Chapter 2 – The Text Message

The message arrived at 6:47 in the morning, before Margaret’s shift had even started, a mass text sent to forty employees across the company’s aging Toledo facility informing them, in language stripped of any real acknowledgment of years of service, that their positions were being eliminated “effective immediately, as part of a facility modernization initiative.”

Margaret read the message twice, standing in her kitchen with her coffee going cold, before the reality of it fully settled — twenty years, ended by a text message she’d received at the same time as employees who’d worked there twenty months.

She arrived at the plant anyway, mostly out of a stubborn need to understand exactly what had happened, and found the parking lot already filling with confused, angry employees comparing identical messages, none of whom had received so much as a phone call before the news went out.

Owen Vance addressed the assembled group briefly, from a small platform near the loading dock, flanked by two security guards whose presence Margaret found almost insultingly unnecessary for a group of longtime employees who simply wanted answers.

“The modernization initiative requires a leaner operational structure,” Owen said, reading from prepared remarks with the flat delivery of someone eager to finish an unpleasant task quickly. “We’re grateful for your years of service. Severance details will be emailed by end of day.”

He turned to leave without taking questions. Margaret stepped forward before he’d made it off the platform. “Owen. A word, if you have a moment.”