Silence is Not Always Golden

S

Silence crashed down hard that day in the workplace. It was like a flooding rain in a thunderstorm, only without the sounds. They had been told that on this day when the people of a small town who worked for a major corporation in the big city would be face to face with ‘THE BOSSES’ as they were generally called by those who worked for them, both in the town and in the city. No one in town knew why they were doing this on this day. THE B0SSES had never done anything like this before. They generally communicated with the old fellow, Jeffrey, in charge in the small town business, and they rarely said much to him, and listening to him was even less frequent

The small town workers wondered whether their small branch plant would be shut down completely, forever. Not one of the workers in the small town had a clue what was going to be said to them by THE BOSSES. No one wanted to ask the questions that they all shared, but kept inside their minds. They did not want to talk about the potential disaster. They were silent on the subject, thinking in their deep down hopelessness that the worst possible fate was just about to happen, and that speaking of this hopelessness would feel almost like a contribution to this fate. The voice inside the mind was permitted to say what it wanted, silent to the rest of the world, so only the one person would be upset by the thoughts and worries.

Sometimes when people are faced with a difficult situation such as this they feel that talking about it would encourage the bad results to come forward like a thief in the night. That was what was going on here, as illogical as it was. People would look at each other, the eyes articulating the worrying, but that the mouth did not. It was completely silent. People in this company usually would sit and vocalize life with one another where food was sold next door, and they would have lunch together, but not today. They didn’t want their personal negativity reinforced by someone else’s identical negative views.

From Work to Home

The silence of the workplace had been brought to homes as well. Wives and husbands would not speak of the negative possibilities that might soon hit the ones closest to them, and sadly affect the family income in the near future. Couples watched a lot of television at night after the announcement of the meeting with THE BOSSES. They did not want to talk about the job loss possibilities that were coming up, so they lost their speech to anything that was not on the screen.

The Bus Ride to the Big City

There was to be a meeting of all of the small town workers on this day. THE BOSSES had sent a message to Jeffrey that they wanted all of the small town staff to take a bus to the headquarters of the big corporation. THE BOSSES wrote that they they would pay for the fee of the rental of the bus, both ways. Jeffrey would be driving. He had been a bus driver for a short time in his career, plus he knew the location of their destination. He had been hired there, and had worked there for two years.

The bus was quiet from the very beginning. The only thing that Jeffrey said was that they would stop at the take-out place on the outskirts of town, to have their travelling lunch. THE BOSSES did not cover this. They had to pay for themselves. When they got there and lined up, there was only short sentences about what people felt was the best deal at the place, and that was said with as few words as was humanly possible: “Ooh, hamburgers nice.”

Back in the bus the only sounds coming from their mouths were those of eating – no conversations were heard.

Only Jeffrey had ever seen the monstrously huge building where THE BOSSES and their staff worked. So, when it came within his sight, he pointed it out to his fellow employees. Only one person spoke out, merely saying “It’s HUGE. You could certainly get lost in there”. That was the longest series of words that anyone had said during the trip. People didn’t comment, but some communicated by nodding their heads in response. Some felt that the speaker had said too much, making obvious the difference between the two workplaces.

Once the bus was parked, the people slowly got out. Jeffrey lined them up. Then they slowly walked to the entrance of the giant building, guided by the local staff..

Once inside, they were directed into the big room on the first floor. They were surprised that they were permitted to take all the seats in the front row, while those that worked there sat farther back. Once they all were seated, they looked up at the stage, and watched THE BOSSES strut onto it, and seat themselves in some very elegant and obviously expensive chairs.

The leader of THE BOSSES walked up to the front, on the very edge of the stage. He gazed from one side of the front row to the other, and back again, finishing it was a smile

Then he spoke, “You are looking at me as if you think that I am not wearing any underwear under my expensive pants. Who told you?”

Initially there was not a sound in response to this bizarre announcement. Was he joking or was he angry? Then a few of the local staff started laughing. They knew him well. It did not take long for everyone to join in, the whole room becoming loud with laughter in every row of seats.

When the laughter ended, the obviously biggest of THE BOSSES smiled and provided the people in the front row with some very good news. “Now that I have got your complete attention, I will tell you what you came to hear. Our plan is to expand both the city and the town branches of the company, and there will be raises all around. We have been very successful lately. The silence ended with applause for the BOSS, as everyone stood up with smiles and laughter that they had not experienced for days now. Silence is not always golden.