Upward
No porn. There will be porn next time, I promise. ^.^
Upward
by Mog Moogle
Brad shifted nervously in his seat at the large executive conference table in the offices above the factory floor. He adjusted the tie on his three piece suit that had been in a garment bag in the back of the closet for eight years. The other company heads were idly talking among themselves as they waited for their end of the week meeting to start. Brad only knew one of them, Chad. Chad was a large built timber wolf that always looked out of place in a suit since Brad never saw him in anything but flannel shirts and work pants on the factory floor.
He had been Brad's foreman for eight years, since the young rabbit had been hired as on the welding crew. For some reason, Chad had always taken Brad under his wing. Brad was quickly promoted from a tedious position preforming spot welds on the assembly line to the maintenance team in just three months. The pay wasn't any better, but the job allowed for much more creative freedom, allowing Brad to work on every machine on the floor, and learning the ins and outs of the many potions during the busiest shift of the three that the factory ran. Brad was grateful that the wolf had taken a seat beside him.
The factory's executive staff was actually fairly thin for as large as the plant was. Around the table sat the three factory shift foremen, The four Vice Presidents of the different divisions, Manufacturing, (Chad and now Brad's direct supervisor,) Finance, Marketing, and Sales. Although the foremen were technically floor workers, they all had their own office and all the pay, benefits and perks of junior executives, and so they were treated by the President and Vice Presidents as members of the executive board.
The company itself had never gone public, and therefore all of the controlling interests of the company were owned by the four Vice Presidents, the President and the three foremen. The company shares were divided so that the President owned fifty percent of the company, the Vice Presidents all owned seven and a half percent, and each of the foremen owned six and two thirds percent.
The owner and founder of the company had set it up so that he always had the deciding vote in any decision unless the rest of the board was unanimous, but he was actually a very reasonable and savvy businessfur and rarely overruled the decisions of the executive board unless he felt it truly wasn't the direction he wanted his company to go. He had also held the fifty percent of the shares so that he could divide it if the company ever did go public, and the only shares that would be sold would be half of his shares.
"Nervous?" Chad asked in his deep voice, causing Brad to jump.
"Y-yeah." Brad replied as he sulked a little.
"Just relax. You'll find out soon enough that these meetings are little more than formalities, and a whole lot of boredom. They usually don't last too long either, thankfully."
"I just ... feel a little out of place."
"Don't worry about it. As you know, the boss started out as a factory worker just like us."
The group's attention was pulled to the door as an older lion in a suit entered the room. He walked to the end of the table and sat down a small stack of paperwork in front of him as he took his seat. His large mane was dulled in color with age, but he still carried himself very confidently.
"Good morning." He greeted. "First order of business, I see Mr. Kilmers our new foreman has joined us for his first meeting. Congratulations on the new position Mr. Kilmers." He paused as the executives gave Brad a small round of applause. "You accepted the position yesterday, have you told your wife about it yet?"
"No sir. I ... was kind of waiting to surprise her with it this afternoon."
"That's nice, I'm sure she'll be thrilled for you." He said with a smile.
Brad couldn't help but chuckle a little, and then he nodded his head to the lion.
"Now, Mr. Linder bought your recommendation and qualifications to me, and so I'd like you to shadow him for the day and learn how the foremen do things. From his word, I'll expect you to do just as well as Mr. Thomas, who I'm sure is happy enjoying his first weekend of his retirement. Don't hesitate to ask us any questions if you don't know what to do. You'll have all of our numbers in your new company phone. I can't speak for everyone, but you can call me day or night if you have an issue, and since you're our new night foreman, I'm expecting to be roused from my comfortable sleep a few times when you call so don't have any qualms about that." He ended with the board giving a light chuckle.
"Yes sir. Thank you sir." Brad said with a nod.
"Now, as I'm sure you're aware Mr. Kilmers, we've just had our bid accepted on the government contract, which is guarnteed to run five years with options to renew on a two year basis afterwards, so that means we're going to be hiring a lot of new blood and the reason for the offers to the first and second shifts to switch to a night shift to fill the new slots. Personally, I'm much more willing to pay the differential to our employees that have been with us for awhile rather than the new hires. This will also allow Mr. Kilmers to get his feet wet without having to worry about the problems that training the new hires that tends to go with it. However, this means that even though third shift is only three quarters staffed compared to the other two, I expect productivity to be highest on third shift for the next three months. Do you think you can handle that Mr. Kilmers?"
"Yes sir. I'm familiar with the way all the stations work, and I know most of the team leaders even on the night shift through working all over the floor on the maintenance team." Brad answered confidently.
Brad listened as the rest of the meeting unfolded, covering market strategies, profit and cost projections, recruiting and hiring strategies, and most importantly, where the Friday executive lunch was going to be. Brad didn't offer any advice, following the example of the other foremen that didn't seem to offer any of their advice on the subjects with the exception of lunch. The meeting ran until a quarter before nine o'clock. When they were dismissed, Brad followed Chad out of conference room and led him down the hall to a group of three offices nearest the door to the factory floor. As Brad walked by the second office from the last, he noticed on the window of the door, the graphics team had removed the old name on the window and replaced with 'Brad Kilmers, Shift Foreman.' He couldn't help but feel a small swell of pride as he saw his new office, but didn't have time to examine the room any further as Chad was already stepping into his office.
Brad followed him in and took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of the desk as Chad opened a large standing cabinet along the wall and pulled out his trademark flannel shirt and jeans. Setting them on top of a filing cabinet by the desk, he opened the top drawer and pulled out a green folder and sat it on the desk in front of Brad. He also pulled out a cellphone with a charger and a large key ring and put them beside the folder. Chad took a seat in his large chair behind his desk and then flipped the folder open.
