As this is an origin story it starts with the negotiations that led to Australian mailgirls evolving differently to those in other countries. So it takes a bit of time before the clothes come off. But be sure, they do.
To be clear, everyone in this story is over the age of eighteen.
I have been told that there are mailgirls in an office in a large Australian city, and I have been given certain details as to how the program is running there. As this has been based on a true story, names have been changed to those of famous sportspeople (except when they are not) to protect their privacy and the reputation of the company. I earnestly acknowledge all the mailgirls who have gone before in the stories of Cambridge Caine, Seahawk76, et al, and what they have been through. Without them and their experiences this run through the office would not have been possible.
We are occasionally accused of being upside down in Australia being south of the equator and all that. And so it was when mailgirls were introduced to one of our companies in Melbourne, the local subsidiary of the Japanese Harada Industries, a company that became internationally famous for its pioneering mailgirls programs in Japan and the US. But in Australia the authorities got involved and required a peculiar set of exclusively Australian conditions on their mailgirl program. This has led to some interesting variations to the experience in the company’s other branches, particular to Australia. How would this affect mailgirls in other countries?
***
Mr Harada had come to Melbourne for a visit, and after a tour of the office and having sat through a briefing from his Australian management he was angry. He made his feelings utterly clear to them. He was appalled at the lack of respect that the workers had shown both to him and to the Australian managers during his floorwalk. He was concerned at the whole attitude of the Australian office. And he was concerned at their financial results too. He put Mitchell Johnson, the head of the Australian office, on notice. He had six months to turn things around and to bring it in line with the Japanese and American operations.
After Mr Harada left the office for a high level business lunch which he pointed did not invite the Australian boss to attend with him, Mitchell Johnson wryly confided to his number two Shane Crawford that Mr Harada may have overlooked the effect that the head office decision from three months prior to cut the Australian headcount by one-tenth had on his staff. One in ten desks in the office was still ostentatiously empty.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Shane exclaimed.
“That’s what you’re always talking about,” Mitch cautioned him.
At that moment, the boss’s PA appeared at the doorway and Mitch ushered her in. “What do you think about Mr Harada’s suggestion, Betty Cuthbert?” her boss asked her.
She stood rigid and glared at him. “I’m not going to work naked,” she spat back.
“No one asked you to, and I’ll make sure that it’s not compulsory,” Mitch assured her. “But you know the company’s reputation overseas. You must have considered that it would come here one day?”
“I thought we were different in Australia,” she retorted with some vehemence. “Isn’t there something you can do about it?”
Mitch shook his head. “Mr Harada expects us to do it,” he conceded. “All I can do is try to make sure that it is done as respectfully as possible.”
“Respectful?” Betty fired back. “There will be naked women running around the office. How can that possibly be respectful?”
Shane nodded. “She’s got a point.”
Mitch gave them both his ‘I have this under control’ look. “I have some ideas. Some local variations. You will just have to trust me and wait and see.” The other two looked unconvinced. “Just trust me,” Mitch repeated. “And let’s keep this under our hats. How many other people know about this?”
Betty Cuthbert grimaced. “Uh, everyone.”
“What?!” Mitch demanded.
Betty shook her head. “Mr Harada spoke to the press. They asked him if they were coming here, and he said yes.” Mitch slumped at his desk. In the silence of the realisation both Mitch and Shane noted that Betty being Betty would not even utter the word.
***
After his return to Japan, Mr Harada was in regular contact with Mitchel Johnson eager to know the progress of the introduction of mailgirls to the Melbourne office. Oblivious to the effects of the downsizing, he was convinced that the problem of respect for management — and for him — in the Australian division could be solved by introducing mailgirls as the bottom rung of the office hierarchy as they were in the US and Japan. He explained to Mitch that their introduction would push the rest of the workforce into happily accepting their own place in the company structure. He was deaf to Mitch Johnson’s remonstrations that Australia did not work like that, that they were not very accepting of hierarchies. Mr Harada — or his assistants — sent Mitch videos of how the program ran in Japan and in the US to remind him what was expected.
He sent them to Shane too. Mitch knew this because Shane would visit his office and talk about the latest video he had seen. Mitch suspected that Mr Harada — or whoever maintained his email account — assumed that Mitch would not watch the videos but that Shane would and the message would get to Mitch that way. Especially when the videos would arrive on Fridays in time for their debrief sessions in the boardroom with the large screen that Shane somehow always projected the latest one on.
So Mitch got to watch the ever unsmiling, austere Mrs Ogawa discipline the mailgirls in Mr Harada’s office, got to see the US mailgirls preparing themselves in the morning. Got to see the mailgirls nonchalantly walking through the offices completely naked, stopping at a desk to collect a message, getting on their knees to assume the position on the floor next to a worker who was busy at their work while the mailgirl patiently waited for their next assignment. Mitch wondered if the videos were made by experienced porn producers judging by the way that the cameras unnecessarily lingered on their tight buttocks, on their smooth crotches and on their impressive breasts for longer than was really needed. Like they were trying to get a rise out of the viewer.
In Friday’s clip, Mrs Ogawa had two attractive, completely naked mailgirls kneeling in the centre of Mr Harada’s dark wood panelled office. She held a whip, a black riding crop, as Shane informed Mitch as he narrated the action. Shane translated Mrs Ogawa’s recitation that Mailgirl 7 had been more than five minutes late on two occasions during the week. And that Mailgirl 13 had looked a senior executive in the eye. Mr Harada sat impassive in the background, watching the action. Mrs Ogawa advised the number of strokes that each of the mailgirls was due and then with a dangerous smile gave the whip to Mailgirl 7 who gasped as she learned that she was to punish the other mailgirl herself. She swished casually with her first attempt, clearly not experienced in doing such a thing. Mrs Ogawa barked something obvious at her so she leant into the next lash and kept it brutal for the remainder of the sentence.
Then it was Mailgirl 7’s turn to be punished. Mailgirl 13 had barely flinched as the whip bit on her thighs and on her smooth, shiny bottom, and she now took the whip and loomed over the other mailgirl, who trembled knowing what was coming. The camera closed in on Mailgirl 13’s face as a single teardrop ran down her cheek. The camera then pulled back to show ten men, no doubt, Mr Harada’s senior executives, sitting against the walls, watching the spectacle as impassively as Mr Harada at his desk, as impassively as Mrs Ogawa with her arms crossed, and as impassively as the two young naked women in the centre of the room.
Shane stopped his narration for a moment. “I can’t see that happening here,” he commented. Mitch shook his head in agreement.
The video closed in on Mr Harada’s face while in the background the taller mailgirl punished her colleague. Mr Harada looked into the camera as if he was looking straight at Mitch with a look that said ‘this will happen in your office.’
The camera pulled back for the end of the punishment. Mrs Ogawa walked up to the mailgirls so that Mailgirl 13 could return her the whip as they both stood straight and bowed to her. They then strode around the room together to bow to each of the executives before they exited the room. The camera lingered on their marked buttocks for a moment before they had fully departed. At which point the video suddenly ended.
