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A little lightheaded, she pulled out one of the crunchy granola bars that she always carried with her. It was almost ridiculous for her to be so nervous. Why get worked up when you’re about to tell someone what they want to hear? Regardless, Hazel knew that until she was able to talk to Cartwright face-to-face, she would have a hard time focusing on anything. She could barely remember anything from her Poli-Sci Race and Gender class that morning. After nibbling on her granola bar, Hazel drew in deep breaths and took little sips of her coffee. It might as well have been iced, now, but she hated to waste money.
Bit by bit, students began to show up. Ellis and Gina sat next to one another on the floor, since Hazel was already on the bench. She could tell that they would rather be safely out of conversation range with her. No one seemed to think that the problem in their class was Chris. Everyone seemed to think that his behavior was no big deal and that she was the troublemaker for responding to it. What she couldn’t discern was whether this meant fourteen potential entrepreneurs were going out into the workplace who would just let the Chris’ of the world turn their businesses into toxic cesspools out of some kind of social etiquette not to call out that behavior, or whether they actually thought his ideas were good.
The class in the lecture hall let out, and students streamed past her peers waiting in the hallway. Gina looked over at Hazel for a moment before getting up and slipping past the other students to go take a seat. Ellis would sit with Gina. The others would cluster nearby. Hazel would sit on the edge of the group, and Chris would make sure that he sat near her. So he could be absolutely sure that she could hear his hilarious jokes.
Ugh.
Instead of going in to get a seat in the front, Hazel got out her phone and tried to look busy. She waited until there was only a minute left before class to get up and collect her things.
“Oh.” Hazel was startled when she saw Dr. Cartwright right there at the doorway.
“Are you coming in?” He sounded a bit amused.
“Sorry. I got caught up—”
“No problem. You’re not too late. Yet.” Cartwright gestured towards himself and smiled.
Hazel skirted past him, feeling his presence so close to her, and, after eyeballing the layout of students, selected a seat behind Gina. Just as Cartwright began calling the class to order, Chris slid in.
“I know the old adage ‘Time is Money’ may be a bit passé for your generation,” Cartwright drawled as he leaned back against the desk. “Especially when I do a video conference call at least once a day. But people still expect you not to waste their time.”
“Uh, the bus was running late,” Chris said.
Cartwright motioned toward a seat right next to him. “Just sit. We have a lot of material to cover.”
Hazel adjusted her tablet on the desk and readied herself to take notes.
“It’s come to my attention that there’s been a problem with appropriate behavior lately,” Cartwright said.
Half of the eyes in the room went to Chris; the other half turned to Hazel.
“A young man who is giving out suggestions and making jokes that are creating a hostile environment.” Dr. Cartwright plugged a jump drive into a computer, and a PowerPoint popped up. “The precipitating event also occurred in one of my original offices in England, around Sussex, but I thought given our discussions of workplace communication, we’d talk about some cases that I’ve had to address during my time. The first few, I can give you more concrete answers. I handled these toward the beginnings of my business, and so I can tell you quite clearly how you’d deal with the problems one-on-one. Later cases, which occurred after my business expanded, I did not always have the luxury of handling myself.”
Cartwright clicked the screen, and the demographic breakdown for the office in Sussex appeared on the screen. “I’ll open the floor later in the session for suggestions on how to redirect behavior and mediate problems.”
Hazel sucked in her lower lip, and strangely, felt her shoulders going loose. Cartwright couldn’t have come up with this on the fly, just because. He’d always given them readings when he wanted to address something specific like this. And at the end of the last class, he had made it seem that they would be discussing the HR texts he’d given them.
No, this little lecture was based on Hazel’s complaint about Chris. Cartwright had heard her and listened. And not only had he decided to correct the matter, but he’d also come up with an entire lesson and activity for them to engage with because he’d decided workplace dynamics merited the time for a real discussion. Even better, anyone could tell that Chris knew this lesson was in part related to his comments in class because his ears were blazing red.
