SCENE 2
[Still frame, long straight road, small shiny compact car in the distance, as car draws nearer we see a blue cloud of cigarette smoke exiting the drivers window in a steady stream. On the otherwise undecorated car there is a bright orange parking sticker on the front bumper. It reads 0101. Camera turns as car turns. We see our hero, with the new growth of a goatee and refecltive sunglasses sucking on his cigarette, he flicks it out the window, the camera follows the flying debris to where it lands. There is a large pile of cigarette butts, and several people standing around it. Someone kicks a piece of the pile down the nearby stormdrain.Break to stopped car, our hero, Dave, adjusts his tie, puts his cigarretes in his pocket, and gets out of his car, as of now it is spotless. Leaning back in he empites half a pack of used cigarettes into a baggie. He walks around to the trunk of his car opens itand puts the baggie in a coffee can. Trunk closes and we see his place of employment, a bland two story building, with large windows, it has no personality, nothing distinguishing, except one tree near the door. Our hero begins his long walk down the hill to the employee entrance]
Sound of car door slamming.
Dave: Hey Bruce
Bruce: Hey, goatee? You finally decided to join the dress code?
Dave: Just a change, weren’t you wearing that sweater yesterday?
Bruce: Ive been wearing this sweater for the past month, and jeans too.
Dave: I thought they changed it back.
Bruce: How would you know, you always dress like the manager of a Gap store.
[The two men walk towards the door]
Bruce: Hear about the the meeting this morning?
Dave: Yeah, who is it this time, Personnel Office, or Training?
Bruce: Heheheh, neither, its a Quality Assurance Focus Forum.
Dave: The new one?
[Bruce nods]
You look a little rough, out again last night?
Bruce: I have gone out every night I have worn this sweater to work, you should come out sometime. You don’t have to wear my sweater either.
Dave: I’ll think about it. See you at the meeting. Bruce takes his glasses off, they have heavy black circles under them, and his eyes are pale and watery.
Bruce: Yeah, I need to prepare.
[Break to long conference table, blonde girl in her twenties , Diane,stands at the head of the table, she’s wearing a neon green business suit, and a smiley face button on her lapel. Employees straggle in, 12 in all, most in dockers and golf shirts, some have ties.They all look tired One seat remains empty]
Diane: Good morning everyone! I’m glad you could come this morning. Today were going to reveiw our Quality Initiative employee surveys from all of your team members, and then develop a strategy to implement any scenarios we develop from our brainstorming.
[Bruce walks in in jeans and a Ford Quality is job one T-shirt, as he walks there is a jingling sound, he has small bells clipped to the sleeves of his shirt. He sits down next to Dave]
Diane: Well good, everyones here. First let’s get to know each other.
[Bruce raises his hand, he jingles as he does so]
Bruce: Diane, I’d like to start by saying how glad I am we have been able to take our excess time to come here and get a little closer while we discuss quality. I’d like to start off by introducing myself, my name is Bruce and I have known all of you for the past 3 years, when most of us started here together, as a matter of fact I have been out drinking with almost all of you on at least 16 spearate occaisions and hope that today I manage to pick up on any small details I might have missed about any of you in my follow up sessions when most of us eat lunch together.
Diane: Um...thank you Bruce! As some of you know I’m Diane and I started here 2 months ago as part of our improved quality enhancement program assessment.
Bruce: Does that mean that you are assessing out quality program, or that you are improving the assessments on our quality program?
[Bruce sips his coffee, Dave smirks, and tries to look serious]
Diane: Well, it means what it says, but I think we can talk more in depth about that on a one on one basis if you feel the need Bruce. First off I’m glad to be working with all of you, and I’d like you to know that I will answer any questions you may have. First off Id like you to look at the first hand out.
[Camera pans down to pile in front of Dave, it is at least two inches high, the words Printed on recycled paper appear at the bottom of every sheet]
Diane: This details our goals for this meeting, which we have already discussed.
Bruce: We did?
Diane: IT was before you came in Bruce, now the results of the individual group surveys are on each page. These are very important becuase all of them show that each team is under their quality goal.
Dave: Diane, most of the teams are over 75% quarter, except for...Bruces team...how are we under.
Diane: In an effort to improve quality Monolith has raised our goal to 85 % becuase we have done so well, so in order to get our bonus we need to work harder to attain our quality level.
Dave: Do we get our bonus from last quarter?
Diane: Actually no, becuase the quality figures didn’t come in until after the end of the quarter so these surveys are based on this quarters quality goals.
[Diane smiles]
Dave: Oh.
[Cut forward, the piles are now divided in half, and there are several empty styrofoam cups around each persons chair]
Diane: SO in conclusion, its important we work on maintaining morale, becuase our attrition rate has increased this month, and remember, try to keep your teams overtime to a minimum, and don’t forget to have all of your team members fill out their technical proficiency survey before the end of the week.
Bruce: It’s Wednesday.
Diane: I know given the hard work you’ve all shown in the past this shouldn’t be a problem.
[Bruce walks out first jingling, Dave hurries to catch up with him]
Dave: How long were we in there?
Bruce: Two hours. [Bruce smiles]
Dave: When did they start changing the quality goal.
Bruce: They always have, as soon as we reach it, they change it, and then we get penalized, but we don’t really get penalized, we just don’t get paid as much, and the techs never get any extra money, a team did once, but we suprised them.We hired 4 new guys in my group, and then a new product came out, so they cut us some slack for training. All of the guys we we hired though used to program in the product though, some state agency closed.
Dave: So really noone has ever made a bonus?
Bruce: No. But we did get those ice cream sandwiches a year ago remember?
Dave: No...
Bruce: You don’t come out of your cube much.You don’t even remember the pizza do you?
Dave: What pizza?
Bruce: See. We won some morale booster, and we won pizza, you were in my group...we never got it.
Dave: When was this?
Bruce: 2 years ago.
Dave: Oh. But they bought us lunch last week.
Bruce: Only for people who worked through their lunch, bet you money it doesn’t show up on the overtime.
Dave: Huh?
Bruce :You need to pay more attention, by the way did you know what Monolith budgets us under?
Dave: No...
Bruce: Public relations...because we talk to the public I suppose. Want to go out for a cigarette?
Dave: Sure.
[Outside, near the storm drain, and the pile of butts on the ground]
Bruce: You want to know what i want to know?
Dave: What?
Bruce: Why everytime theres a BIG meeting, not just leads , or rep volunteers, when we ask questions we never get a straight answers.
Dave: Maybe they just don’t want to ruin morale.
Bruce: True, but they trained us to ask pointed questions and to get a real answer from people we’ve never talked to before...I wonder if they think we only do that on the phone.
Dave: what did you do before you came here?
Bruce: I used to kill for the CIA after the service, and then I worked in a book store. I was a youth counsellor at an outdoor camp somewhere in there too.
[Dave laughs]
Dave: Really what did you do?
Bruce: Okay I never worked in a book store. You need to get out of your cube more Dave, look around. I didn’t even know you smoked.
Dave: I just started again a few months ago after I got my promotion.
Bruce: Be careful it leads to harder drugs, like Coke.
Dave: Coke?
Bruce: Coca Cola, you’ll gain a good 45 pounds if you start eating in the cafe too. So what did you do before you got here?
Dave: Fiber optic technician. Small company.
Bruce: Cool.
[Bruce squints and looks through a nearby window.]
I have to go back in, I need to prevent a homocide.
[Dave laughs. He turns to talk to Bruce, but he is already walking towards the nearest entrance at a quick pace]