It should have been no surprise to Mitch that subsequent videos clearly showed the red whip marks on the shiny white buttocks of the apparently unconcerned mailgirls as they strode between desks and up and down stairs. Mitch realised that he was becoming desensitised to the point where naked, whip marked mailgirls could seem like a normal aspect of a busy office. The videos clearly tried to demonstrate that the clothed office workers of both sexes worked hard and diligently while the mailgirls wove between them. Perhaps Mr Harada was right and they did serve as some sort of warning or cautionary lesson to the others.
Of course, Mitch knew that it did not always work out that way. The US office at least was open about some of the disciplinary issues that they had with their clothed workers, especially the ones who overstepped the don’t touch boundaries. And Mitch wondered how tempting such overstepping would be in his case. He has the wary eyes of his wife Jessica on him and he had been faithful to her, well at least faithful enough over their more than twenty years together, so he hoped that naked mailgirls around him would not prove too much of a distraction.
And in general that was one dilemma that he constantly pondered. How with the ever present temptation of a group of beautiful nude women could an office actually improve its productivity. There was no payoff that Mitch could imagine that did not result in time spent away from the workers’ tasks at hand. The speed or reliability of delivery of messages did not seem like a likely counter to that. The resistance that his PA Betty Cuthbert had shown did not bode well either. Especially if others felt that way.
And there was the cost. Shane prepared a budget that estimated employing and outfitting six mailgirls and having someone to manage them was going to cost upwards of a million dollars. Shane nonchalantly stated that that cost was not a problem. Since he had an idea that he would share with Mitch at the right time.
On Friday, Shane burst into Mitch’s office. “Got an American vid for you, boss. Assuming you haven’t watched it.”
Mitch smiled. It was there unopened in an email from Mr Harada. And they both knew.
“Five o’clock in the meeting room,” Shane gushed. “And I have a special new vintage Shiraz that you have to try. And you can’t say no. I know you’ll like it.”
Mitch groaned, there was no getting out of that. But he stared at Shane. “You came down from the tenth to tell me that?”
Shane laughed. “Sensitive communications. We don’t want any others finding out, do we? That’s why we need mailgirls.”
Mitch shook his head at the illogic of that. “How’s the new office?” he asked. Shane had moved from the sixth floor to the tenth after the decimation to take advantage of a suddenly vacated larger office.
“Secluded,” Shane smiled, like it was the best thing to happen. Maybe it was.
***
Typically the video started by piling on its production values. A pristine empty office, the dawn light diffusing artfully through the floor to roof windows. And from the side of the shot a heavenly proportioned naked woman flows across as she speeds down the aisle and out of shot. And then the heavenly woman flowed again in the same way only this time the desks are occupied with diligent workers. She wafts through on her mission as the office keeps buzzing, the workers keep working and the sun keeps shining. The camera lingers on the mailgirl to show that she is statuesque and fit, with a hard body, firm breasts, taut buttocks and a flowing mane of wavy blonde hair.
The next setup shows the mailgirls showering. We first watch them somewhat obscured by the steam from the showers because we are watching them from the foyer while they are frolicking on the mezzanine. The film seems to be slowed down to linger on the exquisite, nude bodies as the water cascades from the shower heads.
“It’s a shampoo commercial, but you get to see everything,” Shane gushed. Mitch nodded because he was right.
A confident male voiceover drones about American values and the best conditions in the world to the point where it became background noise. Office workers enter the foyer from the street, glance up at the showering mailgirls with smiles of recognition on their business-like way to the lifts. A middle aged male concierge in a showy uniform grins like he has won the lottery because he gets to spend all the time greeting workers and hoping that they have a nice day as well as keeping his eyes on the mailgirls in the change room on the level above. He keeps glancing up. They are now out of the showers and attending to themselves and preparing their bodies to meet their required standards.
And the camera is amongst them. There is laughter and razors and open crotches as they make sure that they are hair free below the neck and perfectly groomed for their role in the office.
And Shane says what Mitch is also thinking. “They all look the same.”
Which was true. The American mailgirls are all wide straight toothed smiles, pert noses, bright eyes, long flowing hair tied in ponlytails, lithe bodies, long legs and firm breasts and buttocks.
“Like they’re all off Baywatch,” Shane adds and Mitch nods because he is right. Are these actors, Mitch wonders or has Harada Industries in the US deliberately recruited some sort of naked realisation of the American dream?
At a signal that was not apparent to Shane and Mitch watching, the mailgirls stood to attention in a row as a smiling, elegantly dressed woman strode down the line they had made intimately inspecting them. Her fingers probe under their armpits, across their mounds and around their slits. Each one of them. She gave them each an approving smile. Satisfied with what she has seen and felt, she delivers a short pep talk about how they had to maintain standards for the good of the company and the morale of the workers or some such guff.
The girls all flashed their enchanting smiles when she was done and then broke ranks to affix their pagers to their arms and then paired off to adorn their bodies with their mailgirl numbers.
After that, they peeled away one by one as their pagers gave them their instructions and destinations. Eventually only one mailgirl is left, sitting on the bench in the change room, carefree and happy, in her natural state. The camera closes up on her perfect face and she beams a 1000 Watt smile as if she could not be happier. Apparently her pager has now beeped because without shifting a muscle on her face, she stands up and heads for the exit. As we watch her march out from behind, it is clear that she was the mailgirl in the initial dreamy start.
Shane raised his glass of red as the screen went blank. It was a sort of a toast but he was waiting to see how Mitch would react. Mitch thought for a while. “Rather clean and wholesome, wasn’t it?” Mitch smiled.
“The wife will find it funny,” sniggered Shane.
“You show her?” Mitch exclaimed, wondering what reception he would get from Jessica.
Shane was relaxed about it. “She finds them all hilarious,” he smiled.
Mitch smiled back, wondering why. “Interesting that they were wearing the big phone things rather than the smart watches.”
Shane got serious for a moment. “You really need to read those emails. That’s part of our specs too. Apparently Mr Harada prefers the phones, so the watches have been scrapped.”
Mitch got serious too, realising. “I’ll bet that’s because they’re more visible. They make it more obvious that the mailgirls are slaves to the technology and what they are there for.”
“The hierarchical thing?”
“I’d say so.” Mitch took a liberal sip of his wine and nodded his approval. “Nice drop.” Then he shook his head. “I still cannot quite see how it is going to work in here.”
But both knew that the time was coming. And it was coming soon, and they had to become ready.
***
“Do your underlings call you Mr Johnson?” Mr Harada would ask, and the reply would be “No, everyone calls me Mitch.” Because that is how an Australian office works. And the Australian boss did not want to even consider what his staff might call him behind his back. You just have to live with it.
Shane had raised the cost of the program with Mr Harada who promised that head office would bear the cost for the first year or, as he said, until the program started to pay for itself. Yeah sure, Mitch thought when Shane told him, like that is going to happen.
