A Bad Work Day

Fictional tale of a man who has the worst work day imaginable!

They say, all it takes is one bad day, a single 24 hour period of misfortune and bad luck, to turn the most sane man insane. Now work is a chore, it is something most of us have no choice but to do. Whether or not you love working for a living, it is pretty much a given if you want to survive. For many it becomes routine, they make work friends and travelling isn't too frustrating. Yet, for Kieran Smith, his work life was hell. He didn't have a nice job in a clean office or cosy book shop. No, he worked in a grey, old, ugly and rusty warehouse. Kieran hated what he had to do, it was often cold and dark inside the building too. His job consisted of taking stock from one side of the warehouse, to the other and tidying the mountains of stock, that the regular staff were too lazy or depressed to keep clean. You see, he was a manager of this warehouse and the responsibilities he had were often too much for anyone to handle. He had to cover for everyone who called in sick (which was a lot) and be responsible for those who frankly, couldn't give any effort at all, even if it meant losing their job. He was the one who picked up the pieces every time and typically only got grief from the business owners, since things never went smoothly. The whole six years he'd been manager, there wasn't a single day where things didn't go horribly, horribly wrong. However, he always pushed through it, growing more and more bitter and frustrated by the day. The years of torture was building on him though, not just mentally, but physically too. The workload was heavy and agonising, lifting big heavy loads of office supplies all day would destroy anyone's back. He honestly thought he could manage it all though, that was until the unimaginable happened.

It was on a particularly busy Monday night when it happened. The incident that led to absolute horror and blood shed. Kieran was super busy, working a 20 hour shift, he had spent the last five hours clearing an area, that a new member of staff named Andy, let collapse out of sheer carelessness. Don't worry, he gave the little rat a good scathing, but it was up to Kieran to clean this mess, while still having to do regular management duties on top of this. So far, the night had been a disaster, but he was somehow managing, although barely. Now perhaps he had gone a little too easy on Andy, for he presumed this was just a fluke, a one off work accident that would never happen again, at least not during the same shift. He was wrong. Just as Kieran was mere minutes away from finishing the job, so he could finally go home and be with his wife and kids again; Andy crashed his forklift into the mountains of stock and it all fell over, crushing both of them. The crash was epic, as metal, plastic and concrete stock smashed all over the hard floor. Everyone stopped and stared, the impact sounded like an explosion.

Somehow, miraculously, both Kieran and Andy survived this, but only one of them would leave that warehouse alive that night. For Kieran had lost his mind, it was the agony and fear of that massive scaffolding crushing him and the realisation he'd have to clear it all up again and that it was mostly broken, including some of his bones. This enraged the stressed manager, and he knew he'd get the blame for not firing Andy for making the first accident. Andy cried in pain, the forklift did little to protect him, he was bloody and injured, but would've survived with proper medical care or attention. Unfortunately for him, Kieran wasn't so caring.
"He- help me... Please." Young Andy begged, crying hysterically.
"He- help... You?" Kieran laughed strangely, "help you?!"
"Please..." Andy cried.
"Help. You?!" Kieran repeated, standing up, looking like some bloody zombie, full of cuts and limping from his many broken bones, "help you?!" He laughed maniacally. Andy just stared, so afraid his pain almost ceased. Kieran forced his hands around Andy's throat.
"Wha- what are you doing?!" Andy choked. Kieran added pressure, tightening his grip around Andy's neck.
"Pl- pl- please... St- stop!" Andy struggled.
"Help you?!" Kieran laughed, strangling the poor man.
"Get off of him!" A warehouse employee cried, racing over to the scene. Somehow, despite his injuries, Kieran punched the heroic employee so hard, he fell backwards, knocked his head and fell unconscious. Several more members of staff raced to Andy's rescue but it was already too late. Kieran had strangled Andy to death.

The news spread like wildfire. Headlines such as, "World's Worst Boss kills employee", "My Boss Killed me!" and "A job so awful it might just kill you" were just some of them. As for Kieran, police raided the warehouse and arrested the lunatic who was still screaming "help you?!" Like one of those annoying toys you'd give your grandchildren. He was soon to be considered mentally unstable and was put into care, he now resides in a care home for the criminally insane. Apparently all he does is sit in a chair, rocking back and forth chanting the same words "Help you?!" barely ever breaking out of this trance. As for the warehouse, it was shut down the same night, everyone was made redundant, but after witnessing a murder like that, most of them never wanted to work again anyway. The business owners were investigated and were sued for improper treatment of their staff, the judge concluded that the work conditions here were too demanding and inhumane which inevitably led to Keiran's insanity. The business has not reopened since.