This close-up shows the patio housing the employee cafe. Because of the success of the company, executives originally planned the cafe to be completely free for employees. Unfortunately, it was found that the employees would rush down to the the cafe on every break and load up on as much food as possible. Employees would become obese and tired and slack off on their duties. Because of this, the company started charging market prices for items in the cafe. Even this did not seem to deter the binging behavior of the employees. Finally, the prices were set to twice market-value. This keeps employees eating reasonable meals. The high prices do not really harm the employees because Octan salaries are exceptionally high.
| This view
shows the accounting department.
Employees are busy keeping track of the huge profits the company is making. |
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| This is the operations center. From this room a single employee can monitor all the oil drilling and processing facilities owned by the company. |  |
| This is
the office of oil exploration. On the right an expert geologist
pours over massive amounts of computer data in order to find possible new
locations for oil. Information is collected from satellites as well
as ground research.
On the left is the CEO's son performing his research. The son was supposed to grow up and go to business school, but he decided he didn't like school and instead became interested in mysticism. He now claims to be a skilled psychic. The son spends his days going over ancient texts and peering into his crystal ball. He has made numerous suggestions for oil exploration, all of which have turned out to be false. The son claims that the "nerd" across the room is giving off bad "vibes" and interrupting the aura in the room. |
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| This is
the office of corporate communications. Normally, such an office is
devoted to marketing a company's image. However, the name is
misleading in Octan's case. This office serves a much more nefarious
purpose.
In Octan's office, the communication is between Octan and its biggest competitor, Shell (notice the Shell emblem on the woman's shirt on the right). Periodically, these two companies meet in secret. They make various agreements such as mutual price increases, and ensuring that plants from both companies are "accidentally" shut down for maintenance at the same time (cutting supply and increasing prices). |
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