Mitch also had other mailgirl related pressures. So far he had manage to avoid contact with the Victorian government which had tried to contact him and others in the company a number of times to find out what they were doing. And there were constant attempts by the press to find out what was going on inside the company too. Which Mitch was sure was related to the increased number of people ‘just taking photos’ outside the front of the office in Swanston Street. And the occasional TV News camera set up to see if they could get something from the staff as they came or went. So far no one had said anything to the press that gave them anything to blow up into a controversy. A few protesters made some noise out in the street but the combination of Melbourne winter weather and the lack of any news on the progress of the program meant that they quickly ran out of steam and vanished, leaving the place running as normal most of the time.
Mitch was doubly upset by the attempts to make the issue public. He was a naturally private man and until Mr Harada’s press announcement, Harada Industries in Australia had mostly flown under the radar which was a major reason why Mitch enjoyed his job. The company was a private subsidiary of the Japanese company, it was not listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and despite the worldwide notoriety of Harada Industries due to its mailgirls, Mitch expected that most people did not even know about the subsidiary’s presence in Australia unless they found themselves doing business with the Australian arm or applying to work there. That had now all changed and he felt the pressure.
Mitch worked through the logistics of the mailgirls program. The company occupied six levels of a twenty-six storey building, floors five to ten, and due to a quirk in the lease had sole use of the gymnasium on the mezzanine which was officially level two. An IT company that Mitch knew little about occupied levels three and four which could be a problem for him if he chose — as the other countries had — to turn the gym, which was notoriously underused by the company’s staff, into the mailgirls’ base. There would be two flights of stairs for the naked women past their unknown neighbour between the showers and lockers and the company proper.
And then there were the employment contracts to consider. Mr Harada refused to believe that any of the issues that Mitch raised were any impediment to mailgirls in Australia. His message to Mitch was invariably that Mitch had to sort out any problems and get the mailgirls in the Melbourne office as soon as possible. And he kept reminding Mitch that his subsidiary was performing poorly in relation to the places which already had naked women delivering the mail between floors.
But Mitch and his team had to grapple with the realities of the project to introduce mailgirls into their work lives. Mitch also felt pressure from his wife who was not beyond suggesting that she was less than impressed with the whole concept. He wondered what his daughters thought about it. And his social friends, both male and female, who were all suggesting that he should invite them to the office once the program was up and running. To all of them, he replied ‘it won’t be like that.’
But ‘like that’ was what everyone had seen in videos and photographs and interviews on the net. And it seemed that everyone Mitch knew had seen the videos. The American mailgirls’ morning change room routine was on public display to anyone who was in the foyer at the time. The photos and videos of mailgirls assuming their resting position on their knees with their straight backs and spread legs showing everything off seemed to be everywhere.
***
And Mitch was copping it at home.
“Are you going to be staring at naked women all day at work?” Jessica demanded.
Mitch smiled at her, recalling some of their early days hi-jinks and wondering whether mentioning those would be a good or bad idea. But he couldn’t control a boyish smile at his wife.
That did not seem to help her mood, as she seemed to read his thoughts. “Don’t think you are going to get me onside with this by recounting what you and I used to get up to. This is totally different.”
Mitch gave her his big boyish look. “There’s nothing I can do about it, Jessica,” he mock complained. “We’ve been forced to by head office.”
“And if head office told you to make components for nuclear war?” his wife taunted.
Mitch gave her that look. “Oh,” she said.
“It’s that or get another job,” he reminded her, gesturing vaguely at the palatial home they occupied.
Looking for a safe retreat, his wife conceded. “I just don’t want the girls getting in this discussion.” Mitch nodded. As if.
“Will they be home for dinner?” Mitch asked her.
Jessica shrugged. “You know as much as I do.”
Cara got back from Uni just as Jessica was dishing up.
“Where’s Emily?” Jessica asked her daughter. Maybe because they were twins, they had chosen different courses and kept separate hours. So Cara’s response was unsurprising.
“Dunno.”
The meal was on the table and they were digging in when Cara looked to her father and made sure that they had eye contact. “How’s the mailgirls thing going?” she asked.
“Your mother doesn’t want me to discuss it with you,” Mitch replied.
“Well,” Cara came back, “everyone else is discussing it, so I thought I’d get the right story from the person responsible.”
Mitch laughed. “I don’t want to know what you know,” he tried.
What sort of girl would do that?” Cara wondered.
“I don’t really know,” Mitch admitted. Because he hadn’t thought about it since they were nowhere near recruiting yet.
“They would have to be athletic, good looking and shameless,” Cara continued.
“Do we really have to have this conversation?” Jessica asked her daughter.
“Why not?” Cara responded. “It looks like dad could do with some assistance.” She turned to her mother for the eye contact with her. “Are you okay with it?” Cara demanded of her.
“I don’t think that’s a fair question, Cara,” her mother responded.
But Cara did not seem to notice her mother’s tone. “Women naked on their knees in the middle of offices. It’s available on videos, it’s all over the internet. Everyone knows what a mailgirl is. Running around the offices trying to meet impossible deadlines so they don’t get punished. And ex-mailgirls alleging that they were virtually slaves to their companies, that they had to just about make jailbreaks to get away and get their lives back to normal. And now, thanks to Dad it’s coming to Australia.”
She looked back to her father. “I’m going to ask you the question that mum wants to but I’ll bet she hasn’t asked. Would you let your daughters do it?”
Jessica interrupted her daughter. “You’re smart and you’re getting an education.”
That did not put off Cara. “Mum, they’ve got girls with MBAs running around naked in the US office. They boast about it on their website.”
Jessica looked over to Mitchell. “Is that true?” she queried.
Mitch tried to parry. “It’s going to be different here.
“Dad,” Cara complained.
Again Jessica intervened. “Cara, trust your father. Give him a chance on this, okay? Let’s keep it all at the office for a while and keep it out of our home, all right?” Jessica held her stare.
Cara noted her mother’s view and nodded, although clearly she still held some reservations.
But her mother had not quite finished. “And before you get ideas, I don’t completely support the idea either. But…” She looked sternly at her husband who gave her a weak smile back. “All right?” Jessica pressed her daughter.
Cara shrugged. “All right.”
***
Later on, Cara heard her sister come home and go into her room, she thought she ought to catch up with her. She went into her sister’s room without knocking, as usual, and found Emily spread out on her back on her bed feigning exhaustion.
“Where have you been?” Cara asked her, with mocking concern.
“Celebrating. We scored one against the patriarchy,” her sister stated like she had been at the barricades and lucky to get out of a sticky situation intact. Cara considered her sister’s state again. Then she noticed that Emily had her phone strapped to her arm.
Cara came up close and pointed. “Em, why did you do that?” she asked. “You haven’t started exercising have you?”
Emily sighed. “I was part of a protest against the misogynist creeps who are introducing mailgirls to Australia.”
Cara took her gently by the arm and looked deeply into her sister’s eyes. “You do realise that dad is the boss of that company?”
Emily looked genuinely surprised. “What, really?” she asked.
Cara shook her head. “FMD,” she declared.
Emily missed that. “You should have been at the protest. Do you have any idea what a turn on it is to be naked in public?” she gushed.
Cara looked aghast at her sister’s complete nonchalance. “Double FMD!” Now she was worried. “Were there photos? Was there a video?”
