Chris leaned back in his chair, surrounded by skeptical faces. This was the fifth meeting about the new VoIP system, and tensions were high. The company had been using the same clunky desk phones since The Matrix came out, but change was a four-letter word around here.
At the table were the usual suspects:
- Accounting’s Steve, who seemed allergic to spending money.
- HR’s Linda, who had perfected the art of worrying.
- Sales’ Debra, the loudest voice and most resistant to anything new.
- And then, there was Barry, the department’s fresh-faced wildcard.
“This is going to cost how much?” Steve asked, pushing his glasses up his nose. “And what’s wrong with the current phones?”
Chris pulled up his PowerPoint, determined to make his case. “The current phones drop calls, have no voicemail integration, and half the buttons don’t work. Plus, VoIP will save us money in the long run.”
Barry chimed in, “I just use my cell phone for everything.”
Debra shot him a glare. “That’s not professional, Barry.”
Linda wrung her hands. “What if people don’t know how to use the new system? This could cause so much stress.”
Chris had heard it all before. Calmly, he flipped to a slide with colorful graphs showing the cost savings. Then, he hit them with his trump card: a video featuring Morgan Freeman (or at least a decent impression) narrating the benefits of modern communication.
“Wow,” Barry whispered. “That’s convincing.”
Slowly, the room began to shift. Steve begrudgingly agreed to the budget after seeing the savings over five years. Linda accepted Chris’s offer to run training sessions. Even Debra seemed to soften—though she did insist her phone must have all the bells and whistles.
Chris left the meeting victorious, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was the easy part.