At the construction site’s duty room.
The doors were pushed open, and Jasper felt the thick smell of alcohol hit him in the face right as he walked through the door.
Cigarette buds and bottles of alcohol were littered all over the duty room. There was even some leftover food as well.
It was evident that some gathering was held here last night, and a rambunctious one at that.
This was proven by the fact that the smell of cigarettes and alcohol had yet to disperse even though it was almost noon.
Jasper’s gaze soon fell on the bed in the duty room. On it was a young man in his thirties, sleeping away under his blanket.
“Go wake him up,” Jasper instructed the vice president beside him.
Not daring to hesitate, the vice president jogged over to the bed and shook Rohin awake. Thankfully, this was rather easy.
“Tadhg?” Rohin blinked open his alcohol-muddled eyes. Seeing that it was his colleague, he waved his hand and said, “Leave me alone. Let me go back to sleep, I had too f*cking much to drink last night.”
Rohin then turned around to see a group of people looking at him strangely at the duty room doors.
“What’s with the people?” Rohin asked confusedly, having yet realized what was happening.
Tadhg, who had shaken him awake, whispered awkwardly, “Sober up already. Something huge happened and Mr. Laine’s here.”
“Mr. Laine? Which Mr. Laine?” Rohin had drunk himself stupid and he scoffed. “Since when did our company have another Mr. Laine? Stop being so noisy, Tadhg, and shoo everyone away. I’ll wake up after a bit more sleep, I won’t be delaying anything.
“Seriously, Mr. Tucker must’ve been crazy to call all three of us vice presidents to take turns being on duty at the construction site. Like, what’s the point of s being on duty anyway? What a waste of time.”
Tadhg felt beads of cold sweat trickle over his forehead, and he quickly spoke, “Stop talking. It’s Mr. Laine from the parent company, open your eyes and take a good look!”
Rohin was stunned. Blinking as he looked to the door, he was instantly met with Jasper’s icy gaze.
Jasper’s eyes pierced deep into Rohin’s soul like two emotionless knives.
Rohin was shocked sober the instant their eyes met, and he shuddered suddenly. At the same time, he flipped over and fell off the bed.
Ignoring how embarrassed he looked and how painful the fall felt, Rohin frantically got up to explain himself only to find that Jasper had already turned and left.
“I want everyone present above the rank of deputy manager to come to the meeting next door. I have an important announcement to make.”
Rohin fell on his butt at that. He did not dare to say another word.
Tadhg sighed and spoke to Rohin before he left the room, “Good luck, man. Someone almost died over at the site while Mr. Laine came in secret. You essentially got caught red-handed.
“I told you before, Rohin. Something bad’s going to happen if you kept up your inattentive attitude. You’re basically screwed.”
“Tadhg!” Rohin grabbed Tadhg’s clothes and spoke frightfully, “Help me put in a good word! Or it’ll really be over for me this time!”
“What can I say?” Tadhg felt fear creep up within him at the memory of Jasper’s frosty expression.
“You should clean yourself and sober up before you go next door and ask for forgiveness. Maybe Mr. Laine will be kind and forgive you then. But no one can help you otherwise.”
Ten minutes later, around a dozen men sat down in the temporary meeting room next door.
They were all senior executives of JW Real Estates’ Waterhoof City branch.
Jasper swept his gaze expressionlessly over everyone in the room, including Rohin, who looked down silently. Then, Jasper began to speak.
“This is the first time all of you have met me, but I’m sure none of you are strangers to who I am.
“I won’t waste time with unnecessary things. A huge incident occurred at the construction site, and someone will have to take responsibility for it.
“I won’t repeat company rules and regulations because all of you are senior executives. I’m sure you’ve all had your fair share of chiding others about these exact same rules, so you should be well aware of the process.”
Jasper’s words silenced the entire meeting room. Everyone seemed to hold their breaths and no one dared to make a sound.
“Alright, let’s get straight to it, then.”
Jasper spoke calmly. “What I’m about to say next will be relayed to the head office after this meeting. Documents will be issued by the headquarters presidential office, and will then be executed by the president of the real estate company.
“Number one, this major safety incident has revealed poor site management in the construction site. As a result, JW Real Estates’ Waterhoof City branch will be comprehensively reviewed–members of the managerial rank bear inescapable responsibility.
“Everyone from the senior executives to the deputy managers will have their monthly performance bonuses deducted. The vice presidents their seasonal performance bonuses, and Sean his semiannual performance bonus because he has direct leadership responsibility.
“Number two, JW Real Estates’ Waterhoof City branch’s vice president Rohin Ruell will be relieved of all his professional duties effective immediately.
“Number three, JW Real Estates’ Waterhoof City branch will come up with a rectification plan and a situational report. This is to be handed up to the head office for review within the week.”
Then, Jasper glanced at everyone’s expressions before he continued coldly, “I want all of you to pay this incident your undivided attention. The head office will treat the rectification plan and the situational report solemnly.
“Your implementation of this rectification plan will be supervised. Whoever decides to continue being careless will end up just like Rohin.”
With that, Jasper waved his hand and ordered, “Dismissed!”
The entire meeting lasted no more than three minutes, yet it left everyone in the branch’s managerial ranks petrified.
Rohin could not accept this.
Seeing as how he had lost his job, Rohin stood up and let go of all inhibitions, “Mr. Laine, this isn’t fair!”
“It’s not fair?” Jasper asked coldly.
“All I did was invite a few friends over and drank too much. The nature of the safety incident has nothing to do with me at all,” Rohin forced out an excuse.
“Nothing to do with you?”
Jasper scoffed before slamming his palm on the table. He immediately started shouting at the man.
“I had you vice presidents remain on shift to monitor the site, not to have you sleep and invite friends over! I might as well get you a hotel or a restaurant if that’s the case. It’s more comfortable there than at a construction site too, no?
“Why do you think I asked for you to be on duty here?!
“I wanted everyone in the branch to understand the importance of this construction project!
“Yet here you are, getting drunk and blacking out! Now, you have the audacity to tell me it’s not fair?”
