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Morning at the Office
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2025 by Walter Reimer
Prompt: newsletter
“Hey, Phil!” The wolf turned as one of his coworkers at the Rain Island branch of ConHugeCo, a lean Irish setter named Bob, walked over to him. “See the latest?”
“I just got in, Bob. Give me a minute,” Phil said as he stirred a final teaspoon of sugar into his coffee. His coffee mug bore the acronym for the City University of North Tahsis, his alma mater. He took a sip of the brew, then a deeper swallow. “Ah, that’s better. The train in was a madhouse.” The wolf turned toward the setter. “What’s up?”
“Head office sent out this week’s newsletter,” the setter explained, running a paw over the fur on one arm. He always liked to have his fur clipped short.
Phil raised an eyebrow at Bob’s expression. “Bad news?”
Bob nodded. “It’ll be in your email.”
“And you can’t tell me right now?” Phil asked before taking another sip of his coffee.
Bob was usually a very even-tempered fur. To Phil’s surprise, the setter crested. “It’s bad news.”
Phil gazed at him for a moment before chugging the rest of the coffee in his mug and pouring a refill. Adding sugar he said, “Thanks for the heads-up, Bob.” In keeping with Rain Island’s anarcho-syndicalist society, he was the office’s Syndic. Not as much authority as the office supervisor, but more influence.
“No sweat, Phil,” and the two coworkers parted ways.
Phil took a sip of his second cup of coffee, burped, and sat down in front of his computer. He switched it on and made himself comfortable as the system booted up and connected to the office network. Three email alert icons immediately popped up.
ConHugeCo had a color code for their emails. Green was for routine traffic like memos, reports and the like; yellow was for important things and red . . . well, red was for emergencies and vital information that had to be read and acted upon immediately.
All three icons were red.
Phil, his tail drooping and ears going back, lifted the mug to his lips and took a sip as his right paw rested on the computer mouse, moved it to the email alerts and clicked on them.
The first was the company’s in-house information sheet, called The Tattler; it usually carried innocuous news about retirements, new hires, births, and such. The entire front page of this one was taken up with a message from the company’s new CEO, informing everyone that she was going to trim the workforce at all levels in the name of efficiency.
The rest of the three-page document was the usual stuff, and Phil didn’t even bother reading it. He hesitated before clicking on the second icon.
This one was marked URGENT FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION, and sure enough it was the list of offices and employees who were being ‘trimmed’ – fired, in other words. The wolf ran a gray-furred finger down the list.
His name was on it.
“Huh,” he grunted softly before looking at the list again. None of the cuts made any sense; it was like the CEO had simply picked names entirely at random. Nearly all the data security staff and all the supervisors were on the list, with no reason given.
One of his ears flicked and he turned to see six distressed faces looking at him. Bob was in the second row, and he could see that other members of the ‘trimmed’ list were starting to gather around. “Wh-What do we do, Phil?” one IT tech, a whitetail doe who’d only been on the job a month, asked. She was on the verge of tears.
Phil thought for a moment, taking the time to drink the rest of his second cup of coffee. He set his mug down and said, “First, everyone go back to your desks and get back to work – “
“But the memo said ‘immediately,’” another tech pointed out.
The wolf raised a paw. “Go back to work, and I’ll talk to the supervisor. Remember your employment contracts – we can only be terminated for cause, and I haven’t seen anything going wrong here. I’ll also remind him of Rain Island’s laws about this sort of thing.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” a badger asked, his fists clenched in helpless rage.
Phil looked at the assembled workers, his gaze picking out the data security people before the wolf grinned. “Then we burn this motherfucker down,” he said simply.
A few of the security techs glanced at each other before matching his grin. They knew every way into ConHugeCo’s systems, and all of them knew how to code.
“But don’t do anything yet,” the wolf admonished as he got to his feet. “Let me talk to the supervisor first.”
***
Chicago, Illinois (ZYPR) – Global IT giant ConHugeCo’s data breach troubles have lasted nine days so far, with no sign of the tech company recovering from the cyberattack that basically erased every bit of data in the company’s network.
ConHugeCo’s stock price has tumbled on the New York Stock Exchange as effects of the data breach extend to all of the conglomerate’s subsidiary companies and even a few government agencies.
Things are expected to get much worse for ConHugeCo before they get better, as certain personal information about the new CEO has been released onto the open Web, along with a great deal of information regarding financial irregularities. Some of those include descriptions of bribes made to several foreign countries . . .
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2025 by Walter Reimer
Prompt: newsletter
“Hey, Phil!” The wolf turned as one of his coworkers at the Rain Island branch of ConHugeCo, a lean Irish setter named Bob, walked over to him. “See the latest?”
“I just got in, Bob. Give me a minute,” Phil said as he stirred a final teaspoon of sugar into his coffee. His coffee mug bore the acronym for the City University of North Tahsis, his alma mater. He took a sip of the brew, then a deeper swallow. “Ah, that’s better. The train in was a madhouse.” The wolf turned toward the setter. “What’s up?”
