Shutting the car down, Stephenie checked her watch before casually making her way towards the restaurant where she worked. It was called "Le Nu" and it was a pretty nice place for a chain restaurant. It had started off as a really fantastic french restaurant called "Le plat Nu" but then the owner got corporate sponsorship, they shortened the name, started opening up franchises in every state and eventually it transformed into just another TGI Fridays. When she really thought about it, it made her kind of sad. She wondered how the original owner might feel about what his creation had become. She sometimes thought that it might be nice to visit the original, authentic restaurant, but then she remembered why she took this job in the first place: the cash. Until she was less strapped, she'd just have to settle for left overs.
The train of thought reminded her of one important fact, however. They were getting a new supervisor today. Profits for the franchise had been going down recently, and she heard the managers whispering about an impending visit from some hotshot from corporate with some radical ideas for turning the store around. From what she heard, the so called hotshot was young, just out of college, but with a wall full of business degrees and a chip on her shoulder. Stephanie and the other girls didn't know quite what to think, but each and every one of them was afraid of losing her job, none more so than Steph herself.
As she entered the store, she passed by the other girls (the store only employed waitresses, never waiters) who were all lined up by the bar, all of them wearing the basic "Le Nu" uniform, a white dress shirt with bow tie, black suspenders and a knee length black skirt. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was fairly conservative, and, as a modest girl, Stephanie always appreciated that.. Steph waved to her co-workers before hanging up her coat and joining them in anticipating the arrival of their new boss. They didn't have to wait long.
The new girl, who introduced herself as "Lilly Motre" was a rather striking figure. The first thing that Stephanie noticed was that she was extraordinarily petite. A skinny little blonde creature with short hair, and round glasses, wrapped in a steel gray business suit and perched precariously upon a pair of high heels that didn't quite bring her up to Stephanie's own unimpressive eye level. She smiled as she introduced herself and shook everyone's hand, but after that it was all business.
"Well, lets not waste any more time." She said, dispensing with the pleasantries. "As I'm sure most of you know, I've been sent here because this franchise isn't bringing in money like it used to. There are many conventional ways to handle a situation like this, and most of them involve identifying waste, for example, over-staffing, and making appropriate cuts."
That last line made Stephanie freeze up, and she knew she wasn't the only one! Lilly continued.
"Fortunately for you, however, the decrease in revenue is not limited to this one franchise, but endemic to the chain as a whole. For that reason, I have been authorized by the company to try some rather radical tactics to boost our cash intake. Think of it as a trial run, an experiment. If the tactics we spearhead here are successful, they will be put into effect in all Le Nu restaurants nationwide! That may not excite most of you the way it does me, but this is my area of expertise. This may be my first real life project of this kind outside of academia, but I assure you all that I know what I'm doing, and I will absolutely do everything in my power to make my changes successful. Some of them may seem strange to you at first, but I promise you that if you work with me, you will be rewarded for it with generous salary increases. If, however, you show yourself to be a problem... you will be removed immediately, without question or hesitation."
Stephanie liked the sound of those salary increases. Just about everything else on the other hand... not so much.
"So, now that you've all been properly appraised of the situation, lets get on to explaining those changes I was telling you about. There are going to be some new rules around her from now on, but first, I'd like to present to you one of the most important features of my new business plan: Operation: Renaissance!"
With that, she produced a box labeled "New Uniforms." Steph gulped visibly. While wondering what was inside the box, she couldn't help but imagine the worst.
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