Summary

A group of colleagues discusses their boss's recent erratic behavior and communications, debating whether it's a sign of mental decline or a deliberate strategy, ultimately deciding to monitor the situation and analyze his words for hidden messages.

Abstract

In a private meeting, five employees led by an Asian woman named Liz express concern over their boss's increasingly bizarre and incoherent communications. Vanessa, the head of psychiatry, cautions against jumping to conclusions about the boss's mental state, citing his history of eccentricity and the presence of regularly misspelled words in his writings. Ryan points out a misspelling as evidence of the boss's decline, but this is countered by data showing the misspelling is consistent with the boss's past errors. Randolph advocates for immediate intervention, while Liz suggests that the boss's messages may contain hidden meanings, a theory supported by Vanessa, who recalls a previous instance of complex messaging from the boss. Delwood, the final speaker, argues that the boss is intentionally acting out to be removed from his position. The group agrees to neither act immediately nor ignore the situation, opting instead to analyze the boss's words further while awaiting his next communication, hoping it will return to normal. The following day, the boss's writing appears to be back to normal, leading Liz and Delwood to suspect that the boss may have been testing them.

Opinions

Liz believes that the boss's strange behavior is intentional and that his messages may contain hidden meanings.
Vanessa, while acknowledging the unusual behavior, does not think the boss has lost his faculties and suggests a thorough analysis of his words.
Ryan is concerned that the boss's misspelling and incoherence indicate a serious decline in mental capacity.
Randolph is alarmed by the boss's behavior and suggests he be taken into custody for mental evaluation to prevent potential damage to his reputation and the company.
Delwood is cynical about the boss's intentions, believing he is acting out to be ousted from his position without having to resign himself.
The group collectively decides to withhold immediate action, preferring to monitor the situation and look for deeper insights into the boss's behavior through his communications.

Fiction

The Boss’s Blip

Or is it something far more severe?

There were five people sitting at one end of a conference table big enough to accommodate twenty seated people. The doors to the conference room were closed and locked and the surveillance cameras had been turned off.

An Asian woman named Liz spoke first, “I take it that all of you have seen what The Boss has put out recently.”

The other four nodded.

“There is obviously something going on. We’ve got to figure out what it is and then decide what to do about it.”

Vanessa, the head of the psychiatric division spoke up, “I have to say that this is definitely out of character for The Boss. While some of you have confided in me that you think he has lost his mind, I think it’s too early to come to that conclusion. We must remember that he has always shown a tendency to the bizarre.”

“Yeah, but this far exceeded any past eccentricities. He was practically incoherent. And did you notice that he actually misspelled a word in yesterday’s crazy missive? That’s a dead give away that he is way off his game,” said Ryan as he nervously scratched his neatly trimmed beard.

“Thanks Ryan. But we did a computer evaluation of all The Boss’s 120,000 plus missives and found that there are actually three words that he has regularly misspelled and that word he used yesterday happens to be the one word he has misspelled the most. So that shows that he is actually perfectly in line with his long noggin profile. It shows that no one has taken over his noggin and it is actually him doing the bizarre writing. We just have not figured out what has caused the radical departure from his normal thinking.”

Randolph spoke, “Well, I think he needs to be taken into custody for an extensive mental probing. If he continues with this nonsense everything could be ruined. His stature could be quickly destroyed and no one will ever believe a thing he ever says again. We need to act quickly. It is more than obvious that something is seriously wrong. We need to determine what it is before he says anything else.”

“I disagree,” said Liz as she leaned into the table. “I feel that it really is him writing this weird stuff and that he is in full control of his faculties. Why he’s doing it is what I don’t understand. I think we should take a closer study of what he has been saying. I think there are probably some hidden messages to be found within the gobbledygook. Maybe there is even some cry for help hidden within the words. You know how The Boss’s stuff is always filled with hidden messages, right? What do you think Vanessa?”

“I think you may have a point, Liz. I don’t think he’s lost his faculties either. I’ll get a team on re-evaluating his words right away. He does have a complicated noggin and upon reading his stuff most people don’t see all the subtle messages lacing every paragraph. I’ll also have someone double check to see if there are any crypto messages with letters, spacing, and numerological interfacing. I remember that time a few years ago when he spent two weeks writing one paragraph. A thorough computer analysis of the paragraph showed that there were 837 different messages in it.”

Delwood snorted. Delwood was the only one who had yet to speak. His elbow was resting on the cherry wood table with the side of his face resting on his fisted hand. “I think the guy is a whack job. I think he is using shock therapy to get out of his job as boss. I think he wants to be removed from his position. He wants out but he doesn’t have the balls to quit. He’s using childish games to get us to be the ones who remove him. And we’re playing right into his hands. I think we should just let him keep digging his own grave. Let him be the one who ruins everything he has built. After all, he can always be replaced once he mans up and quits. Why should we be the bad guys?”

A silence ensued as everyone looked around at each other as they took in what Delwood said.

Finally, Liz leaned back in her chair, “Okay, are we in agreement not to take any immediate action? We’ll dig deeper into analysis while we wait to see what freaking weird things The Boss says tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe he’ll come out with one of his normal writings that make sense and are full of wisdom. Maybe this is all just a blip on the radar.”

A modest grumbling erupted from the small group as they stood to leave the conference room.

Liz stood and turned around to look out the large windows at the twilight flowing over the city. With fingers crossed, she whispered to herself, “Please let this be a blip.”

The next afternoon Liz came upon Delwood in a hallway, “I’m sure you saw that today The Boss came out with a very normal writing.”

Delwood snorted, “Yeah. I’m fairly convinced that he’s just fucking with us.”

Liz nodded and the two went their separate ways.

Speaking of cheesecake…

Cheesecake

Two women and a puzzle

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