24 Chapter 24 - Job

"I think the Corporate Bullshit ability is a clear win." Lena said. It was an amusing discussion to have while both being naked in bed. "I think the ability to talk your way out of shit, and use it to embarrass others is a clear winner."

That made sense.

"Those two spells of yours are really kinky." Lena had an arm slung around Jon, then out of nowhere, she pulled Jon's earlobes. "Very naughty. You made me say those embarrassing things out loud. Think that's probably useful. That door ability might also have some use, if you're trying to do sneaky things."

The housewife was really thinking about it.

"I say, keep one point in reserve and put the other in Corporate Bullshit."

Jon nodded. He was going to work as a janitor. "I'm a janitor though, not sure how much corporate bullshit I'll need."

"You could fake to be a secret investigator, don't cha think?"

The chubby man considered the idea in his head, and realized that could be an extension of what he did with that unfortunate Cafe Manager. He still felt kinda sorry for bullying her that way, but oh well. Jon nodded at his partner in bed. "That's true, but then, maybe I'll wait till I start, then see what skills I need to progress."

"That works too. I suppose, I'll cook dinner when you're back." Lena smiled. "Have fun tomorrow."

***

It's Wednesday, and Jon had to start work. Jon actually woke up to find Lena already awake and brewed a cup of coffee.

"Have fun, darlin." Lena gave him a kiss, and Jon returned it.

"Sure feels like I'm married." Jon laughed and walked to work.

***

"This is Jon, he's our new part time janitor. He'll come in every Monday, Wednesday and Fridays." The receptionist introduced him to the rest of them. The boss, Henry Pool, just gave him a passing glance and ignored him soon afterwards. Hiring of janitors was so beneath him that he didn't care who got hired.

Instead, he kept calling Miss Ella Moren over for a 'briefing'. Still, actually Mister Henry Pool wasn't ugly, either. He was just plain, ordinary looking and came from supposedly rich family.

Jon, naturally, wore a dark green jacket and dark green pants. It was ugly as hell, and was probably used by the previous janitor, but it fit him quite well. A single glance in the office made this Mister Pool's hiring preferences clear. Almost everyone was a lady. Other than himself, there were only two other men, and they both looked like fresh graduates right out of school. Interns.

The office floor of Poolman Limited was fairly large, distributed across three floors in the one of the few light industrial districts.

Ella and the marketing division was locating on the same floor as the boss, for obvious reasons.

Jon kept his head down and started to work. The janitor's role was obviously to clean the toilets, but he also had to clean the office itself plus the dustbins. He had a vacuum cleaner and began his work. He kept his ears open, and it wasn't long before the gossips returned. Janitors and cleaners like Jon were background characters. People that everyone just assumed to be there, and frankly, with the uniform on, everyone treated him like he was invisible.

"It's really annoying that we have to share the floor with the boss." One of the marketing ladies who was in the same team cursed. The three ladies gathered were having a short coffee machine moment. "The boss just keeps trying to bug Ella and we're just stuck as collateral damage, because we are in the same team."

"I know, I know." The finance lady sighed. "I don't know how you girls put up with all that flirting."

There was another lady who did customer service and corporate calls. "At least Ella's tanking all the harassment. I honestly don't know why Ella hasn't resigned yet."

The marketing lady laughed. "Why would she? Did you know Ella's paid better than all of us? The boss keeps giving her things to do and asking her to go on business trips with him. The boss isn't exactly an ugly bastard, y'know. It's just too bad he's such a huge asshole and keeps treating all of us like shit, so I can't ever imagine dating him."

"Really? When's the next business trip? I'm looking forward to it! At least we won't have to see the boss in the office." The finance lady laughed.

"How does Ella feel about this? Doesn't she- y'know, what does she think about the boss?" The CS lady asked.

"I don't know. Ella doesn't have lunch with anyone, and she always turned down the boss's attempts to ask her for lunch whenever she could."

"Why? It's a free meal from the boss." CS lady said. "I'd say yes if boss invited me for lunch. Hell, I'd marry him and be a rich housewife!"

"Eww!" Both the finance and marketing lady answered. "You have shit tastes!"

"I'm all about the money, girls. And he's not that ugly!" The CS lady laughed back at them.

***

Jon continued to work and began to notice the cliques in the office. Ella, because of her perceived status as the pet of the boss, didn't have any friends at all. Jon thought that was quite strange, since most people liked to be friends with people who had the bosses' ears.

