A Management Technique (Patreon)

Another caption set commissioned by an anonymous Patron, who also generated these AI images for it.

"What more of a story could there be?" Sydney rolled her eyes. "Seems pretty self-explanatory to me."

"Really?" her boss, Mildred sniffed. "You think a whole office full of adult women just agreed to start wearing diapers? And allow that knowledge to be public information?"

Syd gave a little shrug. "That part is strange," she admitted. "I assume the article is because somebody found out and they wanted to get ahead of it."

"And I think," Mildred countered, "it indicates that somebody found out, and they thought they could turn an expose into a human interest story about some special new management technique for raising productivity."

"I guess it's possible," Sydney said. 

"We aren't going to take the bait," Mildred told her. "I want to know what's actually going on."

Sydney wished she could tell her that, in that case, she should go investigate herself, but this was her job... It just wasn't the sort of thing that interested her. What could be behind it, other than somebody deciding they'd get more done with fewer bathroom breaks? If anything, them giving it more attention would lead to other companies starting to do the same, and Syd didn't want to encourage that.

Regardless, Mildred had already set up a job interview for her, sending her in like any other prospective employee. The woman she spoke with, Esther, seemed nice enough, even if a lot of the questions she asked were vague. Syd, for the most part, couldn't help staring at the lady's rear, to the point where, when Esther inquired if she had any questions, she knew she had to address it.

"So," Sydney blushed, "I did see this article about this place, and I have to wonder..."

"Oh, yes," Esther chuckled, sliding down her skirt, revealing a thick, plastic diaper underneath it. "It is true... Our policy is not to discuss it until the second interview, but now that that's out there, there isn't much reason to hide it... And I'm confident you're going to make it to the next round anyway."

Syd squirmed in her seat, feeling far more embarrassed for the woman than she appeared to be for herself. The diaper was so big, so puffy... She was shocked it had fit beneath Esther's skirt, that even she - an investigator, someone trained to notice tiny details - hadn't been certain if it was there or not. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as she'd feared...

To her surprise, she met with the CEO, Kalista Turner, on her next interview. "Esther was very impressed with you," she said. "And looking at your resume, I think you'll be an excellent fit."

"Thank you," Syd told her politely. "I am a little worried about the whole diaper thing, though..."

"No need," Kalista brushed her off. "It's optional."

"Wait, it is?" Sydney frowned. "I thought I read..."

"Oh, not wearing them," Kalista smiled. "That is mandatory... You can choose whether you want to use them or not, however. We still have restrooms. Here, let me show you." Sydney dutifully followed her out of her office, into what was undoubtedly a bathroom, perfectly normal other than the two of them being the only people there as Syd walked around, peering into the stalls, seeing that there were, indeed, toilets there, with water in them and everything.

"But then why...?" Syd shook her head, even more confused now.

"Trust me, dear, it's for the best."

Sydney wasn't sure whether she could do that or not, though this news made the whole thing feel less nefarious to her. She almost wanted to just tell Mildred that, kill this story before it went any further, but Kalista offered her the job then and there, and she had to take it anyway, in case Mildred did want to know more.

"Wonderful," Kalista said. "Can you come in tomorrow to start training?"

"It doesn't seem all that weird," Sydney told Mildred. "I mean, they do have to wear diapers, yes, but that's it."

Mildred raised an eyebrow. "That's not weird enough for you?"

Sydney's cheeks darkened. "W-Well, yeah," she admitted. "But..."

"We should at least see how optional they actually are," Mildred pointed out. "Give it a day or two, and if you're still confident there's nothing there, we'll pull out."

When she arrived at the office for training, Esther immediately led her to one of the bathrooms, though a different one than the one by Kalista's office, this one having been converted into a changing room, a series of oversized changing tables instead of stalls. Sydney froze, seeing that there were no walls between them, no privacy as the women in there already cheerfully hopped up onto them, allowing themselves to be wiped, powdered, and diapered by a few ladies dressed as nurses before walking out in their shirts and diapers.

"W-Wait, why aren't they...?" Syd looked up at Esther uncertainly.

"Oh, that's a new rule," Esther said. "We were having problems with leaking, so now we go without skirts or pants so everybody can help keep an eye on everyone else."

"B-But..." Sydney blushed, squirming. "Don't they know when they're about to leak?"

"It can be tricky," Esther shrugged. "You'll see. Go on, it's your turn."

Syd shuffled up to the empty changing table anxiously, getting a reassuring smile from the nurse before being helped up onto it, her skirt and panties quickly removed and replaced with a thick, crinkly diaper. She felt absolutely ridiculous, sitting up, feeling the bulky padding beneath her bottom, thinking about leaving this room dressed this way. "C-Can I have my skirt back?" she asked the nurse.

"When you leave this afternoon," the woman promised. "In fact, I'm afraid I need to search your bag."

"M-My bag?" Sydney shook her head, but the nurse was surprisingly strong, pulling her bag away, finding the pair of black pants she'd hidden in there.