“Head office sent out this week’s newsletter,” the setter explained, running a paw over the fur on one arm. He always liked to have his fur clipped short.
Phil raised an eyebrow at Bob’s expression. “Bad news?”
Bob nodded. “It’ll be in your email.”
“And you can’t tell me right now?” Phil asked before taking another sip of his coffee.
Bob was usually a very even-tempered fur. To Phil’s surprise, the setter crested. “It’s bad news.”
Phil gazed at him for a moment before chugging the rest of the coffee in his mug and pouring a refill. Adding sugar he said, “Thanks for the heads-up, Bob.” In keeping with Rain Island’s anarcho-syndicalist society, he was the office’s Syndic. Not as much authority as the office supervisor, but more influence.
“No sweat, Phil,” and the two coworkers parted ways.
Phil took a sip of his second cup of coffee, burped, and sat down in front of his computer. He switched it on and made himself comfortable as the system booted up and connected to the office network. Three email alert icons immediately popped up.
ConHugeCo had a color code for their emails. Green was for routine traffic like memos, reports and the like; yellow was for important things and red . . . well, red was for emergencies and vital information that had to be read and acted upon immediately.
All three icons were red.
Phil, his tail drooping and ears going back, lifted the mug to his lips and took a sip as his right paw rested on the computer mouse, moved it to the email alerts and clicked on them.
The first was the company’s in-house information sheet, called The Tattler; it usually carried innocuous news about retirements, new hires, births, and such. The entire front page of this one was taken up with a message from the company’s new CEO, informing everyone that she was going to trim the workforce at all levels in the name of efficiency.
The rest of the three-page document was the usual stuff, and Phil didn’t even bother reading it. He hesitated before clicking on the second icon.
This one was marked URGENT FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION, and sure enough it was the list of offices and employees who were being ‘trimmed’ – fired, in other words. The wolf ran a gray-furred finger down the list.
His name was on it.
“Huh,” he grunted softly before looking at the list again. None of the cuts made any sense; it was like the CEO had simply picked names entirely at random. Nearly all the data security staff and all the supervisors were on the list, with no reason given.
One of his ears flicked and he turned to see six distressed faces looking at him. Bob was in the second row, and he could see that other members of the ‘trimmed’ list were starting to gather around. “Wh-What do we do, Phil?” one IT tech, a whitetail doe who’d only been on the job a month, asked. She was on the verge of tears.
Phil thought for a moment, taking the time to drink the rest of his second cup of coffee. He set his mug down and said, “First, everyone go back to your desks and get back to work – “
“But the memo said ‘immediately,’” another tech pointed out.
The wolf raised a paw. “Go back to work, and I’ll talk to the supervisor. Remember your employment contracts – we can only be terminated for cause, and I haven’t seen anything going wrong here. I’ll also remind him of Rain Island’s laws about this sort of thing.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” a badger asked, his fists clenched in helpless rage.
Phil looked at the assembled workers, his gaze picking out the data security people before the wolf grinned. “Then we burn this motherfucker down,” he said simply.
A few of the security techs glanced at each other before matching his grin. They knew every way into ConHugeCo’s systems, and all of them knew how to code.
“But don’t do anything yet,” the wolf admonished as he got to his feet. “Let me talk to the supervisor first.”
***
Chicago, Illinois (ZYPR) – Global IT giant ConHugeCo’s data breach troubles have lasted nine days so far, with no sign of the tech company recovering from the cyberattack that basically erased every bit of data in the company’s network.
ConHugeCo’s stock price has tumbled on the New York Stock Exchange as effects of the data breach extend to all of the conglomerate’s subsidiary companies and even a few government agencies.
Things are expected to get much worse for ConHugeCo before they get better, as certain personal information about the new CEO has been released onto the open Web, along with a great deal of information regarding financial irregularities. Some of those include descriptions of bribes made to several foreign countries . . .
Category Story / General Furry Art
Species Wolf
Gender Male
Size 120 x 92px
File Size 56.2 kB
Listed in Folders
Very likely the office supervisor parroting the CEO's layoff order, as people are like that.
Definitely a FAFO moment. It recalls when a certain person took over a certain social media company, fired the security staff, and discovered he was locked out of his own building because the new staff accidentally erased the entire login database.
Definitely a FAFO moment. It recalls when a certain person took over a certain social media company, fired the security staff, and discovered he was locked out of his own building because the new staff accidentally erased the entire login database.
Big ooooooooooooooooof Walt, right in the feels and too close to home lol. My company does this all the time (though nobody has burnt it down... yet). Right now we are absolutely filled with "who does this thing?" "oh, nobody since you fired everyone who did," and there's no backup, no planned replacement, certain work just isn't getting done anymore.
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