I was at my desk late one evening when the company's regional VP, my boss's boss, startled me at the door to my office.
"Ah, working late Dave?"
"Yes," I said, sitting up straight in my chair and minimizing the open windows on my computer screen, which, thankfully, faced away from the doorway. "I've got a deadline due tomorrow and we've not quite made as much progress as I would have liked this week. No problem though, I'll catch it up," I said, trying to sound more casual than I felt.
She smiled and said, "yes, Dave, you always pull us out of a bind, although I'd say more so at the last minute than I'd like to see."
Ouch. I wasn't sure how to respond to that. About twenty years my senior, she has a reputation throughout the company as a stern and tough, yet fair and capable, manager. You certainly didn't want to get crosswise with her without really knowing your stuff. I've seen many an unprepared staffer deftly sidelined while going up against her at our monthly meetings.
In the ensuing awkward silence, she entered my office and sat in the visitor's chair at the side of my desk, not quite in view of my screen. I was, in my head, frantically trying to figure out how to shut down my browser windows completely without looking obvious and guilty. Would accidentally hitting the power button be too obvious?
"I don't suppose you are aware that one of my less glamorous duties is to review monthly internet usage reports?"
Much as I tried to stay in control of my reactions, I pretty much visibly froze.
She knows.
She went on, "I can see by your body language you might have some idea what I'm here to discuss with you."
I know I should have interjected something, anything, but all I could feel was a deep knot in my stomach and a cluster of nonsensical denials forming in my throat, while she eyed me sternly as I averted her gaze. While quite a bit older than me, she was attractive in the confident and strong way she carried herself throughout the office, the sharp pantsuits she wore, and above all her piercing blue eyes, and shoulder-length silver-gray hair.
"Let's just jump into it, shall we?" Putting on her reading glasses, she opened a manila folder with a number of printouts, pulling the top packet out and flipping through a few pages. "I'd venture a guess you didn't get much done last week Tuesday, say for three or four hours in the morning?"
I was so busted. I blurted, "I know it's not okay and it doesn't look good to be browsing privately on company time but I promise I've made it up entirely on my own time and it won't happen again..." I trailed off as her stern gaze over the top of her glasses locked onto mine and she tilted her head quizzically. Her lips gradually shifted into what felt like a judgmental smile.
"Here's the thing, Dave. You are one of our more productive employees and you do eventually pull through. However, it's just not good for our processes, our timelines, and... while it's already clearly against our company policy to be surfing the internet while at the office... the subject matter certainly raises significant additional concerns."
This was every guy's nightmare, to be busted at the office for browsing porn. I waited for the next shoe to drop: not just fired, but humiliated in the eyes of my colleagues and friends. This was going to be horrible. There was nothing I could do. My fate was no longer my own. A feeling of shame and resignation began to envelop me. I looked up and her gaze was unfaltering, and, yes, clearly somewhat amused.
At long last, all I was able to come up with was, "I have no excuse". Seconds went by as she continued to look at me in silence. "I don't want to lose my job over this".
"I brought up last Tuesday, but frankly, it's fairly consistent." Flipping through pages of printouts, "you seem to get distracted almost daily. Sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for an hour at a time. What is it you are getting out of all this?"
"Like I said, I have no excuse." I didn't know whether to beg for my job or to just accept what was coming.
"I'm really curious," she said, looking down at the printouts, scanning a few lines then looking back at me. "I assume this excites you?"
Jesus. There was just no answer to that. I wanted to just get up and leave with some lame excuse about discussing it later, but my office wasn't all that big and there was not enough room to get around her gracefully if I tried.
"I mean, you're a guy, and I know the kind of silly stuff guys get into, but what do you get out of looking at porn for hours at a time on the clock? I assume it turns you on, but doesn't that just leave you frustrated for hours on end? I don't know anything about your personal life, but can't you get that stuff done outside the office? You're a good enough looking guy, can't you find a girlfriend or something?"
I was pretty much horrified at the situation at that point. It was surreal. Never in my life had I been so out-and-out caught, and it had to be, of all places, at my work, at a job that I really liked, and by a woman in charge, of all the possible scenarios. And here she was, giving me the third degree while I was pretty much trapped.
"Dave, I'll be frank with you. At this point, only you and I are privy to this information. I can choose to do something officially with it, which will certainly end your employment here, or you can come clean and we can see if there is some way out of all this between you and me."
Was she was throwing me a branch? Maybe. Or maybe she was just disgusted and toying with me before giving me the axe.
I tried to hold her gaze. "Okay, yes. I find it exciting. But it's just a way to waste some time... and I know that's unacceptable and I regret it." I needed to give her something to run with and try to bring this to a close.
"I assume it makes you hard." A sudden inrush of air on my part. "Do you just stay hard and aroused all day back here hidden behind your desk?"
I know what kind of conversations are okay and this had gone well beyond my threshold. "That's none of your business," I said with some rising indignation, albeit borne of humiliation. "If you are going to fire me, just go ahead and say it, don't humiliate me." I began to rise up out of my chair.
"Sit your ass back down, Dave!" she commanded quietly but firmly... and I did just that. "Get ahold of yourself. I've told you only I know about this. I'd honestly like to keep you if we can bring your work behavior back into the realm of acceptability, or at least to where your behavior does not put my job in jeopardy for not doing anything about it. You need to know you've put me in a difficult situation. Faced with this," she held out the printout towards me, "I'd be hard pressed to explain why I've kept you on staff. What I'm telling you is that you need to make some amends. You need to be more straightforward with me than you could ever imagine, starting this very moment." She reached forward and put her hand on my knee, which made me jump for a moment. "Are we on the same page here?" I nodded meekly.
"Good, because I'm truly curious. This discussion will be just between the two of us, you have my word on it."
Still not sure where all this was headed, I relaxed the smallest amount, which she noticed, and smiled at me in a way that was both patronizing and kind, but her eyes continued staring straight into me, her hand on my knee gripping firmly. Something about it -- it was surreal. I felt exposed. I felt cornered. I felt like I was trapped. But it was also... strangely intimate. Like I'd been caught with my hand in the cookie jar by a kind parent.
"Understood", I said quietly, not knowing how much she was going to ask me to reveal.
A pause from her, then, "good", as she leaned back in her chair and took her hand off my knee. "Back to my question, do you just stay hard all day?"
"I don't know. Sometimes."
"Sometimes it just goes down, and sometimes it just stays hard?"
"Yes." Sheepish.
"Do you masturbate at the office, Dave?"
Suddenly aware of the open door to my office, I glanced in that direction. "Don't worry, Dave, everyone else has gone home and the office is locked for the night. It's just you and me. Answer the question. We need to get over these short reluctant answers of yours or we'll never get out of here."
"Okay, yes."
"Where do you masturbate, Dave?"
"I don't want to get in any more trouble."