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We stand speechless ahead of the forest, not knowing how to react but preparing for the worst scenario, a journey from the unknown to the unknown, an adventure that never ends, a discovery of a wonderful new world with the suspicion of survival of the old one. We make a desperate attempt to survive and adapt into this new violent, inhospitable world.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Title Page
Accidentally Benefited
Brief Sensation
Jeremy McHarry
Accidentally Benefited / 2nd of series: Brief Sensation / By Jeremy McHarry
Published 2023 by Bentockiz
e-book Imprint: Calkden Norsh
e-book Registration: Stockholm, Sweden
e-book ISBN: 9789198826661
e-book editing: Athens, Greece
Cover Images created via AI art generators
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Introduction
Through books we come into contact with everything important that has happened in the past, analyzing also current events and putting our thoughts together to predict the future. The book is a window to the world, acquiring valuable knowledge and sparking our vivid imagination. It is a means of entertainment and is generally seen as a best friend, or as a slave that carries together all valuable information for us. The book is a friend who stays together without demands, a friend you call upon at every moment and abandon when you want.
It accompanies us in the hours of boredom and loneliness, while at the same time it entertains us. In general, a book does not ask anything from us, while it waits patiently on a dusty shelf to give us its information, to get us out of dead ends and to travel us to magical worlds.
This may be the travel mission of our books. Abstract narration, weird or unconscious thoughts difficult to be understood, but always genuine and full of life experiences, these are stories of life that can’t be overlooked easily.
This may be the start of something amazing!
Chapter One
“Robert, take your little girl home before she falls over.”
“Yes, ma’am.” They laugh and Klara waves once as she steps out the door.
Robert turns to Sharlene and asks, “Do you have everything?”
“I think so. Computer, medical kit, papers, and disks. I’m not making you leave early, am I?”
“No. I usually leave about this time, give or take a half hour. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
As they leave, several people smile and wave or give her a thumbs up, and a couple of people compliment her on the presentation.
As they get settled in Robert’s vehicle, Sharlene remarks, “That’s what I would like to see with Digital Empathy.”
“What’s that?”
“The feeling of family your company has.”
“You’ll have to thank your great-grandparents Thomas and Martha for that.”
“I wish I could.”
Robert nods his head as he responds, “I know. They insisted that everyone they worked with, especially anyone who worked for them was of equal value as a human being and worthy of respect. And that every job was important and every person should be able to take pride in their job whether it was digging ditches, being a janitor, or handling millions of credits.
“They passed that attitude on to your grandfather. I could tell you a number of stories of how Dad personally fired a top notch engineer who thought they were too good to empty a trash can. That’s when his Deutsche accent would come out the strongest, ‘Ve don’t need no prima donna, ve a vurking company, not a silly ballet’.”
Sharlene chuckles then says, “I can almost hear him say that.”
“Everyone seemed to assume David and I would take over the company when we were old enough. Almost in response, Dad often made sure we had to do some of the dirtiest jobs, not only to teach us the company from the ground up, but to teach us humility. We also learned that the people we worked with on those dirty jobs were good people, honest, friendly, and hard working. In many cases, they didn’t have worldly success simply because of a lack of educational opportunities or they lived in an economically depressed area where only the most ruthlessly aggressive people succeeded.”
After a brief pause, she asks, “If you had only one piece of advice to pass on to a new company executive, what would it be?”
“Your people are your success. They can do their job without you, but you can’t do your job without them. You need them a lot more than they need you. Dad did his best to teach us that, but what really drove it home was the wreck. David and Soo-Lin were gone, I was devastated, yet the company continued. It still made money, the people did their work, maybe not so enthusiastically as before because David and Soo-Lin were very popular, but the company as a whole functioned. When I realized that a few months later, it was almost as big a blow. I really wondered what use I was.
“Dad was gentle, yet firm with me as he pointed out that without some sort of leadership, things will tend to move towards anarchy. Often corporate executives are only figureheads, but even a figurehead can inspire the people to greater accomplishment, assuming they care about the people and aren’t just self-serving do nothing monarchists. If you support and encourage your people, they can make you successful. If you undermine and degrade your people, they can destroy you.”