Emily smiled. “Of course there is. Want to see it?” She took the phone off her arm and did what she needed to cue up the video. She patted the bed next to her, insisting that her sister sit and watch.
Cara worriedly obeyed and looked over. The video started with Emily already naked and kneeling on a floor. There were others around, that was clear. “I’m glad we’re not identical, sis,” Cara observed. “But I must say that you scrub up pretty well.” Cara concentrated on the images on the phone. “So you are in the middle of the Uni caf. I can only see you in the shot. How many of you are there?”
Emily smiled. “One.”
Cara laughed. “That’s what it looks like. You. Just you naked with your legs spread and surrounded by a couple of dozen of what, supporters? Pervs?”
“But two other girls joined in later. Look at the next video.”
Cara waited for Emily to start the next one. “Okay, there they are. Nice tits.”
Emily ignored that. “And plenty of others strapped their phones to their arms in solidarity.”
Cara shook her head. “True martyrs to the cause,” she noted dryly. She looked hard at her sister. “It would be better if dad and mum don’t know about this.” Her sister nodded, but clearly only to be agreeable to her twin. Cara could only worry what further demonstrations were planned, whether her sister would make the news and if anyone else would make the connection with her father. She did not dare yet ask her sister any of that. She would have to think if there was a way to stop Emily continuing.
***
Shane had made a breakthrough. The IT company on levels three and four was capable of providing and maintaining the comms for the mailgirls’ pagers. Mitch had some real fun wrapping the employees of BAD Solutions up in contractual red tape that would silence them and keep them from divulging anything to the outside world about what went on with the mailgirls, under threat of certain destruction and bankruptcy. There was one concession that Mitch made to them however. Floors three and four would be part of the mailgirls program. This was predicated around the need for the IT people there to have access to the hardware and software when their assistance was needed. But it was an easy way to clear the passage up and down the stairs between the gym and the Harada Industries offices. One problem solved.
The gym was visible from four of the upper storeys above it. Due to a lucky quirk, its windows opened onto the back of the foyer. So the mailgirls would not be visible to people coming into the foyer from the street. You would have to make your way past the security desk and through the lift area to be able to get any view of the mailgirls in what would be their change room. The five floors above the mezzanine could witness the mailgirls getting ready in the mornings, those floors being the two levels of BAD Solutions and the three lower floors of Harada Industries. Shane and Mitch discussed how they were glad that there was little chance of paparazzi style photos of their mailgirls being snapped by unauthorised intruders, and they should not have to worry about the tenants on the higher floors. Visitors to BAD Solutions could be a problem and one that they would deal with. But like all problems that was one that they were sure they could solve. Probably with non-disclosure agreements and more threats to BAD Solutions. So that was solved.
Eventually Mitch engaged with the government officials. To his surprise the government was mostly concerned with the mailgirls’ employment rights and not interested in their lack of clothes. He agreed to a meeting with a pair of government officials who emphasised that any women who agreed to be mailgirls would have fair contracts with proper pay and clear conditions. So the next step was to work out those.
***
Mitch and Shane were waiting in Mitch’s office for the union rep to appear.
“I bloody hate unions,” Shane blustered.
Mitch stopped him. “I know how you feel. But we have no choice if this thing is going to happen.”
“And what will happen when Mr Harada finds out we have a union in the office. You know what he thinks.”
“Yes, the same as you. But I’ll tell him what I told you, we do not have any other choice.” And Mitch raised his hand to Shane to warn him that their venting time was over. Because he could see Betty Cuthbert escorting a thin, confident looking young woman to his door. She was dressed professionally, Mitch realised, in a dark jacket, a white blouse and matching dark slacks. Was he expecting her to turn up in a boiler suit or dirty overalls or something? Betty gestured with a smile for her to go in to meet Mitch and Shane who went to the doorway. Introductions were made while they were still standing there.
“I’m Marjorie Jackson,” the visitor announced as she reached out and gave them both a firm handshake. “Everyone calls me Jackson,” she added.
Mitch looked over to Betty but she gave him a sneer and closed the door, returning to her desk outside the meeting. Mitch invited the others to sit down.
“We didn’t want the union involved,” Mitch started, “but the Fair Work Commission insisted that we draft an agreement that they could accept, and no law firm would touch it and our own in-house lawyers begged off, saying that they didn’t have the expertise. So we had to turn to you. We were advised to contact you by the government.”
Jackson smiled and folded her arms. “Because we cover massage parlour workers?” she challenged.
Mitch shrugged. “Maybe, I guess. The government people told me that if the lawyers wouldn’t do it to call you.”
“And the lawyers wouldn’t do it?”
Mitch smiled at that “We went to left wing firms thinking that they would want to protect vulnerable workers but they said that they have principles. So we went to some right wing lawyers thinking that they would take a libertarian stance and look after anyone’s right to do anything that they wanted, but they said that they had principles too. If you ask me, both sides were just scared of what their clients would think of them. So that’s why you’re here.”
Jackson smiled. “What a great time for lawyers to find their principles.”
“Indeed,” Mitch agreed. Shane smiled too. They seemed to have started on the same side.
Jackson adopted a more serious pose. “Do you think that I don’t have principles?”
Mitch shook his head. “On the contrary. I assume that you are driven from your experience looking after the interests of marginalised workers to do an honest job here so the workers we are talking about are best protected.” Why was no one using the vital eight letter word, he wondered.
Jackson smiled at that. “Nice words, very flattering. So I help you and you get your government sign off. Yet some quick research tells me that you do not usually let unions anywhere near your workers.”
Shane spoke up. “Because they are not downtrodden.”
Jackson gave him a knowing smile. “Well I guess we’ll find out about that.” She paused. It was time to begin. “Tell me what are your attitudes to mailgirls?”
Mitch took that head-on. “I saw one briefly when I was visiting the US office. I think that they are a distraction and I’ll be honest, I think this is a personal foible of Mr Harada for his own gratification. Personally, it’s not my choice.” He let that hang, the implication that he had been saddled with mailgirls, whether he wanted them or not.
“The controversy and the degradation of women is just a lucky side effect?”
Mitch nodded. “Something like that. But you know all the counter arguments. The women are well paid, they know what they are getting themselves into and it can be brief time for them that allows them to fast track their way up the hierarchy in a way that is not open to men with similar abilities.”
Jackson picked up his tone. “You don’t sound convinced,” she noted.
Mitch smiled out his concerns. “I’m not. My wife and daughters are not completely behind me on this.”
“But here we are.”
Mitch sighed and stated the obvious. “I have been instructed to introduce the program here. Mr Harada has decided we are getting mailgirls, and he is following my progress closely. I have to deliver this. But I want to do it in the best possible way. Which is why you are here.”
“But I am a last resort?”
“Pretty much so. The people from the government have no template for this. Except to emphasise that we have to look after the rights of all our workers. So there’s an opportunity for you.”
Shane burst out. “We’re not used to dealing with unions. We thought you would be opposed to it from the start, take a radical feminist view that the whole thing was bad and you’d fight us all the way to ensure that it didn’t happen.”
