Celebrations

A group of executives was sitting around a dinner table and enjoying the holidays.

" Ring Ring Ring"

Jennifer looked at her phone and noticed that it was Michael. She had no idea what he was up to these past two weeks. She was a bit angry that he missed the company Christmas party. After all, these celebrations were vital toward building up company culture. However, she thought that he might be spending time with the foreign development team.

" Michael, I am surprised to get a call from you."

" Well, I was calling because I did not see anyone at the office when I came by." Michael asked. He had finally had the free time to go and check on his employees.

" Its the holidays Michael. You missed Christmas, today is the 30th. Everybody in the office took a half-day to go home. All of our executives are actually in a company dinner." Jennifer explained. She wanted to ask him to come; however, she thought he was still overseas.

" Oh… Well, text me the address and I will come to join you guys." Michael replied. He had completely forgotten about the holidays because he was so focused on the breakthrough. Fortunately, it was not too late, he could still celebrate with his employees.

Michael received Jennifer's text and started driving to the restaurant. However, he realized that he should probably buy some presents for everyone since it was the holidays. Even though he missed Christmas, it was still the holiday season. Therefore Michael stopped by the mall in order to buy presents. However, he did not know what kind of presents to buy for them.

After some brainstorming, Michael decided to read the profiles of his employees. He quickly checked their interests and started buying custom gifts that he hoped each person would appreciate. For some, he bought gift cards from their favorite stores, for others he bought small gifts. Ultimately Michael ended up spending almost $10,000 on gifts for everyone. The most surprising thing was that it only took him a couple of minutes to go through everyone's profiles. Michael felt like he was operating almost at the speed of a computer.

Michael put all the gifts in the car and drove to the restaurant. The Petrus was one of the top fine dining restaurants in Austin. They had a private room for corporate events. Only the best companies in Austin could host parties in the Petrus. Eminence gaming holding their holiday dinner here meant that they had were accepted within Austin's business community. Michael felt proud that his company was able to host dinner at a restaurant like this.

Michael parked his car nearby and walked to the restaurant with his arms full of gifts and envelopes. However, he was stopped at the front door.

" Sir, We are holding a private event. Only guests with invitations can come in." One of the security guards stopped him.

Michael did not have an invitation card because he was not initially invited. " Oh its alright, I am here for the Eminence Gaming event."

The security guard looked at him and called the manager. He did not think Michael was telling the truth; however, he felt it was more appropriate to let the manager handle the situation.

Jasmine Mora was the Restaurant Manager at The Petrus. She was informed by security that there was a man with no invitation trying to join the private event for Eminence Gaming. Jasmine knew that Eminence Gaming was one of the rising stars in the Austin Business community; she was glad that they chose The Petrus for their dinner and wanted to make sure everything was perfect so that they will continue to come to dine here in the future.

However, now somebody was trying to break into the private event and ruin the perfect night. Jasmine could barely hold her anger in as she stormed towards the front door. When she arrived, she saw a young man in casual clothes holding a bunch of presents. He didn't even look half as professional as the executives at the event.

" We are only letting people in with invitations. If you do not have one then you will not be allowed inside." Jasmine adamantly stated. She did not want to spoil the first impression The Petrus made on tonight's guest.

Michael did not know how to respond. He was not being allowed to attend the dinner of his own company. " Call one the executives, They can verify who I am." He tried to reason with the manager.

" We cannot disturb the event for an uninvited guest. Please leave or I will have to call the police." Jasmine replied.

Michael kept trying to reason with the manager; however, all his efforts were fruitless. Finally, he got fed up and called Jennifer.

" Michael, where have you been? We are waiting for you." Jennifer replied. She had told all the executives that Michael would come; therefore, everyone was waiting to meet him.

" I am outside, but I am being stopped by the manager." Michael replied.

Jasmine heard the conservation but thought that Michael was just pranking her. She snorted and turned around.

Jennifer understood; Michael was being held up because he did not have an invitation. She immediately walked downstairs to the front door and spotted Michael. He was holding a plethora of envelopes and small gifts.

" Please let him in. I asked him to come." Jennifer spoke to Manager Jasmine.

" Oh, Im sorry I didn't know that he worked at Eminence Gaming." Jasmine hurriedly apologized to Jennifer and signaled the security guard.

" No, You were right. I don't work at Eminence Gaming; I own it." Michael replied and walked in.

Jennifer smiled and followed Michael.

Jasmine was so astonished her jaws nearly hit the floor. She was waiting for the CEO to call him out on the lie. But then she saw Jennifer following him without refuting the statement and felt her heart sink. So much for first impressions!

Michael walked to the conference room and greeted everyone. Then he started handing out the presents.

The executives were all surprised; Michael bought a custom present for everyone and greeted them by their full names when handing them out. The presents did not look cheap. They were initially worried about working for a single owner company but now they believed that their boss cared about them.

Jennifer was filled with smiles when she saw Michael handing out presents to everyone. She felt like the company culture at Eminence gaming was much better compared to all the other corporations. Everyone cared about each other and Michael never bossed people around. She was looking forward to another year at this record-breaking company.

Michael spent the entire night with all the employees. He wished them well and drove back home. He did not finish giving out holiday gifts. Michael never forgot about ER games and what they did to his company. He still had to arrange a special gift for them.