“Thanks, Dad. George would mostly agree with you.”
“What part would he disagree with?”
“The last sentence. He once mentioned having a micro-manager for a boss and wondered about the intelligence of their boss who kept them on and the idiot who hired that boss and wondered how high it went.”
Robert nods his head as he says, “Yeah, that can happen, especially if you have committed employees who believe in doing their jobs regardless of how inept or abusive their boss is. And the more layers of management there are between the ivory tower and the worker on the floor, the more likely that can happen.”
“That’s another incentive for me to keep the company small. I’ve also been trying to gently encourage George to poke around in all of the jobs and ask questions. If we do grow, I want it to be clear that he’ll listen to the worker’s concerns and that he has a direct line to the top. In spite of how much he cares about me, he hasn’t been afraid to tell me an idea I had was impractical or could become twisted into something I hadn’t intended.”
“More companies could use that sort of interface. That was part of the idea behind the union movement, to give the workers a voice, but it soon degraded to where the union had its own agenda and the workers were caught in the middle. Instead of one self-serving management entity the workers had to deal with, there were now two, usually with conflicting positions. And when they did agree, it was often to the worker’s disadvantage. Suggestion: keep Digital Empathy as small as possible and do your own poking around and asking questions rather than rely only on George. He seems more than willingly to help you, so let him help in that way, but he isn’t going to be around forever.”
“I know that, even though I seem to forget it when I think of things which need to be done and the advice I want to receive.”
“Change of subject,” as Robert pulls into the driveway, “I know you don’t like to lie, but if your mom’s questions become too difficult to answer truthfully, you may find you have to tell an untruth if you can’t change the subject. I never liked the old adage that sometimes the truth hurts more than a lie, because a lie is a deception which builds on a lack of trust. But I’m finding that with someone in your mom’s condition, the truth doesn’t necessary hurt more, it’s just not understandable.”
“I think I know what you’re saying.” They grip hands in mutual support, then get out of the vehicle and go into the house.
* * * * *
2147-09-27 (a10>e1)
Sharlene puts her things in her room then goes to the kitchen and says, “Hi, Mom.”
“Hello, dear. How was school today?”
“Fine. When will dinner be ready?”
“About a half of an hour. I baked cookies today if you’re hungry now.”
“That sounds great.” Sharlene puts two on a plate and pours a glass of orange juice.
Sarah asks, “Orange juice?”
“I had a presentation to give today and feel a little shaky.”
“Then a snack will do you good.”
“Is it okay if I call a friend? We’re working on a project together and I had some ideas I want to share with her.”
“Of course it’s okay.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll see you in a little while.”
Robert gives her a thumbs up as Sharlene leaves the kitchen and he steps in.
In her bedroom, Sharlene quickly eats the cookies while she does her best to leave no crumbs and drinks half of the orange juice. After she gathers her thoughts and pulls out the company’s copies of the signed agreements, she calls Mariam.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Mariam. It’s Sharlene.”
“Hey, how’d it go?”
“I thought I was going to die of fright at first in front of a crowd of strangers with a video recorder staring me in the face, but I made it through.”
“Good for you.”
“And I’ve got copies of the signed paperwork sitting in front of me right now.”
“All right!! So we’re really a go?”
Sharlene confirms, “We’re really a go.”
“Oh, my. I don’t know what to say. I feel like bouncing off of the walls.”
“I thought that’s how you would feel. When we signed the papers, I was teased about going out and celebrating being deep in debt. I said I was more interested in going home and taking a nap after the presentation. I figured you can do the celebrating for both of us.”
Mariam laughs. When she can settle down some, she says, “Sharlene, thank you so much for taking care of arranging the financing, I wouldn’t have even known where to start.”
“Neither would I, if I didn’t know Dad worked with investors. Klara did a lot of the work. The hardest part for me was doing the presentation. Now a lot of the hard work is going to be in your court in coordinating and organizing things.”