It was Jackson’s turn to sigh. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t support the idea when I was told to come here and see if I could help you to implement this mad idea, but if you are really prepared to be reasonable and deal fairly, I am committed to helping to try to come up with something that can work.”
The temperature of the room fell, as they started to sketch out how the program would work.
***
Mitch realised that he was sizing up all the young women he saw — in the office, in the street, at bars and restaurants — as potential mailgirls, imagining them naked and kneeling in his office, waiting for him to give them a message or an item to deliver to someone else in the building. He knew that it was not healthy. But what could he do?
Mitch watched as Jackson strode confidently up to Betty Cuthbert’s desk and said hello to her, looking past her to see if he was free yet. “Good morning Marjorie,” Betty greeted her with some warmth. Mitch waved her into his office.
“Good morning Jackson,” he chimed in as she entered, heading to her usual seat at the small round table where they worked. “Belinda should be here soon.”
This woman, this thin attractive sassy union rep who was half his age was soon nonchalantly bossing him around in his own office because it was obvious to both of them that she knew much more on the matter at hand, how to draft an acceptable contract for the mailgirls, than he did. Even so, Mitch found himself wondering what Jackson would look like as a mailgirl, naked, thin and pale and slinky, easing her taut narrow buttocks between the desks outside his office on her way to meet her delivery deadlines. He looked at her hoping that she could not read his face or his mind. Shane with Belinda Clark, the head of HR, soon joined them. Mitch had to concentrate harder or he would miss, in his reverie, what Jackson was saying. But there they were, her perky breasts under her blouse and blazer. All he had to do was make her a mailgirl so that he could see her breasts and her buttocks and everything else. So that he could see them. He gave himself a mental slap. This is what he had become.
Jackson was explaining the tribunal again, as she had developed the concept further. The tribunal was to be three of the mailgirls who would deal with matters they did not like. Which included inappropriate attention from other staff. Belinda Clark was taking notes and seemed to be considering all the details. She had been pressing Jackson on where the tribunal ended and normal HR processes started and there had been quite an email exchange between them. This was Jackson’s chance to try to bed down the details. She was riffing on the finer points on where the line would be. Mitch waited for Jackson to finish and for Belinda to finish typing into her Ipad before he spoke up.
“We need someone who knows how the tribunal should work, how it integrates into the team and who can make sure that it doesn’t get carried away with its power.”
Jackson sat up straight and teasingly licked the top of her pen, then rolled it along her lips. Shane looked at Mitch and then looked back at her with his mouth open, showing how Mitch felt although Mitch knew to control his own face.
“Someone like?” she smiled. “You’re talking about their supervisor?”
This was a role that they were also trying to bed down. Belinda wanted to keep HR at arms distance from the mailgirls and had suggested they employ a fulltime supervisor. Shane had confirmed to Mitch that Mr Harada was in favour of that role and was funding it, probably because he imagined someone in the role like Mrs Ogawa. Given the way that the contracts were looking, the supervisor was more likely to be somewhere between a mentor and social worker with no scope for corporal punishment. Mitch looked at Jackson, sitting there so self assured.
“Yes,” he agreed, “their supervisor.”
Jackson seemed to be reflecting on that.
***
Cara looked in on Emily in her bedroom. It was one of the things that the twins had always done, walked into each other’s bedroom without knocking or warning when they wanted to chat. She found Emily poised on her knees on the floor and naked. And inspecting herself in the mirror, thrusting her hips forward with her knees apart. Her phone was strapped to her arm.
“What are you doing?” Cara asked, although it was pretty obvious.
“Practising. You should too,” Emily replied without taking her eyes away from the mirror. She rolled her shoulders back to see if that was an improvement.
“Not my thing,” Cara replied, although she did wonder why that was the case. And then she pondered, was everyone going mailgirl crazy like this? She looked closer at her sister. Were there hundreds of women in Melbourne practising like this at that moment? So many articles in the news, so much on social about it. Cara looked again. “Back has to be straighter,” she barked. “Legs further apart.” She had seen the videos of course and she knew the position. But why had she been so harsh to her sister? And why did her sister instantly obey?
Cara walked slowly around her poised naked sister, nudged her knees with the toe of her shoe to make her spread wider and poking her back to make her stance just that little straighter, with her breasts forward just that little bit more. Cara felt a sensation that she could not quite describe although she knew it was tied to a sense of control over her sister. It felt good. She looked hard at her sister. “You’ve got the body to be a mailgirl,” she told her. But did she have everything else that it required?
***
Mitch wondered how he was going to sell a contract with no demerits and no punishments for mailgirls to Mr Harada. Jackson was due for another scoping meeting and he hoped she would give him something to use to make his boss happy.
Jackson entered Mitch’s office with another woman she had brought with her and asked how the rest of the planning was going. Belinda reported that they had a job role drafted for the Mailgirl Supervisor and Mitch caught Jackson’s eye, noting her interest in that.
Jackson then introduced the colleague who had come with her to the meeting. “I brought in a psychologist in the field, Fanny Durack to help me. She has written a report that I hope you have all had the time to read.” The looks on the faces of Mitch, Shane and Belinda suggested that Fanny should just get on with her presentation with the assumption that she was starting from zero.
Fanny knew how to introduce the subject. “Well, it looks like half the psychs in the US are doing their Masters on mailgirls, so I thought I better get in on the ground floor in this country. Due to our labour laws, mailgirls in Australia are going to be a special case.”
This they already knew, she realised as she leafed through her copy of her report titled ‘A satisfied mailgirl is a happy mailgirl.’ She read out the executive summary stressing the main points.
Shane interrupted her. “What does that ever mean?” he asked.
“Sorry, what?” she asked.
“The title,” he explained.
“Ah,” Fanny realised. “Interviews with American mailgirls have found them in a state of sexual tension brought on by their state of undress in an office situation, no surprise, and by the time pressures placed on them to deliver, the poses they are required to hold and the ban on touching themselves or otherwise getting off except when they are showering or on breaks.” Fanny looked around to confirm as she expected that she now had everyone’s attention. “Interviews have revealed that this is their most disliked part of the job.”
Realising that this was a potential HR problem, Belinda spoke first. “So what are you suggesting?”
Fanny smiled. “If you want a happy group of exhibitionist naked workers in your office, you have to give them opportunities for relief.”
“That’s going to be skating close to the edge of what we are allowed to do in the office?” Mitch asked Jackson.
Jackson smiled her assurance at him. “That’s why I brought Fanny in. She and I have been working on a number of options to, um, keep the mailgirls satisfied while staying within what the Fair Work Commission seems to be allowing us.”
“Such as?” asked Mitch, wondering how much he would dread the answer. He dwelt for a quick moment on Jackson’s use of ‘us’ before giving full attention to Fanny.
Fanny flicked through her report to the page she wanted. “It comes under the general heading of respect shown to the mailgirls by the workforce. And the setting of boundaries…”
“Meaning,” Jackson concluded for her, “that there will be no touching of mailgirls except with their explicit consent. And…”
Fanny jumped back in. “There needs to be ample opportunities for the mailgirls to get relief throughout the office. It’s a win / win situation. The mailgirls are happy and able to enjoy their job. And if the designated places for them to do it are public enough, then the workforce gets incentivised by viewing the, um, performances in a safe, positive manner.”
