What Not to Say at Office Meetings

The story of an accidentally successful author

Recent events made it difficult for Kailey to go to work. There was a murmur of subdued laughter every time she entered the office. Almost no one spoke to her anymore. She had become the laughingstock of the company.

Even her good friend Virginia did not want to be seen talking to Kailey. When they were alone they were good friends still but there were no outward signs of friendship in the open office. Kailey began questioning Virginia’s friendship.

After what she had blurted out at the office meeting Kailey was too embarrassed to even open her mouth and speak. She did not know what had come over her to say such a thing. Normally, she was much more guarded in her public utterances. It was like she had been taken over by some crazy entity who began speaking through her.

At home in the evenings she had begun working on her resume. The following week she planned on looking for a new job. She wondered, though, if any of her bosses would now give her a good recommendation after what she said. It seemed that her self-inflicted doom might have derailed any hope of future success.

Why did she have to use those words? Why did she have to be so honest? She was surprised that she had not been immediately fired. It may have been better if she had been immediately fired because then she would not have to endure the tense negative vibes coming from her coworkers.

That weekend Kailey’s life drastically changed — for the better. She would eventually look back at her office meeting outburst as a defining moment; a turning point in her career.

When not working Kailey had a hobby. She wrote. She had no intentions whatsoever of making writing a career path or becoming rich and famous. She did it mostly for fun and therapy.

When younger, Kailey kept a journal. Then she started a blog. Only a few friends ever read her blog but that did not matter. The important thing is that she wrote out her feelings and frustrations and pleasures and put it out there to the universe to free herself of them. To her, writing was about catharsis and release.

After that unfortunate office meeting outburst she turned to her blog and wrote about it. She felt better after writing about it and after rereading it she thought it was not half bad. She polished it up and gave it a title; What Not To Say At Office Meetings. After posting it to her blog she decided to submit it to a national business publication.

To her great surprise the publication accepted her piece. To her even greater surprise the article went viral. A few days later she got an email from a New York publishing house asking if she would want to write a weekly column for one of its magazines. The pay was not great but it was almost as much as she made working at the office. She readily agreed.

Kailey did not even bother giving her notice at the office. She merely called them up and said that she quit.

After several months the publishing house put all her column articles together in a book and published it. In less than a month the book made it onto the New York Times bestseller list. Soon thereafter Kailey got a phone call from Oprah. Oprah wanted to interview her.

Kailey never again worked in an office.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction.

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