Workplace Affairs Stories Novels & Stories

Hore says defending me, and I gave her one side look, she knows to leave the talking to me, I'm the lawyer in here and not her. "Do you need to rest? We can leave," Alice says, but I was bored alone, I love Hore but I know all her adventures and stories, I want to know what's going on with work. "I'm fine, don't believe anything she says," I answer her. "Fine," Kennedy says but he is looking at me differently now, he doesn't believe I'm fine anymore. "So tell me what did I miss at work? What happened?" I ask them, there's always gossip in our work, if not work-related, it's personal gossip and we always find something or someone to talk about.

"Before you came, she was always around the boss like she was his girlfriend or something." I laughed. "I know, right? It's like she's auditioning for a fashion disaster movie." As our conversation meandered into gossip, we couldn't help but share stories about our coworkers. "Did you hear about the drama between the Tom and Sarah?" Susan asked, leaning in. My eyes widened. "Oh, spill it all. I love workplace drama." We giggled like schoolgirls, trading rumors and speculation. It felt good to let loose after a long week of keeping up appearances. I felt at peace. This we're things I was supposed to be doing with Olivia, and now I was doing them with someone who wasn't my family.

"Why can't we rest for a single day in this company without hearing your name and your messy business? Do you just thrive on drama, Marissa?" "Well, I can't help it," I said, dropping my gloss back into my purse and finally turning around to lean against the counter, facing her directly. "People like you are the ones who help spread the stories anyway. If you didn't spend half your billable hours gossiping, you wouldn't hear my name at all."

Ariana POV By the end of my second week at work, I had learned three important lessons. First, office coffee was somehow worse than university coffee, which should have been scientifically impossible. Second, meetings could have been emails ninety percent of the time. Third, no matter how professional a workplace appeared from the outside, drama always found a way inside.

Ravyn said again. Betty sat with this for a long moment, both hands wrapped around her coffee cup, staring at approximately the middle distance between herself and Ravyn's desk. Then she looked back up with the expression of someone who had arrived at a conclusion. "I need you to know," Betty said, "that I have worked in this building for four years. I have seen a significant amount of drama. Mergers, departures, two different instances of workplace romances that ended catastrophically, one occasion where someone's spouse showed up at the office Christmas party in circumstances I will not describe but that remain legendary. And I am telling you, with complete sincerity, that nothing—nothing—

"Good morning to you too." "The Maya story is contained. The rebranding numbers are excellent. But the article about you and Alex hasn't gone away. It's actually picking up secondary coverage." She pulled out her tablet. "Business Insider ran a piece yesterday. Forbes has something scheduled for Wednesday. They're not negative, but they're asking questions about workplace relationships and power dynamics." "Sophie already drafted the conflict of interest policy." "I know. I read it. It's airtight." She set the tablet down. "That's not the problem. The problem is you haven't said anything publicly. No statement, no acknowledgment, nothing. You're letting other people control the narrative."

“At least they didn’t all ask the same questions separately.” “What did you say?” “What I said was ‘If it was anyone else involved, would you be asking?’” Alice grinned with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I told him to go sit down. It’s not a work-related issue. We don’t have anything that says people can’t work here if they are in a relationship. Come on, how many archeological teams would end because they’re married? It’s a private matter and haven’t enough strangers clearly chimed in on something that doesn’t affect them? We don’t know the truth because we aren’t involved. This isn’t high school, they’re grown adults. Your son was injured at school, and you went to be his mother. You d

“I heard she’s the reason Jax’s deal with the Geneva campaign tanked.” I clenched my jaw and stood up again. “Where are you going?” Lisa asked as I passed her. “To ask HR how many slanderous whispers it takes before I can file a workplace harassment complaint.” She blinked. “I’ll come with you.” Five minutes later, we were standing in Leah’s office, the door closed. She leaned back in her chair. “You want me to issue a company-wide memo?” “I want the gossip to stop,” I said. “I know I can’t control the internet, but in this building? It’s getting ridiculous. I can’t do my job with people treating me like I’m some criminal mastermind.”

"But like obviously, he has introduced me to his family already and I guess that's all that matters." "Yup people at work don't have to know. It's just going to make them more nosy and it will feel like he broke a work law since workers are not allowed to date themselves but hey! You guys have had something before you started working here if we're going to be honest." "That's the truth, but they're not going to care when they find out something is going on between the both of us." "That's their business at the end of the day." Elanne shrugged and Aria chuckled. "We should get going right?"

Will there be gossip? "Of course! For example, I found out yesterday that Lauren from accounting slept with Gale, who was laid off thanks to our new shareholder. Now, she's completely devastated. I don't know what the fool was expecting. He's been married for almost thirty years and has grandchildren. Honestly, I'm surprised he can still get it up." I wince. I've always tried to avoid such details about office life. "What a nasty start to the evening! Maybe I should run away before the waiter brings me the menu."