War for Talent
It took him a long time to understand what made this person so unpleasant. It wasn’t his appearance, polished like a Chinese vase, it was the repulsive insincerity in his voice. When he addressed the woman with the coffee with “love”, David thought she was going to throw up, but the woman simply smiled, turned around and left the room. He needed to endure in this company for much longer. The guy used his money to get what he wanted and he wanted to humiliate the others most of the time. To manage an important British hospital sure paid back well and nobody asked questions such as what trash was this man as long as the hospital operated within its budget and the staff did not protest about their wages and hours. And they had a lot to protest about. The plans for their pension money were a mockery with their work. David smiled and sipped from the coffee.
“Lovely office. The view especially.”
“Yes. Help yourself with a croissant.”
“Thank you, how come you are not eating? They are not poisonous, are they?”
“No, how can you talk like this? I watch what I eat.”
“Lobsters?”
The manager burst into laughter.
“To be honest, I had lunch with few of my friends, politicians, drop the names, so we were at Hilton and yes, there were lobsters.”
David thought what the patients were eating at the hospital and his determination to bring this matter to the end strengthened.
David had short curly hair, a heritage from his grandma of colour, in his eyes, warm and brown, it was hard to catch how unyielding this man could be. During his lifetime, he had seen many disgraceful things and no one could accuse him in standing there indifferent. In front of his eyes emerged the image of devastated Maya. Her bond with her grandma was very strong and when she realized what were her last days, everything good in this girl fell in deep winter sleep. Fuck the lame investigation. Maya wanted to shake the whole goddamn hospital. Whatever weakness they had, she wanted to know about it. And she was going to use it.
“I have here your CV. Exceptional, I got to say.” Interrupted his thoughts the manager.
“I am happy with my career, for the moment, but I consider changing employers.”
“As a head of my cyber security you will enjoy financial freedom and very, very comfortable life, I assure you.”
“I am listening.”
“Large office. With a view.”
“That is certainly attractive.”
“You will have a membership for spa, massages, to compensate for those long hours in an awkward position in front of the computers. Generous remuneration. And if you could think of more, you will get surprised and get it.”
“It doesn’t sound like the NHS.”
“I can make it happen.”
“What about your personal computers, are they in the loop.”
“Well, that’s the point, basically.”
We got him, thought David.
Maya often lifted her long blond hair and let it cascade to her shoulders. Her bright blue eyes indicated tough character you would not want to test. The two were a wonderful couple, smiling, tight-knit couple.
“Maya, can you accept that there was no other way, what could you do in the same situation?”
“You are crazy! You’ve lost your shit, David! To kill the woman who carried me in her arms and gave me everything for nineteen days! To starve her to death! You might not support euthanasia, but I would take the matter in my own hands.”
“And you will go to prison. You cannot demand that from people that see your grandma only as an annoying duty.”
David tried to comfort her. In a society where the tragedy was accepted as something happening to the other people, and there had to be someone with a really large stone to drop in the stagnant water of the Brit’s collective consciousness, to create a response, David and Maya felt abandoned.
Maya could not accept it. She wanted to know what kind of people operate in such a manner. David hacked a few Facebook profiles and pretended to be friends of some of the staff. The conversations with the staff terrified Maya to the utmost. Some were simply indifferent, but most of them were absolutely cynical.
“NHS is a wasteful institution. These dementia patients, they are a waste of money. The sooner we dispose of them, the better.”
When Maya read this, David thought his girlfriend lost her mind. The girl started to bang the cupboards in the kitchen, the plates from the sink turned into salt, the clothes from the air-drier flew everywhere and she sat and cried in the middle of the chaos.
“Maya, Maya, stop, I’ll help you to get them. You are not alone in all this.”
But it simply made her look more miserable.
“What do you need?”
“I am an accountant, right. The financial data of the hospital. I want to see how exactly they waste that money.”
“You will dig into your numbers and probably waste your time, finding nothing.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
David had something else in mind. Her birthday was coming, and if he succeeded, it was going to be his present for her.
David patiently made his way to this office and this job, so here he was, surprising his disgust.
“David, are you ready to step in? This is the contract, take a look. Here is my laptop when you sign.”
Mission accomplished.
Maya woke up sad on her birthday. She tossed and turned for a while in bed, and then saw David carrying breakfast in bed.
“Happy birthday, my love.”
“Thank you.”
“That’s the pancakes. And that is the newspaper, your present is on the first page.”
Maya took a look and shined.
Scandal in NHS. Manager sacked for accepting bribes form food suppliers to include their products in the menu of the hospital.
“David!”
“Don’t get overly excited. Now the NHS Supply chain will step in. The food will be even worse. But the hospital took a tough blow. Eat your breakfast and let’s go for a walk.”
Maya shook his hand energetically.