Chapter 145

For the next few days, I buried myself in my work. With the amount of work piled onto all of us, it wasn’t difficult. In the mornings, I came in early, around 6am. At night, I wouldn’t leave until 9 or 10pm.

The schedule was exhausting, and even after only a few days, burnout was clawing at my insides, dragging me down, down. I was barely sleeping. Neither was I eating enough, constantly sitting at my work station or talking on the phone.

I came to work before sunrise and stayed long after sunset.

How the higher ups wanted this to be the normal state of progress, I wasn’t sure. Nothing about this was sustainable. Especially not with most everyone else feeling the same effects as me.

My co-workers move like zombies in the hallways. The planned layoffs had been pushed back, but not because of any increase in productivity. Rather, people were leaving the company in droves.

Even I had received several phone calls from headhunters the past few days. They’d heard that the company was in a tailspin, and were hoping to pick off the best employees. They managed to snag quite a few.

Logan and I haven’t really talked, aside from our typical work-related encounters. During those encounters, he seemed as worn down as I was. Of anyone, he was most likely to see the writing on the wall.

These new efficiency standards were killing the company. All for his grandfather’s grudge. Yet Logan was still unable or unwilling to call him out. At least, perhaps, in a way that his grandfather would listen to.

In any spare moment, Maria’s words haunted my thoughts. Was I changing away from the person I was, with the beliefs I have always held – because of Logan?

I wanted to be true to myself, no matter who I was dating or married to – or whatever Logan and I were to each other. I couldn’t let him sway me just because he was someone I cared about, and who I wanted to care about me.

As things were, we didn’t have a lot of time to sort out our problems. There simply wasn’t a minute to catch our breath, let alone have a heart to heart discussion.

Maria meanwhile had all but given up. She stopped putting in overtime, leaving at exactly 6pm every day. Others had followed her lead.

When I had asked her if she’d even consider staying, worried as I was about her being laid off, she said, “I work to live, not live to work.”

I continued pushing myself. Yet, as the days rolled on, I started to notice that my clients started to notice my exhaustion.

A curtesy call to one of our major clients ended with them asking me, “Are you okay, Ms. Whitaker? You aren’t as… quick as usual. Have you been getting enough sleep?”

“Thank you for your concern,” I say quickly. “And I apologize…”

“You don’t have to apologize. We know you are reliable. We are simply worried about you personally, and…” The client seemed hesitant to continue.

“If there are issues, I would ask to hear them. We want to resolve any friction between us,” I said, “to preserve the healthy relationship between our two companies.”

“It’s just that… well, there’s been rumors going around about what’s going on over at your company. I don’t like to spread gossip, but if you’re hemorrhaging employees, there must be a reason.” The client sighed. “We value our employees here. We can’t support a company that doesn’t uphold our values.”

My heart sank. If the client knew the truth, they would pull their accounts from us for sure.

I begin, “We remain diligent to giving our clients the best possible experience while providing them with quality products –”

“Hazel. We’ve known each other a long time, so I feel like I can say this to you. That is a company line that means nothing. And that you are feeding me the company line proves the rumors are true.”

Shit.

“Susan,” I told the client, softening my voice. If the company line wouldn’t work, what choice did I have but honesty? Maybe I could still soften the blow though. “Upper management has shifted some things around and there are some learning pains. But I assure you it’s not as dire as you think.”

It’s worse. I didn’t say that part.

“I trust you, Hazel. We’ve been with your company a long time, so for old times’ sake, we will continue our accounts. But because of that long term relationship, I feel like I can tell you… We are watching.”

“I appreciate the heads’ up, Susan. Truly.”

After hanging up, I leaned back in my chair. With employees leaving in droves, of course we wouldn’t be able to keep the employee unhappiness under wraps for long.

The people had enough. It wouldn’t be long before a handful of disgruntled employees went to the press. Hell, it would only take one for the lid to blow off of this thing.

And then where would Logan be? As CEO, he would take the brunt of the blame, even if the orders had come down from the board and his grandfather.

As CEO, Logan had to be our advocate against the higher-ups.

Maybe I needed to talk to him again. If I explain this conversation with the client, maybe he will see that there is cause for action.

If these new standards persisted, the company would start losing more than just employees soon. Clients would follow. Then, profits.

Could the board not predict their own destruction? Or was their desire to punish me for thinking about my station cause enough for them to self-destruct?

Pushing away from my desk, I stood with renewed purpose and stormed toward Logan’s office. His door was closed, but I threw it open without knocking.

Two steps inside his door, the world shifted, suddenly off-kilter. Dizzy, I wobbled on my feet.

Why was I so lightheaded?

“Hazel,” Logan said gruffly. “You know better than to march in here without –”

“Logan,” I mumbled weakly.

He looked up from his paperwork. Immediately, his face paled and he stood. He started toward me.

I didn’t know if he made it before I blacked out.

When I blinked my eyes open, I was resting outstretched on the couch in the corner of Logan’s office. He was kneeling on the ground beside me, searching my face with worry in his eyes.

“What happened?” I asked. I started to stand, but he eased me back down onto the couch.

“You passed out.”

I touched my head, but other than a general fogginess there, I didn’t feel a discomfort anywhere. Logan must have caught me before I hit the floor.

“When was the last time you ate?” he asked, voice gentle.

I tried to think back. “I can’t remember.”

“Lunch?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I skipped it. I had a conference call.”

“Breakfast?”

“I got here at 5 this morning. The coffee shop I stop at usually didn’t have their baked goods ready yet.” Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t remember if I had eaten last night either. I’d been so tired, that I’d gone right to bed as soon as I slunk through the door to my apartment.

But I must have eaten at some point?

“Oh,” I said, remembering. “I had a chicken wrap for lunch yesterday. Maria went to grab us lunch.”

Logan’s face grew tighter. “You hadn’t eaten since yesterday lunchtime?”

I nodded.

Sitting back on his heels, he exhaled long and slow. His gaze drifted to the side as he considered something – his thoughts, most likely.

When he finally brought his gaze back to me, a spark of determination ignited there.

“Hazel. I think you should quit.”