“This is all too weird,” Mitch complained.
“But you’re always complaining that the mailgirls program needs to be respectful,” Shane argued. “And this is respectful.”
“Is it?” Mitch fired back. He looked to Belinda who looked to Jackson.
Jackson smiled. “Sort of,” she suggested.
“See!” Shane insisted. He looked over to Fanny. “What about these public places? What were you thinking of?”
Fanny looked to Jackson who gestured that the ball was in Fanny’s court, so she better play it. “A dildo station on every floor. That way if the mailgirls cannot get off by hand, or just if they happen to choose otherwise, they have a selection of toys to help them.”
Shane’s eyes lit up. “A dildo station! Perfect!” he exclaimed then looked around to find that Belinda and Mitch did not seem to share his enthusiasm. He eyeballed Mitch. “Don’t you see, Mitch. Tell Mr Harada about these dildo stations and he’ll love it. They will overcome his reservations about all the other stuff that you are going to change from what he expected.”
Mitch nodded slowly. Shane might just be right. He could push how the mailgirls were going to masturbate in front of the rest of the staff as something that would contribute to the morale of the office, which was the apparent point of the program and could downplay the stuff that he knew Mr Harada would not like. He leaned back in his chair and nodded slightly more enthusiastically. “We will have dildo stations,” he agreed not quite believing what he was saying.
***
Mr Harada did not immediately love the dildo stations. He preferred his mailgirls in state of sexual tension. It makes their punishment sessions more interesting for him.
So Mitch had to break the news about that to him. “We are not allowed to punish the mailgirls.”
“How can they stop us?” Mr Harada demanded.
“They can fine the company for duty of care to its workers, they can charge any employees who do the punishment with assault, and they can charge management with negligence. And I have a legal opinion that they could also charge you as the ultimate owner of the company with a whole lot of stuff when you come to visit. They would probably take your passport and keep you in the country for a while.” Mitch waited for another tirade.
For some time Mr Harada said nothing. Then he spoke slowly. “What are suggesting instead?”
Mitch took to that task with apparent enthusiasm as he repeated the idea. “The dildo stations. The mailgirls are happy, the staff are happy and everybody is productive. Do you want me to go on?”
“No, you win. You get your dildo stations,” Mr Harada relented with some level of exhaustion for the issue. Then he perked up. “If these stations work in your office, we may consider them for the other offices,” he added in a way that suggested the idea would be his if it worked.
***
After the usual working party of four had gone through the draft of the employment agreement, Mitch engineered a moment alone with Jackson. He contrived to take the lift down to the foyer with her after the meeting, still buzzing from the meeting and agreeing that they had a workable agreement that he could hope for approval by the Fair Work Commission. But when they were alone in the foyer, he revealed what he had on his mind.
“You must be interested in how this thing is going to work, what with the time and effort that you have put into it. We were thinking of offering you a role here.”
Jackson looked at him with interest. “I don’t know, supervisor would be a bit mundane,” she answered straight away.
Mitch put on his best negotiator’s face. “I wasn’t thinking of supervisor. You’re right, that role will be a bit mundane.”
Jackson stared at Mitch for the longest moment, clearly waiting for him to come out with what he was thinking. Realising it was up to him, Mitch blurted “would you think of becoming a mailgirl yourself?” Jackson looked at him with shock, but he had started, so he continued. “You know how much it pays and I am pretty sure that the pay is probably higher than what you are getting.”
Jackson looked him in the eyes for another long, silent moment to ensure that he was being serious. She tried to deflate the situation. “Haha, if I was going to consider becoming one of your mailgirls, I would be doing so for the other benefits, not so much the money.”
Mitch narrowed his pitch down to what he thought was really at issue, so far as he was concerned. “We need someone with your skills to make sure that it starts smoothly. You know how to run the tribunal and make sure that it didn’t get out of hand. I don’t know of anyone else who could do that. Would you consider it for a week or perhaps a little longer until we had things running smoothly? It would be purely transactional.”
Jackson smiled dangerously. “And you get to see my tits.”
Mitch thought he would play along. “And your arse.” Jackson did not slap his face which he thought was a positive.
Instead she kept her hard stare. “Why did you think to even ask me?”
Mitch had that answer ready. “Because while you were drafting the rules you were thinking what conditions you would expect to see if you were going to be a mailgirl. You were thinking yourself into the role of a mailgirl. And I think we gave you everything that you wanted.”
Jackson shot Mitch a friendly smile. “That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.” She paused and saw the need in his stare. “Since you’re so insistent let me think about it.”
Mitch continued. “Just imagine, this would be a way to test your post-feminist principles in a practical way. While getting paid for it. You know all the rules. And this is going to be completely different to anything that has been tried in the workplace before. I think it will be interesting and fun.”
Jackson smiled amicably but she was trying to back out into the street and away from the man. “Okay, you’ve made your case. Let me think about it.”
Mitch kept his smile to himself as Jackson exited from the foyer with her usual confident stride. In his experience thinking about it usually led to…
***
The team of four had a working session. Mitch advised that Mr Harada was happy with their progress and that the Fair Work Commission had approved the employment contracts.
“I suspect,” Shane smiled, “that they didn’t read it too closely.”
Belinda smiled. “I suspect that they did.”
Mitch looked over at the apparently comfortable union rep who sat relaxed as usual in her jacket and slacks. He smiled at her. “With you on board for three months, we will start with a total of six and see how we go. So that’s five we need to recruit. Let’s advertise internally first then see how many we will need from outside. We’ll run some discrete public ads after a week.”
Jackson stared back at Mitch with the most normal of workplace appropriate looks. “Do you think you can find five recruits inside the company?” she asked.
“I have absolutely no idea,” he replied and looked to the other two who shrugged. “And,” he addressed Jackson, “you’re good for three months?”
She smiled and responded with a sly smile. “You never know. I may have to check in after that to see how well the project actually works.” Mitch could only wonder what she was thinking and how she had reached that point. Regardless he had a meeting to run.
“It would be good to see if you can get the tribunal running properly during that time. None of us have any experience with something like that.”
“Haha, neither do I,” Jackson reminded them.
“But at least you can conceptualise how it is supposed to run,” Mitch explained.
Mitch tried not to concentrate on looking too much at Jackson knowing that he would be seeing her nude every day for three months in the near future. And still he wondered, what makes someone agree to be a mailgirl?
The Contract
The mailgirl’s conditions of employment in the Melbourne office of Harada Industries:
Mailgirls are fulltime employees and have all the benefits of employment as offered by Harada Industries to any staff.
Mailgirls will be recruited on a number of factors other than looks. They are however to be naked during normal working hours, between the mezzanine and level ten.
Additionally, mailgirls can smoke, drink and masturbate as much as they like in the office during working hours so long as they meet their delivery targets.
Mailgirls are to be called by names that they select. Not by numbers. They are free to choose their own names or any other names they fancy.
They can discipline other workers if they are disrespectful to them. Video evidence is to be presented to a tribunal of mailgirls who can set serious penalties for bad behaviour. (See Annex 2.)
