The Media Storm office was a marvel of modern architecture that threatened to graze the lackadaisical clouds. The rectangular construct of glass and steel appeared almost translucent on the busy New York block. A formally dressed man was intently walking towards the building, a singular drop of sweat rolled down his forehead as he strode in the midsummer heat. Upon reaching the front door, he reached for the door handle but the door remained in place. He released an exasperated hiss as he patted his suit jacket before removing a Media Storm keycard and scanning himself in.
“Welcome Malcolm,” an automated voice responded before the audible click of the lock disengaging. Malcolm pushed his way inside and rushed over to the elevator. Just as he turned the corner, past the receptionist desk, he saw the elevator begin to close. Malcolm ran over, exclaiming for the passenger to hold the elevator for him, and to his luck the other person heard him. A hand adorn with pink acrylic nails shot out of the elevator which prevented the elevator from taking off. Malcolm quickly entered shortly after and thanked the woman. Upon looking at the elevator panel, he noticed that his floor, the 16th floor, was already selected.
The metal name tag on her chest shone under the fluorescent light, on it the name ‘Simone’ was written. Malcolm knew Simone, not well enough that they were friends, but they did work on the same floor together, and thus were not complete strangers. Simone, while a nice enough person, had a reputation for being a bit of a gossip, and thus Malcolm didn’t actively try to make friends with her in the off case that she then started talking about him as well. That and the fact that Malcolm viewed himself as incredibly awkward. He had begun working for Media Storm for around a year now and yet he still hadn’t been able to make a proper work friend.
While in the silence of the elevator, Simone glanced over at Malcolm and smirked while saying “Have you heard the news? We’re getting a new guy coming in today.”
“Oh really? That’s exciting. Have you heard anything about him?” Malcolm asked.
“Not much really, but I do know he’s coming all the way from Vancouver.”
“Interesting,” Malcolm tapered off.
“I wonder if he knows how Meritel works then, I hear they still use a private network system over there. In fact, I think there’s still some people over there that don’t have computers yet which I guess makes sense due to how expensive they can be.”
“If he doesn’t I’m sure it won’t take too long for him to learn. Meritel isn’t that complicated. We only really publish articles which shouldn’t be that difficult. Besides, it’s the twenty-second century, computer literacy is practically something you’re born with at this point.”
"I suppose that's fair, but I wonder who'll be training him." Before Malcolm could respond, the elevator chimed and opened up onto the 16th floor.
The quietness of the elevator was quickly expelled after that moment as they entered the large office space. The sounds of both mechanical and electronic keyboards, phones ringing, and general conversation resonated from above and around them. The two were greeted by their boss, Isabella, who was yelling over the phone with someone in Italian. A young man, clearly overwhelmed by the industrious cacophony of noises, hovered nearby while nervously fidgeting with his laptop bag. Isabella hung up the phone and released an infuriated sigh and rested a hand on her forehead.
Upon exiting the elevator, Simone and Malcolm said their goodbyes to one another before heading to their respective workstations. However, before Malcolm could walk out of eyesight, Isabella approached him with the other man following closely behind.
“Malcolm, you’ve been doing really well lately and I know that you’re nearly finished with your current project, so I was wondering if you could help me out before you’re given a new assignment.” Malcolm, already predicting where this would go, responded, “Sure, Isabella, what can I do for you?”
“I’m really sorry to do this to you, but this is Morgan, he’s a new hire. While I would train him myself, one of our journalists abroad is refusing to come back stateside and has been racking up the company card. So I have to figure out how to get them back here.”
"If you think I can do it, then you can count on me, boss," Malcolm half-heartedly responded.
A wave of relief came across his boss' face, "Thank you so much, Malcolm, I'll make sure to talk to HR and get you some extra vacation days for this." Isabella then promptly marched over to her office. This left Malcolm with the young man, Morgan, awkwardly staring at one another. Morgan stared at Malcolm, waiting to be told what to do.
“Uh, you can follow me to my cubicle and we can get started,” Malcolm said, not used to being the one in charge.
“So, have you used Meritel before?” Malcolm asked.
“Not really, no,” Morgan shyly responded.
“Well that’s fine, if you know how to work one Meritel computer, you know how they all work. They are quite literally all the same,” Malcolm joked. Morgan seemed to laugh with his eyes instead of his mouth, not exactly knowing what about that was so funny. This caused Malcolm to get more serious.
“Well, we’ll have to talk to IT later to make sure you’ve got your credentials prepared, but once you’re able to log into the machine, double check to make sure that you’re receiving a phone signal. These computers were originally designed to be connected to the phone lines, and so even now they still need a phone signal to send and receive properly. Once you know that works, head into the browser and make sure to type in 3504 MDST which should take you to the Media Storm site…” Malcolm had begun to train the new hire, and over the course of the next two hours, the two began to get to know each other and hit it off pretty well.
However, at the end of the training session, Morgan asked a question, “Thank you so much for training, Malcolm, I really appreciate it. But this whole time I’ve been wondering: what is that?” He pointed to a piece of paper that was taped to the walls of his cubicle that said, ‘Keep non-work related computer usage to a minimum. The phone company charges us for it! This includes, no games, no social media, and no pink rooms.
This caused Malcolm to smirk, “I can show you that later.”