During one of the tea breaks, he chatted up the two male interns, and they both said the same thing. "Mister Pool doesn't give good salaries. Even if you do more, you won't get rewarded for it. Clients could praise you, but he'll still give you a shitty raise. That's why no one wants to do extra work and most of us avoid talking to Mister Pool, except Miss Moren. Anyone Miss Moren mentions to Mister Pool gets extra work, essentially."

"Ah." Now that made some sense to Jon, and since Jon was an outsider, and a janitor, Miss Moren didn't even look at him when he walked near to her desk and picked up her dustbin.

She had a lot of work on her table. Different marketing materials, different documents. There were some gifts from the boss, too, that she didn't touch but was just left there. Jon wondered whether this was a race, since the boss was trying to win Miss Moren's heart, and he had to overtake the boss.

Jon decided to be friendly, and smiled. "Good afternoon, Miss Moren."

Ella Moren jerked as she noticed Jon standing just next to her. "-Ah. Good afternoon-"

"Jon."

"Hi, Jon." Ella said, and she went back to her work. Jon just smiled and continued to do his work. It was fairly easy to notice some of the things she was doing was related to some websites and promotional materials. Poolman Limited did mainly industrial products, so their customers were all other businesses.

He was nearby when she picked up a phone. "Hi! I'm Ella from Poolman, just called to check in on that website development I requested three months ago? Is it ready for launch in two weeks? My boss asked to see some mocks."

There was some chatter, and Jon observed her face looked pale.

"What- the previous guy left and didn't share his work?" Ella cursed. "But- it needs to be ready for the launch!"

Jon noticed it was something about websites, and he was quite good at that sort of work. He decided to listen in some more.

"I- I can't ask for an advance payment!" Ella countered. "There's nothing for me to show my boss, he wouldn't approve it!"

The phone went silent, and the marketing executive couldn't believe it. She looked so pale and stressed, that she took her cup and walked to the pantry. Jon decided to follow and observe the target for a bit more.

No one wanted to talk to her. Those that she noticed immediately left when they saw her come close, because she was the boss's girl. The men, especially. She looked so upset, that Jon decided he should just risk it.

"Miss Moren, I noticed you looked really upset. Did something happen?"

Ella was surprised that the part time janitor approached her. Normally, she would've just ignored him, but she was so angry and frustrated that she vented. "Our outsourced web developer flaked on me. We engaged them to develop a website three months ago, and now it's not done. He even had the gall to ask for an advance payment, instead of the usual terms of 30% upon first mockup of the website!"

Jon nodded. "That is horrible, and very unprofessional."

"I know, right!" Ella cursed. "Agh."

"Oh, why don't you let Mister Pool know about the issue, and let him speak to the boss?"

Ella paused and sighed. "-It's complicated. This launch is supposed to be the showcase to his investors, that he got what it takes to run this business."

Jon digested the statement and realized that Henry Pool had his own stakeholders to deal with. "Oh. I had the impression Poolman was fully owned by Mister Pool."

"Used to be. But then the Company ran into a string of losses and had to bring in outside investors. For now, the investors still allow him to run it, but they're growing frustrated with the lack of results."

Useful information! "Ah. So, what will you do with this website thing?"

"I- I need to find someone to do up a website within two weeks. The investors won't let Henry delay the launch. A website is part of the marketing push to get international businesses to buy in."

Ella wasn't a tech person, so she didn't know how long it actually took to cook up a website. These days, with online templates and various AI software, creating a website was significantly easier than in was decades ago. Jon could do it. He did it before in his old job, but he decided he wouldn't tell her. He probably needed to hack into her computer when she wasn't around, though, to get all the materials to use for the website he'll build. Jon thought for a moment, and realized he needed to figure out how to get in touch with the investors as well.

Jon looked around, and then noticed the boss walking through the door. He immediately stood up and pretended to clean.

Mister Pool naturally noticed Ella having coffee at the coffee area and walked over. "My dear Ella! How's our launch going?"

Ella had to hide her frustration, and just nodded. "It'll be alright. I'm still sorting out some- uh- troubles."

"Got it. Ella, join me for dinner? I'll take you to this beautiful restaurant in the city." Mister Pool had a small bouquet of flowers that he gave to her.

"Henry, thanks, but I can't. I need to work."

Ella's eyes briefly darted to Jon, something which Mister Pool noticed. There was a look of repulsion in Mister Pool's face.

[Dark Energy harvested! You have 10DE!]

Jon noticed that Mister Pool was naturally possessive. Given what Ella's secret desires were, it was clear Mister Pool used the wrong strategy.