Mailgirls can only be touched with their express consent.
Mailgirls can demand that workers pleasure them in any way that they see fit. This is not compulsory and is only to occur between the mezzanine and level ten of the building during working hours. If a worker says no to pleasuring a mailgirl, the mailgirl is not to ask that worker for pleasure until such a time as the worker informs the mailgirl that they permit it.
Mailgirls are allowed to keep bush but have to shave armpits and legs at a minimum each morning in their change room on the mezzanine.
Mailgirls are eligible for up to two days period leave a month.
Rather than demerits for missing timelines and for other infractions, mailgirls will be awarded bonus points for exceeding timelines and maintaining standards. (See Annex 3.)
The company’s obligations:
The company will ensure that mailgirls can only be viewed by employees of Harada Industries and BAD Solutions or other people who are required to work on levels three to ten or are otherwise authorised to be there.
The company will run compulsory mailgirl respect sessions for all workers on floors three to ten and mailgirl induction sessions for any contractors or new staff which they must attend before having access to those floors.
The company will set up dildo stations on each floor of the office for the mailgirls’ relief.
Only mailgirls are allowed to touch the items at the dildo stations unless they expressly give other workers permission to handle them.
***
As soon as the employment contracts were approved, Belinda advertised the roles. She had impressed Mitch that it didn’t matter whether the adverts were discrete or public, the result would be the same, and they would get a better range of applicants the wider they advertised. And Mitch knew that the reports of such a level publicity would impress Mr Harada and keep him happy for a while. Belinda hired Wendy Turnbull as the Mailgirl Supervisor, starting straight away to assist her with the recruitment. Wendy Turnbull was a middle-aged beauty consultant who was looking for ‘new opportunities’ and radiated the right mix of control and empathy that Belinda was after for the role.
Wendy and Belinda read the applications as they came in, grading them for the shortlist. They hoped to interview only the five best applicants and then work their way down the list if not all of those five worked out. As it turned out, five women already employed by Harada Industries had applied. Belinda did her preliminary checks, decided all five were suitable and agreed with Mitch that she would interview them with him.
They had received the induction manual from the US office which outlined the intrusive nature of their interviews and the questions that the candidates were required to answer about their sex lives and proclivities. After some discussion, Mitch and Belinda agreed that they would ask the intimate questions about the candidates’ sex lives. But they would stress that the candidates did not have to answer them. What they needed to do was be certain from their interview that the candidate would not mind being nude in the office.
Mitch knew a way to answer that issue. But still he asked Belinda “So what’s the best way to find that out?”
Belinda smiled wryly. “Well, the interviews will be done with them in the nude. That should answer a few questions.” As Mitch expected.
The interviews were conducted off-site and outside of work hours since all the interviewees were staff and Belinda and Mitch agreed it would not be appropriate for the office to know who would become mailgirls until the contracts were signed. And it would be worse if any of the candidates proved to be not suitable. Only Belinda, Mitch and Wendy Turnbull knew the names of the shortlisted candidates.
Mitch and Belinda ran the interviews one evening after leaving for the neutral venue separately, acting as if they were just going home. The candidates had been warned that they would do their interviews in the nude. Mitch stationed an Admin Assistant, Annette Kellerman, outside the hotel function room that they had booked. She had been briefed about the candidates, how to manage them in and out of the venue, and she had been given a nice payment for the evening. She had that position fortuitously, as she had applied to be a mailgirl, and she would be the final interviewee.
Kimiko Date, finance department — interviewee number one
A knock on the door and then a thin woman, slightly shorter than average height meekly entered the room, careful to close the door behind her. She found herself facing Mitch and Belinda who sat behind a desk at the far end of a medium size room, so there was some space between the candidate and them. Noticing a table against a side wall, she stepped over and undressed, removing her jacket and carefully laying it flat, then removing and folding her blouse on top of it, slipping down her skirt and being equally careful before, now only in matching white pants and a bra, she looked over to the two behind their desk. They were watching her impassively, so understanding her prior instructions, she unclipped her bra, stepped out of her pants, placing them tidily on top of the rest of her clothes. Naked, without any sign of serious emotion or hesitation, she trod up towards the table where the two interviewers sat watching her. Ignoring the chair facing them, she assumed the position on her knees in front of the table, straightened her back and looked down at the floor.
Mitch spoke up. “Kimiko, you don’t have to do that,” he urged gently.
The interviewee did not move from her prone position. She adjusted her knees wider and addressed the floor in front of her in a soft voice. “I know that is how a mailgirl is expected to present herself in Japan,” she told them quietly.
Mitch tried to put her at ease. “Ah, you have been watching the videos of the overseas mailgirls. We won’t force you to do that here. But you can if you want to. Now why do you want to be a mailgirl?”
“I have something to prove to my family,” she replied with her soft, determined voice.
Okay then, Mitch thought. He could only try to guess what that might be and he knew that he would be wrong whatever he thought. He looked over to Belinda who raised her eyebrows. So she asked the next question.
“I read in your application that you interned in Harada Industries’ head office in Japan before moving to Australia and getting a job here. Did you see the mailgirls there?”
Kimiko kept her pose. “Yes, of course. They were a normal part of the office. Culture, I guess. But in case you are going to ask I never dreamed of being a mailgirl then.”
“May I ask why?” Belinda probed gently.
“I’m three years older now,” Kimiko mysteriously replied.
***
Business Analyst Lauryn Mark — second interviewee
Early in her interview. Mitch asked the Business Analyst Lauryn Mark “What’s your motivation? Why do you want to do this?” After all, she had a pretty good wage with Harada Industries already and a responsible position in the company.
Like a well trained interviewee, Lauryn made sure to look both Mitch and Belinda in the eyes as she answered, sitting naked in front of them. “To pay off my student debt, maybe save enough to buy a house.” She gave them a look that said she was being totally honest. And gesturing at her state of undress, she added “I have nothing to hide,” and laughed. Both her interviewers smiled. “And before you ask, my partner is all for it. He says he is ambitious for me.”
“And do you have any doubts?” Belinda asked.
Lauryn shook her head. “I’ve been languishing in my job for a couple of years with no apparent career progression. There doesn’t seem to be any movement in my section. And I like working for the company. So I thought I’d try this to see if it gives my career a boost. They say that that is one of the perks in the US.”
“Interesting,” Belinda smiled, “do you think that running messages in the nude will give your career the boost that you are hoping for?”
Lauryn shrugged. “I guess we’ll see.”
Mitch spoke up. “We don’t want to sugar coat this. We want you to know precisely what you are getting yourself into here.”
Belinda gestured at her state, naked in front of the two of them “I wouldn’t be here like this if I wasn’t reasonably sure what I was getting myself into here.”
Mitch and Belinda nodded their acceptance of that.
“So when will I know if I have the job?”
Mitch looked to Belinda who nodded at him, so he nodded at her. Belinda spoke up. “We’ll have the contract for you in the next few days.”
