Chapter 4

Whenever Cory asked to talk to Zack, he always got that feeling like he was about to be made fun of, like he was the loser in a movie scene that gets surrounded by a group of jocks and jeered at, just to be saved by the main character.

Cory was one of those jocks. A ‘bro’ if Zack had ever seen one. If they had met in high school, Cory was the kind of guy that Zack would actively avoid to keep the bullying to a minimum.

Zack popped the “Next Teller Please” sign onto his station and shuffled out from the back. Cory had retreated into his office. The open door was as inviting as the ferocious maw of a lion. Zack had heard of one of those lion tamers getting killed and he took a deep breath as he stepped into the office.

Cory gave Zack his perfect car salesman smile. “Zack, come in. Have a seat.”

Zack stepped into the small office and sunk into one of the plain black chairs set up in front of Cory’s desk.

Cory’s office was a shrine to all things golf. Photos of holes that lined craggy cliffs with ocean in the distance seemed to be hung on every wall. He even had a golf ball clock that said Titleist Pro-V1 on it and a stupid sticker on the back of his computer that said, ‘I really, really, really, really, love golf.’

Zack recalled the first time he visited Cory’s office, for orientation. He noticed a photo of Cory looking really excited with his arm wrapped around another golf bro.

How could he have been such an idiot not to know who Rory Mcilroy was?

Ever since then, Cory had taken it as a personal affront that Zack didn’t give a shit about who won the Master’s.

Cory sat in his chair behind the desk and flipped through some pages, licking his fingers each time he separated the paper. Zack felt a bead of sweat fall down his back. When Cory had compiled an entire package, he handed it to Zack.

“What is this, an indictment?” Zack said. He tried a chuckle, but it came off as desperate.

Cory frowned. “No, this is a complaint. I have to give you a copy of it, but this one has had the complainant redacted, as per employee policy 4.1.1.”

Zack took the package and flipped through it. “Unprofessionalism? Failing to maintain professional boundaries? Improper delegation of authority? Cory, what is this?”

Cory waved it away. “It’s bullshit, mostly. But we have to take it seriously, which is, uh, why you will be placed on probation for the period of the investigation.”

Zack paled. “Investigation?”

“Yeah. Really, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. This sort of thing happens from time to time, but you’ll come out on the other side okay. Look, I have a favour to ask you.”

Zack was still reading through the fine print. If he wasn’t able to ‘improve his performance’ in a month’s time, he would be placed on leave without pay. His heart jolted. “Where did this come from? Who filed a complaint against me?”

Cory leaned back in his chair, his fingers interlaced behind his head. “You’re a Super now, Zack. You can’t be all buddy-buddy with everyone. You know I can’t tell you who filed the complaint. Company policy. But that’s not important, did you hear what I said about a favour?”

Zack turned the page. “It says here I’m supposed to do ethics training and more supervisor training. I haven’t even finished the basic training for supervising yet, and I’m already being slapped with a complaint? If I do this training, will that make this go away?”

Cory leaned forward and harrumphed. “God, Zack. I said it isn’t a big deal. I’ll hold your hand through it, okay? Now. Favour?”

Zack tapped the papers on his lap, compiling them neatly. The date on the top of the paperwork was from a week ago. So the complaint wasn’t that recent. Zack zipped through the interactions he had with the tellers and customers that he had last week, but nothing popped out at him. “Can you at least tell me what happens with complaints? I’m really trying to get past my past, if you know what I mean.”

Cory’s phone buzzed and made a sound like a golf ball falling into a hole. He picked it up and began texting furiously on it. “Yeah, so, I’ll be gone from the fourth of April until the thirteenth. Big tourna…conference down in Arizona. Anyway, I need you to step in as acting Manager. Think you can do that?”

Zack flinched as if he got smacked. Acting Manager? He looked down at the complaint paperwork he was holding. How could he be acting Manager and also the subject of a complaint?

“Acting Manager? Is that allowed when I’m under investigation?”

Cory rubbed at his face. “Come on, Zack. Look around. I don’t have anyone else. June is in school, Karl is too slow, and everyone else is nowhere near management material.”

Zack grinned, but he also felt his stomach gurgle. What a roller coaster. He was being punished and promoted at the same time? He wasn’t sure what to say. He wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his arm and tried to settle his bouncing leg.

Cory sighed and tossed his phone onto the desk. “I can see you are worried about this complaint. Here’s what I’ll do. During your probation, you’ll be paired up with a senior person.” Cory leaned back in his chair and looked at a long list of employee names tacked to a bulletin board behind his desk. “How about Sydney? She’s been here a while. She will help you with this professionalism stuff.”

Sydney. She was training to go into IT and wasn’t necessarily on the floor. “How would that work? Did you ask her already?”

Cory guffawed. “Pff, no. She does what I ask her to do. That’s how it goes.”

“What do I do as the acting Manager?”

Cory tapped on the desk. “Just don’t burn the place down, alright?”

“Okay. Sure, I can do that.”

Cory stood and offered his hand to Zack.

Zack tucked the complaint into the crook of his arm and stood. It was hard not to think of the foreign currency room as he clasped hands with Cory and Cory gave him a hearty bro hug.

“Alright. Get back to it.”