- Location
- America
Glaser wasn't thrilled to be up as early as he was. He was used to it by now, being up before what he considered a sensible hour, but he had never been a morning person.
His first look at his new place of work hadn't done anything to lift his spirits. Hell's Kitchen, that perpetual lesion of crime and degeneracy on the otherwise impeccably composed face of Manhattan, was a bad location to begin with but it seemed like the city had gone the extra mile and found the worse part of Hell's Kitchen to stick him in. The neighborhood looked like Dresden after the Allies had finished with it, trash littered the streets and most prominently a fire-gutted building huddled directly across the street from his offices.
The view from his windows would be full of that ruin, he realized. That's what blinds are for he told himself. If this place comes with blinds, he thought wryly. The building, which a faded brass nameplate proclaimed "the Chesterton", was a fairly nondescript brick and mortar job with four stories, five windows that were still boarded over, and overall a faintly institutional look.
He paid the cabbie that had driven him here and shambled up the crumbling concrete steps, forcing his way though the faintly rotted wooden doors before he could change his mind about going inside.
My god, he thought, the doors alone probably date back to the Garfield administration.
The inside was marginally less decrepit than what he'd expected. The floors in the entrance hall had been redone and coated in dull white linoleum that shone unhealthily in the light pouring in through the open doors. Glaser groped about the first wall he came into contact with and was pleasantly surprised when the light switch he had discovered did in fact cause a bank of florescent lights to hum to life. He shut the doors behind himself and took in the view, such as it was.
The front hall looked like it had been set up in advance at least, the receptionist's desk sat facing the door like it ought to, with a telephone sitting on it no less, there was a row of plastic chairs lining the each of the walls. He walked over to the desk and took the phone off its cradle and put it to his ear. He almost whooped when he found he had dial tone.
He set the phone down and mentally reviewed his situation. The new department heads he had chosen would be showing up in two hours, and he needed to get them settled in while conveying to them what was expected from each of their positions. This would be his first in person introduction to each of them.
He sighed. When he'd picked these people for their respective positions, he'd culled them from a stack of faded manila envelopes that had been unceremoniously dumped onto his old desk. It remained to be seen if they came across in person as they did on paper.
He was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of the door opening again. He looked up and there in the doorway stood Louis Rothstein, in all his living glory.
Rothstein had a build that suggested he had been very muscular as a young man but years of sitting behind a desk had caused him shrink down a little. Rolls of fat creased his chin and neck and heavy jowls hung from his cheekbones. A bulging belly strained at the vest of his expensive suit. His blue eyes where small, and seemed lost in his fleshy face. However, even without his former bulk he was still imposing, and Glaser pitied any defendant that wound up in his court.
Rothstein scanned the room like a lord surveying a new addition to his fief. His gaze tracked to Glaser and than locked on to the younger man.
"Excuse me, young man," he said, his voice resonating with the kind of musical grace that only years of elocution courses can provide, "do you happen to know where I might find David Glaser?
Okay, first impression time. Remember, this is a good opportunity to learn more about the people that will be working under us. Do we:
[] Disclose who we are immediately, It's too early for misunderstandings and we have a job to do.
[] Maintain the misunderstanding, after all people will say things to people they think they outrank they would never say to colleagues and we want to know what kind of person he is.
[] Deflect his question and ask him what he thinks he's doing coming in before his appointed time. We want to establish our leadership role after all.
Voting closes in 48 hours.
His first look at his new place of work hadn't done anything to lift his spirits. Hell's Kitchen, that perpetual lesion of crime and degeneracy on the otherwise impeccably composed face of Manhattan, was a bad location to begin with but it seemed like the city had gone the extra mile and found the worse part of Hell's Kitchen to stick him in. The neighborhood looked like Dresden after the Allies had finished with it, trash littered the streets and most prominently a fire-gutted building huddled directly across the street from his offices.
The view from his windows would be full of that ruin, he realized. That's what blinds are for he told himself. If this place comes with blinds, he thought wryly. The building, which a faded brass nameplate proclaimed "the Chesterton", was a fairly nondescript brick and mortar job with four stories, five windows that were still boarded over, and overall a faintly institutional look.
He paid the cabbie that had driven him here and shambled up the crumbling concrete steps, forcing his way though the faintly rotted wooden doors before he could change his mind about going inside.
My god, he thought, the doors alone probably date back to the Garfield administration.
The inside was marginally less decrepit than what he'd expected. The floors in the entrance hall had been redone and coated in dull white linoleum that shone unhealthily in the light pouring in through the open doors. Glaser groped about the first wall he came into contact with and was pleasantly surprised when the light switch he had discovered did in fact cause a bank of florescent lights to hum to life. He shut the doors behind himself and took in the view, such as it was.
The front hall looked like it had been set up in advance at least, the receptionist's desk sat facing the door like it ought to, with a telephone sitting on it no less, there was a row of plastic chairs lining the each of the walls. He walked over to the desk and took the phone off its cradle and put it to his ear. He almost whooped when he found he had dial tone.
He set the phone down and mentally reviewed his situation. The new department heads he had chosen would be showing up in two hours, and he needed to get them settled in while conveying to them what was expected from each of their positions. This would be his first in person introduction to each of them.
He sighed. When he'd picked these people for their respective positions, he'd culled them from a stack of faded manila envelopes that had been unceremoniously dumped onto his old desk. It remained to be seen if they came across in person as they did on paper.
He was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of the door opening again. He looked up and there in the doorway stood Louis Rothstein, in all his living glory.
Rothstein had a build that suggested he had been very muscular as a young man but years of sitting behind a desk had caused him shrink down a little. Rolls of fat creased his chin and neck and heavy jowls hung from his cheekbones. A bulging belly strained at the vest of his expensive suit. His blue eyes where small, and seemed lost in his fleshy face. However, even without his former bulk he was still imposing, and Glaser pitied any defendant that wound up in his court.
Rothstein scanned the room like a lord surveying a new addition to his fief. His gaze tracked to Glaser and than locked on to the younger man.
"Excuse me, young man," he said, his voice resonating with the kind of musical grace that only years of elocution courses can provide, "do you happen to know where I might find David Glaser?
Okay, first impression time. Remember, this is a good opportunity to learn more about the people that will be working under us. Do we:
[] Disclose who we are immediately, It's too early for misunderstandings and we have a job to do.
[] Maintain the misunderstanding, after all people will say things to people they think they outrank they would never say to colleagues and we want to know what kind of person he is.
[] Deflect his question and ask him what he thinks he's doing coming in before his appointed time. We want to establish our leadership role after all.
Voting closes in 48 hours.