Lauryn stood up and approached them, her breasts swinging freely in front of her. “Thanks,” she said and shook both their hands. She exuded confidence and seemed totally at ease naked, Mitch noted. Not for the first time did he wonder what was being unleashed.
***
Heather McKay. “I was born like this.” A short stocky worker from the stockroom. Interviewee number three
A short stocky woman entered the interview room and wandered up to the desk. She wore a loose blouse and a skirt belted tight above her hips. Neither item flattered her.
“I’m here for the interview.”
Belinda looked her over. “Heather McKay?” she asked and the woman nodded. Mitch smiled at her.
“Oh,” she realised, “I take my clothes off now.” Belinda Clark nodded at her. Nonchalantly, she loosed her belt, dropped her skirt and lifted her blouse over her head. She carried them over to the table where she removed her bra and panties as well. She turned around and returned to stand by the desk displaying a fit, curvy body that she was clearly proud of.
“You can sit,” Mitch told her. But she shrugged and remained standing where she was, close to the table but fully visible to her interviewers. With her hands by her sides they could see she had trimmed her bush and she clearly looked after her fitness and her skin.
“I reckon I was born to do this job,” Heather announced. The other two looked at her, so she gestured at her undressed state. “I was born like this,” she reminded them with a raucous laugh. Mitch and Belinda smiled. “Ashes to ashes, funk to funky,” she recited, “that’s the bible.”
“I think it’s David Bowie,” Mitch grinned.
“Whatever,” Heather responded, her face blank.
Mitch decided he better start with the questions. “What’s your motivation?” he asked.
“My what?”
“Ah,” he realised, “why do you want to be a mailgirl?”
Heather cracked a bit smile. “They reckon I’m lazy in the stockroom. But they keep giving me the hardest jobs, the heaviest stuff and the longest deliveries. I reckon that they’re setting me up to fail.”
Belinda looked concerned. “Why do you think that?” she asked.
Heather seemed to know herself. “Because I’m the only girl employed there. I think I scare them. So if I can deliver things around the office as well as any of the other girls I reckon that will show them.” She had it worked out, it seemed.
“In the nude,” Mitch confirmed, since she had left that part out.
Heather did not seem fussed. “In the nuddie, that’s right.”
Mitch wrote in his notes ‘that’s fucked up’.
“And,” she added, “the money.”
Belinda asked Heather if she had any questions. “What training do we get?” she asked them.
Belinda looked to Mitch. “Well, if you’re successful you’ll be shown how to use the comms device and given the instruction booklet,” he told her.
Heather looked peeved. “And that’s it? No training courses?”
Belinda weighed in. “Well, I’m not sure what there is that we can give you as a training course. If you think of anything, please tell us. After all, don’t forget this is a pilot project for the office, so there’s no one experienced. You’ll be setting the marks and establishing things as you go.”
Heather finally admitted what she had on her mind. “So we’re not going to be sent to the US to learn from the program there?”
Mitch spoke to that. “I think you will find that things here are quite different from how they are in the States. So no, we won’t be sending you there.”
Heather looked disappointed.
“Is that a problem?” Belinda asked.
Heather suddenly brightened up. “Nah, that’s alright. Although I was hoping for a free trip to the States. You know, see all their sights and eat all their burgers. If someone else is going to pay for it.”
“So are you still interested in the job?” Belinda checked.
Heather laughed. “Of course. Wandering around the office all day in the nuddy for the money you’re offering. Someone’s mad, and I reckon it’s you.”
They all laughed at that.
***
Interviewee number four — Jan Stephenson, programmer
Jan Stephenson, a tall thin programmer with prominent breasts and long blonde hair sat stiffy in front of Mitch and Belinda with a steely look of determination on her face. She had stripped off without a smile or any acknowledgement that they were in the room. Then she trod over and set herself in the chair facing them for the interview.
Mitch wondered whether she had already made up her mind and had decided that this was a formality or whether she was scared and trying to cover it up. Maybe she was just a habitual bad interviewee. Who could ever find out someone else’s true motivations?
Belinda had picked up the vibes too. “Why do you want to do this?” she snapped at Jan. Mitch shot Belinda a warning look, but Belinda gave him a glance that said she had this under control.
The interviewee seemed to look straight between the two of them. “Because I’m sick of the rest of the programmers ogling me all day,” she stated, with little emotion, maybe just a trace of bitterness. Like if that was how her colleagues treated her, she may as well show them everything, particularly if the company was paying her to do it.
“And do you think this will help?” Mitch asked her gently.
Jan shrugged. “Well, I’ll do this for two years if I’m successful and then I’ll go back to my job. Hopefully by then they would have seen enough of me to leave me alone to get some work done.”
Belinda tried to make eye contact with her “Do you really think that will work?” she asked, still trying to break down the barrier.
At that Jan got off autopilot, realising that they wanted to see at least something of the real her. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But if my job is guaranteed after two years of this and then there’s the extra money, then why not?”
***
Annette Kellerman, PA — interviewee number five
As soon as the fourth interviewee closed the door behind her on the way out, Annette Kellerman stepped inside. She pulled her dress over her head and took it off revealing that she had nothing on underneath, showing off her strong, athletic body.
She posed with one hand on her hip. “Good enough?” she asked with a smile.
“Yes,” Mitch replied then, a little worried at his enthusiastic response to her naked body, he looked to Belinda who nodded. Then smiled.
“I thought you might had have enough of the long interviews,” Annette Kellerman suggested. “You can see what you’re getting. Is there anything you have to ask me or can we just pack this up?”
“You read our minds,” Mitch joked.
“That’s a skill of mine,” Annette Kellerman replied with a serious inflection. “So if I’ve passed the interview, let’s all go home.”
Mitch and Belinda nodded, why not. As Jackson’s psychologist colleague had suggested it was about self confidence and a lack of shame. What could go wrong?
***
Mitch was relieved after the interviews. All the candidates seemed suitable and all had agreed to the conditions. And the press had not found out about the interviews which suggested that he could hope for a soft launch without too much hoo-ha, which was how he liked it. He was a bit worn out after his long day and the stress of remaining professional in the presence of five naked women, but he was resigned to that being his lot once the show got started properly. He opened the front door to his home to see Emily waiting for him inside. Looking like she meant business, she dragged him to their empty front room with the others presumably somewhere else in the house.
“Dad,” she exploded, “I didn’t get an interview, did I? Did you have anything to do with that?”
Mitch shook his head. “Fortunately not. I didn’t even know that you applied. I did not see any of the applications, only the shortlist. And everyone on the shortlist was an internal applicant. So honestly, I didn’t even know you had applied. Does your mother know?” Should he tell her that he did not want his daughter to be a mailgirl. Or would that make her mood worse?
Emily ignored his explanation anyway. “So it was a fix?”
“No, we made it a public process because we didn’t know how many internals we would get. If any at all. And they had an advantage, I’ll grant you, because they had already passed our security clearance — which was a condition — and as well, they could better answer the other criteria which gave them a natural advantage.”
“Other criteria, right.” Emily looked resigned but unimpressed.
So it had come to this. Here he was having a perfectly normal conversation with his daughter about why she was not going to spend her weekdays running naked around his office.