Page 9

After he’d loped off into the darkness, I realised what I’d done.

Mentally, it seemed like a sane thing to do, not sleep with a colleague within hours of getting a new job.

But who knew right hurt so good? My nipples were tight little beads, feeling every rasp and shift of my bra as I moved.

My clit actually ached, throbbing in time with my heartbeat and leaving me wondering if I should call Shaun back.

I shook my head and plodded over to the bathroom to have a long, long shower.

My dog got excited when I locked up the bungalow, racing down the hill and back again.

Where he found the energy, I don’t know.

“Morning.” I turned and saw the three blokes who’d sat next to me at dinnertime walking towards the compound as well.

Jesus! Mountain guy really was huge. He’d have to be six foot seven or more of solid but not bulky muscle, which unfortunately led to my gaze dropping lower, wondering if he was big everywhere.

It was like visiting Loch Ness. You had to look into the depths just to see if the monster was lurking there.

Something shifted beneath the khaki fabric.

Whoa, was that real? I thought as I stared at the considerable bulge.

Visibility was compromised, but what was hinted at was massive.

I jerked my eyes up, stumbling away. Holy shit!

“Have a great day,” I said before walking quickly away, the guys’ laughter ringing in my ears.

“Come through, Julie,” Kelly said. I dropped the completed paperwork on Karen’s desk and walked into her office.

She smiled once we were both seated. “I have your contract. The trial period is for a month. If at the end of that time we find you are not a good fit for the job, the contract will be terminated.” I swallowed hard, glad I hadn't slept with Shaun. I still had to win this job, and trying to do so with a sex hangover wasn’t helpful.

“You will have several performance reviews though, so there should be no surprises for anyone. You look worried.”

“I’m not sure what the position entails, so I guess I don’t know if I can even do this job.”

She smiled at this. “I was going to get Finn to go over that, but to reassure you, it’s basically doing whatever he needs.

From menial things like getting coffee, to helping with paperwork.

In some ways, you’ll be a personal assistant, though the work won’t be restricted to administrative stuff.

I tend to look after the overall organisation, keep the books in the black and make the big decisions.

The day to day running is down to Finn, so your job is to make that easier for him. ”

“Ok, I guess all I can do is do my best, and hope I meet your standards.”

“You’ll be fine. Now, from Finn’s comments about the mess hall, it’s beyond time for me to chat about the HR issues of working here.”

“News gets around fast, huh?”

“You’ve lived in a small town, you know what it's like. Don’t worry or anything, he said you dealt with the attentions of the male staff confidently and appropriately, but the reality must be faced.

We are hours from civilisation and have few female staff.

Sexual and romantic relationships happen.

We accept and support that, but everyone needs to be clear how this works.

Your sex and love life is none of our business, except when it creates potential risk for the company.

The risk lies with sexual harassment, obviously.

Female staff often find our views on workplace relationships comparatively permissive when starting work here, sometimes shockingly so.

Some, even many, male employees will make plain they are interested in a sexual or romantic relationship.

They may do this during or after work, though this can’t take away from the tasks they have to do that day.

If this gets oppressive, or makes you uncomfortable in any way, let me or Finn know, and we will deal with it.

All parties involved will be notified when a formal warning is in place, and any offensive actions beyond that point will result in an immediate termination of employment for the offender.

Please, feel confident that we will support you.

I know many workplaces pay lip service to the idea of zero tolerance for sexual harassment, but I assure you, that is not the case here.

We are too far away from anything, so we must police ourselves for the wellbeing of our organisation. Now, did you have any questions?”

I frowned as I tried to get my head around it. “So, you’re telling me it would be OK to flirt with some guy when I’m supposed to be working, as long as I get my work done?”

“We expect our employees to be self-directed and show initiative. If you’re looking for a boss to micromanage you, this won’t be a good fit for you.

The expectation is that you can manage your time wisely and complete all tasks set.

If you think you can fit some flirting in while doing this, feel free, but realise that this will be frowned on during time sensitive tasks. ”

“So, sleeping with the entire male workforce, as long as I get my work done, is OK?” I asked with an incredulous laugh.

“We have over four hundred male staff, so that would be a considerable feat of endurance. Some staff are in relationships, so causing distress by trying to break up happy couples would definitely be frowned upon. Creating discord in a functioning workplace would be grounds for a negative performance review, and if you were attempting to force yourself on a man in or out of a relationship, he could bring a sexual harassment case against you. But other than that, my question would be, would it interfere with your work? Were you getting all your tasks done? That’s actually a good question.

I’ll make a note to add that to the next group training session. ”

I let out a laugh that sounded almost more like a bark.

This had to be a joke. What kind of crazy place was this?

My boss was coolly telling me how to have gang bangs without messing with my work performance!

I scrubbed at my face with my fingers, hoping maybe to wake myself up from the weirdest dream my id could have thrown at me.

“You’re struggling to take this in,” Kelly said.

“That’s common. Would you like me to give you some time? We can continue this later?”

“No, I….” I shook my head. “What you’re suggesting would have me fired, feathered and tarred for being an unrepentant slut at my previous jobs. It’s just hard to hear my new boss say, sure, go for it, sleep with whoever you like.”

Kelly shrugged, “Well, I can tell you from experience, we tried it the other way too, of course, and it didn’t end well.

We had major issues with interpersonal conflict, good qualified people leaving the organisation to pursue the relationships we were banning, not to mention sexual harassment.

We spent considerable time with a team of mediators and psychologists, and came up with an alternative way to manage the situation.

This was reviewed by consultants from industries with high incidents of sexual interaction in the workforce and refined.

So far, it’s worked well for us. We’ve even had articles written about our HR practices in some esteemed journals on business management, if you want to read them. ”

“Ah, no. I’ll take your word on it. Wait, what industries? Like porn?”

“Some were from the adult entertainment industry, others from the BDSM community, and some representing sex workers. It was incredibly illuminating, once we move beyond our enculturated view of sex to a more pragmatic one, job satisfaction increased…”

I just bet it did , I thought.

“Staff retention, productivity, any metric you’d like to apply improved. We’ve worked this way for ten years, with an incident rate most companies would die for. It’s a social experiment, but so far, it’s been a successful one.”

I sat there, trying to look all keen and professional, but seriously, my brain went straight back to when the guys walked in the door to the mess hall.

It played back in super detail the many, many details I hadn’t noticed the first time, perhaps exaggerated for my benefit.

Then it was a slideshow of Shaun’s kisses and his sandalwood scent, the guys bringing me food, the bloke with the monster dick, and Finn…

I shook my head, and said, “What about when there’s an unequal working relationship? Like a leading hand and a subordinate?”

“Thinking about Finn, are you?” My eyes went wide, but she just laughed.

“It’s OK, I noticed a bit of a frisson during the interview.

That can be more difficult to negotiate, due to the power imbalance.

Irrespective of who wears the pants at home, during working hours, it’s important that assigned roles are respected.

If you are adept at shifting gears, from your work persona to your domestic one, I can’t see there being an issue.

It’s been awhile since Finn has had a significant other, and it would probably be good for him.

But if you found it too hard, I would suggest you either terminated the relationship or asked for a transfer within the organisation. ”