"That's smart," she was praised. "Better safe than sorry... I'll have to keep these, though."

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Esther asked gently. "The nurses are always there to help make changes more quick and efficient, so any time you need one, you can go to them."

"I-I won't," Syd insisted. "I-I mean, I won't need one... I-I can still use the restroom, right?"

"Of course," Esther assured her.

As Sydney discovered, after a couple hours of watching mind-numbingly boring videos in the training room, however, most of the bathrooms were changing rooms, without a toilet in sight. The only one that was normal was the one Kalista had shown her, and Syd barely made it there - once checking all the others - and got her diaper down, before she started to pee, and was late getting back to the training room.

"You see?" Esther told her. "That's why the diapers are so useful."

"But if..." Syd pouted, still a little shaken up and embarrassed by her near-miss, by having been a moment away from wetting her diaper like a baby. 

"No buts," Esther scolded. "Come on, you're already running behind, young lady... You have a lot of training to finish up before the end of the day."

Syd preferred to wait, to get to know the subject of her stories a bit more, but this whole place seemed off somehow, so she decided she was going to see if she could finish up that day, and never have to go back. It would have been nice to have her full black outfit for sneaking around... Unfortunately, her pants had been confiscated, and she was afraid if she went back to pick them up, she'd be escorted outside from there and lose her chance.

It felt silly, then, taking off her button-up to reveal the black shirt she'd worn underneath, having it paired with the mostly white diaper, though it did help get her back into the proper mindset for what she was doing. Hiding was no problem... The sole actual bathroom was a ghost town, and after she ducked inside at the end of the day, nobody even bothered to come in to clean it, or check if anyone was inside. All she had to do was wait for the sounds outside to die down, then slip out and into Kalista's office.

She'd been paying attention during her interview, watching while the woman logged into her computer, and was relatively certain she could figure out her password to get in; she was right. After only a couple attempts, she was in, smirking as she was faced with her desktop, and the strange, swirling pattern of the wallpaper.... She did her best to look past that, to start poking around, but she kept being drawn back to the pattern, her mind growing fuzzy while her diaper began to grow warm and mushy beneath her without her realizing it...

She blinked, head clearing enough for her to realize her shirt was gone, that she was wearing only her diaper... And that it was very definitely used, to her disgust, her nose wrinkling as she writhed, heart racing at the feeling of something solid clamped around her wrists, her neck, trapping her in place. Was that a pillory?!

"Let me out!" she called helplessly into the darkness. "Somebody?"

There was no answer for just long enough to make Syd worry she would be trapped here forever, until, finally, a door opened, and somebody stepped inside. "Well, well, well," Kalista clicked her tongue. "I'm very disappointed in you, Sydney. You couldn't even wait a full week for your training to be complete?"

"Wh-What did you do?" Syd whimpered. "I-I..."

"There's nothing on my computer that you need to see," Kalista told her. "I had a feeling you might be curious, though, so I had Esther start your training by implanting the triggers that would go off if you saw that picture on my computer. It's hard to do much investigating when you're busy filling your diapers, isn't it, sweetie?"

Sydney blushed, wiggling her bottom. "I-I was just..."

"It's all right," Kalista cooed. "Honestly, I was secretly hoping for this anyway. Having you write a nice little first-hand article about our new managing technique would have been nice and all, but you are so cute, especially in your diapers..." She reached out, grabbing Sydney by the chin, lifting her head up to look her in the eye.

Sydney gulped. "Wh-What are you going to do to me?" she squeaked.

"You are going to be the new face for our little technique... And for the adult diaper brand we'll be launching specifically for it. I think that's going to be an even more compelling story, a reporter who came to expose us, only to be so enamored by it that she quit her job to become a spokeswoman for us, and the star of all our diaper ads, and commercials, always so eager to tell everyone how much she loves them..."

"But I don't!" Sydney wailed. "They're so gross, and..."

Kalista reached into her pocket, taking out a remote and hitting a button on it, the wall in front of Syd's eyes flickering to life, revealing itself as a screen, showing the same pattern as on her desktop, right where the pillory was forcing her to look. By the time she thought to just close her eyes, she realized she couldn't, as the static began to take over her mind again, diaper warming as her bladder began to trickle helplessly.

"You'd better learn to pretend, then," Kalista told her, pausing the video, letting Syd snap back to reality. "Or we'll continue your training until you really do love them... And can't remember how to go potty anywhere other than in them."

Sydney was trapped, and not just in the pillory. If she tried to tell the truth, to get the real article out, surely Kalista would find some way to punish her, to hypnotize her into diapered oblivion. At least now, so long as she behaved herself, she had some control... All she could do was agree, do her very best to act pleased about this, let her face - and her padded posterior - be plastered all over magazines and billboards, and hope that one day, some other investigator would get suspicious, and do a better job than her of exposing Kalista's scheme... And that, by then, she wouldn't be too far gone to go back to her old life.