No Smoke Without Fire

Have you ever hope that someone would just come up to you and say "April's Fool!", and it was all but a big big joke played upon you?

Recently, there's a piece of news spreading around my Department C in the office, but in the end, it was just a rumour without basis, and everything concluded as a 'harmless joke'. The story encompassed around me Engineer S and here's how it goes...

One fine day, Engineer S went to work as normal, looking forward to the night's challenge. But as he reached the office, what was waiting for him was something he wasn't expecting, a piece of news saying that he would be transferring from Shift 4 to Shift 2 soon. It came out from the mouth of Engineer Y, the Shift Leader of Shift 3 and at the same time, the person who apparently has all the first hand information of the latest news. Besides, the piece of message was confirmed by Shift Leader C of Shift 4. It became the talk of the night.

Engineer S was shocked. To him, it means an entire change of working environment; new Operators whom he has never worked with before, new co-workers, new working style. He has to adapt, yet again. The last time he had to do this was when he was moved from Shift 1 to Shift 4 while changing from Team I to Team P. It was not easy, and just when he had finally adjusted and become comfortable with everything in Shift 4, they had to do it again.

That night, Engineer S had to find someone to confide in, and he emailed Engineer A's personal email to tell him about it. Slowly, but gradually over the night, he accepted the reality and decided to break the news to Bay Leader D, and as expected, most of the Operators soon came to know about the news too.

The following week, when Engineer S went to work, it seemed that everyone was talking about it, or rather, was asking him about it. He could only respond with a silly smile. Apparently, the news had spread so fast and far that even Engineer M from Department E approached him to enquire about it. "Oh my God! Even Engineers from the other Departments...", he could only ponder.

During one of the nights the same week, he received a call on the deck phone, from Engineer E, the Shift Leader of Shift 2. "Erm, no smoke without fire. I've heard that you will be coming over to my Shift. As you know, Engineer L will be leaving soon, so I would just like to find out the manpower for my Shift so I can appropriately plan my off days." and he continued, "I even heard that Boss had interviewed you regarding this."

"AND HOW DO I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?!", Engineer S wondered. He decided to get to the bottom of things. The best way to do this, is non other than to clarify with the rumour's origin, Engineer Y. And things finally cleared up. This was how the fire started.

It was exactly the same day on which Engineer S first received the news. An Operator from Shift 2 doing OT in Shift 3 told Engineer Y that Engineer L is leaving soon, and Engineer K will also be transferring to Normal Shift. That leaves only 2 Engineers in Shift 2, and both of whom are from Team I. When Engineer Y told Shift Leader C about this, it was naturally assumed that Engineer S will be shifting over. The reasons being, Shift 4 having the largest manpower currently, and Engineer S being the newer of the 2 Engineers of Team P from Shift 4 and an Engineer of Team P is exactly what Shift 2 will be lacking.

As for the part regarding the interview by the Boss, nobody knows how and when it eventually got added in. Even Engineer K had denied that he will be going to Normal Shift. No smoke without fire huh? I would say, fearful is the power of the words and the sheer imagination of humans.

No Smoke without Fire; No Fire without Air.

Disclaimer: The above text is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

PS: Coincidentally, it's April's Fool today. Happy April's Fool to me! =D