Asset Management: Prologue

Judy stared at the documents in front of her.

All assets to include workforce.  She blinked. She’d never seen that clause before.

“Is there an issue?” The loan officer was sitting back behind his desk, the obsidian surface gleaming under the office lights. He was so painfully generic that Judy didn’t even really remember his name.

“Including the workforce?” Judy asked.

“Well, you can’t expect me to take this risk for an empty building with some computers in it, now can you?”

“This is—“   Judy paused. She needed that loan. Her entire company did, after they’d lost the Connerston case. Six lawyers, 12 paralegals and staff…

And what the hell was “all assets to include workforce?” It wasn’t like they could be forced to do that. In fact…

This is a picture perfect definition of an unconscionable contract! If they tried to enforce free labor out of her or her company, it’d be perfect to get the whole thing thrown out!

“What else do I have to do, prick my finger?”

The loan officer smirked and shook his head. “Too untidy. No all we need is your signature…” he glanced at her, “as well as the signature of every one of your employees.”

Judy didn’t say anything, but nodded. Not that it will help in front of a court…  You couldn’t just sign any rights away.

“Please read the contract,” the officer said. “It’s a silly little thing, but we require that every person working with us, make it clear that they fully understand the contract, and the implications, and are signing it of their free and uncoerced will.”

“Sure,” Judy said. “We’ll do that!”

She stared at the writing, the last clause in some kind of old-fashioned script. Judy knew that trick. Make everything look super official so the people would assume it was actually enforceable.

Judy smirked at that.

She was a lawyer, just like him.

But even so, appearances had to be maintained. Judy looked down at the writing, and started reading it…

I hereby declare that I am signing this document with no coercion, and that I fully understand all of potential consequences. I understand that I make this irrecoverable decision of my own free will.

She smirked as she kept reading it. Someone went to a lot of effort on this. But she signed the document and then smiled.

“We are done?”

“So long as you maintain the terms of the agreement,” the loan officer said. He smiled. “So long as you get every other member of your corporation to sign. It’s important to have all, ah, assets on board.”

Judy didn’t even bother to get offended at the comparison. This check was going to pull them right out of debt and set them on the path to the big leagues!

*****

And we are back! Trying a slightly more realistic AI art style for this one, let me know what you think. Legal boilerplate: All images are AI generated and any resemblance to individuals living or dead is unintentional.