The Forgiving-a short story by Austin Mitchell

The Forgiving

                        a Short Story

                        by Austin Mitchell

            Alton Daniels was all ears as his boss came up to introduce the new Chief Accountant.

            “I’d like you to meet Stan Strachan, your new head of the department,” Mark Findlay, Managing Director of Dennison and Sons, addressed the accounting department staffers. There were cheers all around as staffers welcomed their new boss.

             Stan came up and said a few words.

            “I’d like to thank the staff for coming and am asking them for their cooperation. I’d also like to thank Mr. Findlay for giving me this opportunity and I wish to assure him that I won’t let him down.”

            There was loud cheering before a senior staffer came up and welcomed Stan on behalf of the staff after which everybody returned to their posts.

            Mr. Findlay also told them that Stan wanted to meet with each of them. As

Chief  Accountant he could after reviewing their files and job performance to advise him if their work was up to the standard required for their jobs.

            “My new boss is a man, whom I don’t trust?” Alton told a friend on the weekend.

            “Why?” Keeble, his friend asked.

            “There is something about him that I don’t like.”

            “All I tell you is to watch yourself. Anyway, you don’t know how he got this job.”

            “I suppose you’re right, Keeble,” Alton said as they parted.

            “But Alton, look how many recommendations you had to get and interviews you had to go through before you got your present job,” his mother said to him that evening.

            “All I tell him is to watch himself. He’s there less than six months. Try and make sure you keep your job and stop worrying about this new man,” his father in turn said.

             The following weeks, Stan pushed the staff hard. He wanted to get the end of

first quarter results finalized before the deadline. This was sure to impress his bosses that he was a no-nonsense type of person, who knew how to get a job done.

By the first week after the end of the quarter the results were out and Mr.

 Findlay congratulated Stan for a job well done.

                                                            ***

Stan had a meeting with his staff. He reminded them that in his first

meeting he had told them to be prepared for an evaluation. However, he had seen

how hardworking they were, so  he had thought of dispensing with the evaluation

and only do it at year end. However, he said there were one or two shortcomings he

had spotted and while he could readily identify those employees he didn’t want

anybody to feel that they were being unnecessarily singled out so that he would

evaluate everybody in the department. In all, ten employees were to be evaluated in two weeks.

Stan put up a roster of the times for each employee attending the evaluation.

Alton wasn’t scheduled until Tuesday of the second week.

Read the full story in ' Waiting to Cross the Bridge' or in 'Days up the River'.