t actually at the meeting, I feel she was away for the day at court.

The differences between claims and legal was one of the topics brought up and as Tallulah put up a strong argument along with Margot being her argumentative assistance, the both of them made me feel encouraged. Each time we have a meeting, I feel more like I’m part of a team and although I done nothing but just sit back and turn my head back and forth like a tennis game, my calm and confident nature was more than a presence.

Some other pointers brought up in our meeting was the chairs that we had in the office. I don’t know the full story as I haven’t been there as long as everyone else but from their move to Kent Street, they sold all of the legal department typing chairs for a quick buck.

Now we’ve been left with these chairs that belong in the basement and although they aren’t worn down and are fairly comfortable, they give typists problems as they aren’t proper typing chairs. Livia already had lodged for workers compensation because of back problems and Jana was on her way through for a lodge of complaint. Another point risen was strongly pointed out by Edith who quite obnoxiously asked “When is FAI’s payment going to be on level with HIH.”

There was a short hush to her arrogance but it was well deserved and the wigs said they would look into it. To me, each time a point was brought forward, the wigs weren’t giving me any assurance that something would be done. They would write down a couple of words in their notebook but as far as assurance was, they could only ask “What do you think would resolve this problem” instead of discussing their views of making life better.

Another topic we chatted about was in regards to the computers at work and how they are way too slow for the typists to appreciate them. For the past two years, they have been trying to upgrade the computers and have been given the green light but that one phone call of verification has not gone through. Anyway, that is all I shall shed about the meeting, noting again that I felt inspired and that the bonding between my work relations had been increased.