In search of the niche (СИ)

-Why did he start with you? There are also 15 people.

-How do I know? Maybe someone has snitched...

- Why does he stick around you all day? What, he has nothing to do?

- Do I know? He always says that I work slowly.

- So work faster.

-Leo, really! I'm literally work like a dog! I'm afraid to go to the washroom. I already have arthritis on my fingers and my eyes are watering. I have to go to the doctor.

-Well, if you work so hard, then why is he not happy? I know him pretty well. We worked together about five years ago. Absolutely adequate person.

-O yeah! Adequate! We are changing everything 3-4 times!

-Now at least I understand why everything in slowly motion mode...

-What's wrong with you?! Damn it! Are you on his side?! He told me - I drew. He looked and began: Why did you go on the left side? What, you didn"t see that your duct blocks access to the service door. And why here chute went up? You cross straight through the passage. How will people walk?

-And what, you didn"t see where your chute is going?

- I do not care who goes and where! Draw me with a pencil, and then I'll bring all of it to the model. I can"t get into his head. He is a lead engineer! And I just a regular designer.

-Well, he can"t get into your head either. He not supposed to tell you the basic things. It's like ignite a car first and then driving. There are things that you can explain till five years, and after it starts to be annoying.

-So what, are you on his side?! I'm working as a slave here, with outstretched eyes. I chained to my chair and even not go anywhere..., even in washroom! I'm probably going to have heart attack soon, and you still pinching me!

-Me?! I have worked like that all my life...

-Oh Leo, it is something disgusting in my soul, - Grechko changed his tone dramatically, realizing that he is not going to get any compassion. After that he looked at his watch and added, - I will go... This "condom" probably came three-four times with a stopwatch...

-So what? You still have five more minutes of an official dinner...

-Okay... You know..., I'm afraid ... We bought a new car, furniture, we have a mortgage... By the way, we still didn"t pay for the last vacation... If I get fired, then I will be impossible for us to live for half the salary that I have now.

- Well, push your wife go to work.

-Yes, she is looking for job, but so far nothing good. I've been thinking - maybe I'll get sick for 3-4 weeks, and then maybe situation will dissolve... What do you think?

-And how exactly it will be resolved?

-This "condom" will get a new designer and when I return, I will be transferred to another lead engineer.

-But another lead will start to run into you again. Now the mechanical department is not just behind the schedule. At each meeting the management talking only about mechanical department. They finally realized that you, guys, fuck around for a year. You all came here as to the gentlemen club.

- Oh, come on. I'm not the only one. The entire department was fooled around. And I'm just a little man... Tell me to draw here - I'll draw, tell me to move there - sure, please. And it turns out that everybody scratched his balls, but they only run into me.

-Situation changed completely. They started to push everyone.

-Oh, I have to run. I'm sorry, - Nikolay literally ran out of Leo's office frightened glancing at his watch.

3

The next morning, Koifman again went on a business trip. Returning after the weekend, he was usually more busy than usual, so he was glad that Nikolay did not come to the lunch. The next day, Leo again had a lunch alone. After lunch he decided to check on Grechko. However, in the mechanical department, he was told that Grechko broke his leg and now located in the hospital. It was also said that the fracture is somehow horrible and that he will be back just in 6 weeks. Rummaging through his papers, Koifman found the number of the mobile phone of the injured friend and immediately called.

-Hello, - the voice on the other end was almost like from the grave.

- Is it you, lazy slack? - started Leo's cheerfully.

-Oh, hello! - Grechko"s voice immediately became regular, - I just see that somebody are calling me from work... Didn"t realized that it was you.

-Therefore you are playing as after contusion. Okay, tell me, are you really broke your leg? Or this is part of your plan to be sick for a month?

-What are you talking about?! I did not plan anything! Don"t start! We went to the forest with my wife, I collected firewood, go back to the camping tent, and stones were slippery...

-Clear. Slipped, woke up - plaster.

-Well yes. Only this is an open fracture... Thanks God ambulance arrived on time, otherwise I would die.

-Well, what do the doctors say? When you back to work?

-Said that if everything is good, then in 10 weeks it will be possible to return.

- So, your colleagues in mechanical department told me that you'll be back in six weeks.

-Well, I did it on purpose. Otherwise they can remove me from the project. If they will hear that I'm left on a temporary disability, for a three months, then they will immediately take someone else.

-But anyway someone needs to work and meet the schedule. No one will wait for you for three months.

- That's exactly what I'm talking about. I'll call in six weeks and say that doctor took an X-ray and demanded another two weeks. In two weeks I will call again. And this way I could sit quietly on my temporary disability for 3 months. The insurance covers 75% of the average earnings, which is not so bad. Honestly, I need some time for rest. I'm so tired of all this pressing.

-You was under the pressure even less than two weeks. I thought you were rested enough over a three years. Or you expected this beautiful life will be forever?

-Why are you tease me all the time?! I told you everything as to friend, honestly, didn"t hide anything, and instead of compassion you...

-Sorry, I'm silent. What leg did you break? I hope this is not a right leg?

-No. Luckily. I broke the left one. I mean, I can drive a car.

-So what's the problem? After six weeks, go to work. No one will start push poor semi-disabled man.

-Why do I need this? I have already calculated everything: taking into account price of gasoline, amortization of the car, time in transit, etc., I will earn almost the same money in the end.

-OK, I got it. You want not to work for 3 months, but stay on the project.

-Yes. Eventually you got it.

- Hm-mm. It's certainly not my business, but all of it somehow stinks. Once you certainly can play this card, but the second time they will crack you down and you will be thrown out. I would do it.

-But I'll say - it's a doctor. I wanted to return, but doctor do not allow me.

-Brilliantly, as in the fifth grade. Only I wouldn"t play this game. Maybe one time you can do it, but no more. People not stupid.

Six weeks flew very fast. Nobody was taken to mechanical department. From time to time Grechko called Koifman and asked him to go to the mechanical department and tell people how hard he is living with a broken leg, how he takes morphine, does not sleep at night, but his heart with his colleagues. In parallel, he phoned his colleagues directly and told the same stories, but with much more details. At the same time he scolded "stubborn" doctors who did not allow him to return.

The day before the end of the glorious six weeks, Nilolay, as was planned, called to the head of the mechanical department and said that he needs two more weeks. Boss, who by that time barely coped with the accumulated volume of work and had already planned something for the missing designer, squeezed his teeth and told a neutral OK, and hung up with a big disappointment.