"Most of this stuff is pretty basic, tax forms, company policy waivers, the more interesting stuff is under that. Medical benefits, pay information and the like, and a little something I didn't tell you about when I offered you the recommendation for the job." He said as he eased back into his chair.
"W-what would that be?" Brad asked a little nervously.
"The lease on your brand new company vehicle."
"Company vehicle?"
"Yep, turned in Billy Thomas's old one yesterday while you were interviewing with Mr. Zabski. It's out in the lot in your parking spot. Company gas card in the sun visor, and the mileage log in the door panel. Make sure you log all of your miles and you'll have to sign a waiver saying you won't use it for anything other than company use. I gotta tell you Brad, I'm a little jealous."
"Why's that?"
"It's black. Looks a whole bunch better than my red one. Oh well, the lease on mine is up in a few months, hopefully they'll have another black one when I get it. Now, about that waiver, old man Zabski knows you need to run by the store or something on occasion when you're heading home, and you won't get razzed for running a few errands to and from work, just don't take it to Vegas on the company's dollar."
"Okay ..." Brad said as he looked down at the paperwork in the folder and began to thumb through it.
"You can fill out the tax stuff later, go ahead and get out the important stuff, your salary paperwork." Chad said as he was pulling off his shined loafer shoes and stood up.
Brad moved several of the forms out of the way until he saw the salary information header on the top of the sheet. Brad briefly glanced over the cover page, a long winded version of the company's goals, and the obligatory fine print warning against fraud at the bottom. Brad's attention was pulled away form the paperwork as he heard Chad's belt unfasten. Chad had his back to him as he looked out the large picture window over the factory floor.
As soon as his belt was loose and his tail flap unbuttoned, he let his pants fall to the floor. Brad blushed as he caught himself staring at the tight boxer-briefs that left very little of the well built wolf's toned rear to the imagination. Chad turned to the standing cabinet and slid out of his suit coat, putting it on a hanger and then started to unbutton his long sleeved collared shirt. His angle gave Brad a great side view of the bulge his sheath made in the front of the underwear. Brad admired it as his ears heated with blush, thinking to himself that it was nearly as big as Paul's bulge.
"Brad?" He asked in his deep voice, causing Brad to jump and pulling his gaze back up to the wold's face.
"I'm sorry ... I didn't expect you ... to change clothes while I was here."
"We're both men." He said with a chuckle. "'Sno different than changing in the locker room like you do everyday." He paused as he pulled his shirt off and hung it on a smaller hanger beside the suit coat. "Did you get you fill yet, or should I do a strip tease for ya?"
"I'm sorry." Brad said as he sulked a bit. "I didn't mean to stare."
"Don't sweat it kid." Chad said as he sat back down and picked up his jeans off the filing cabinet. "Now, you'll start at sixty-five a year like we all did, with annual reviews from the big man himself for a raise up to a max of two and a half percent. Just like the floor workers, we get fifty-two weekly checks, with a profit dividend quarterly, and a yearly bonus at the end of the fourth quarter based on productivity and staying under budget."
"Okay ... that's, that's a lot of money."
"You ain't seen nothing yet kid. Wait till you see your dividends and bonus with this new government order we got. Now, you get full medical and dental for you and your wife along with any dependants, you pay into the insurance each check and if you opt for it, we have a five hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy through the same company. The health insurance is pretty much the same thing we offer to all the floor workers except with a higher deductible, but it covers a lot more stuff." Chad explained as he pulled his pants up.
"Okay ... Will there be a conflict with my wife's medical plan?"
"There shouldn't be, but unless she's got her own plan outside of what her office offers, I can almost guarantee this plan puts hers to shame."
"So, she should drop it and just get on this plan."
"Oh yeah. She still making thirty five a year?"
"Yeah, and she gets bonuses from lawsuits and settlements ... but, I had no idea I'd be making so much more than I did on hourly."
"Okay, well let me put it to you like this. What you're seeing here is the sweet frosting on a big ol' shit cake. Sure the frosting tastes good, but we all have to take a big bite of that cake sooner or later. Now, since you're on salary, the old man gives us pretty much liberty to set our own hours as long as the work gets done and we make the meetings, but if you abuse that or don't get your work done, he'll put your ass in a sling. When it's slow, you might be able to get away with working three days a week, but when we're crunching a deadline and you have to stay on top of all your leads all the time, I can guarantee you that you'll be here seven days of the week, and you'll be working long before your shift comes in and long after they go home. No overtime for us either, that check is the same if you work fourteen hours or one hundred and forty hours. And if you don't make your marks, you get hit where it hurts, that nice fat bonus."
"Oh ... I see."
"Nah, not yet you don't, but the good news is you're going to have a good and experienced crew to start with. You'll do fine, if I didn't think so I wouldn't have offered you the job. Now, go change and meet me by the sheet metal line and we'll get started."
Chad spend the day going through his routine, showing Brad what to do on the floor. Some of it he already knew just from observation and his eight years experience with the company. He didn't realize just how much had to be juggled by one person though, every team on the floor was now directly under him. By the time lunch came around, he didn't envy the Vice President of Manufacturing at all. He had to manage all of the furs on one shift, He had to manage all of them across all shifts. He learned about making the weekly reports for both the Vice President and the President, and though the shift that he was shadowing Chad on ran very smooth, every little problem eventually came to him, and he had to make a decision on how to solve it.
Brad had never been one to really step up and take charge, and he wondered why Chad would have even considered him for the position, but that morning as he looked at himself in the mirror, he made the determination that he was going to do what was best for his son, and inadvertently, he made a decision to better himself. He knew that all of the team leads on his shift would now be looking to him for guidance, and though the thought of that did make him nervous, he was confident that he would do whatever it was going to take to succeed.