The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work

Chapter 2. On Fire

"Hope, Hope, Hope. Where have you been?" he shouted as he approached her face to face.

"I heard my name the first time," she said, hoping he would back up a few feet, or a few miles for that matter. He had the worst coffee breath in the world, and her stomach was already feeling queasy.

"Yeah, well, maybe I'm just happy you're here," he countered. "Or maybe I'm just in complete shock that on one of the worst days in our company's history you are nowhere to be found. Our boss is on national television having to explain why our computer batteries are catching on fire, and you're strolling into the office an hour late looking like you've been hit by a bus."

I feel like I've been hit by a bus, Hope thought.

Jim grabbed Hope's arm as he rushed her into his office and pointed at a chair as he directed her to sit down.

"In all my years in charge of operations I've never seen the media descend on a company like they have with this story. They are like a bunch of attack dogs. The Business Television Network (BTN) just finished their interview with Dan, and the street is not acting kindly. Millions of people just watched our CEO take a verbal beating on air. Our stock is plunging, and we've got to figure this out."

"We've had problems before with our hardware. We've had glitches. I don't see what the big deal is this time," Hope said, shaking her head.

"It's more than that," said ...