15. Ana
CHAPTER 15
ANA
A fter Charles leaves, I have some time alone to continue getting situated. I explore the company server, and I’m setting up email inbox preferences when Jackie knocks on my open door. “What questions can I answer for you so far, Ana?”
“Oh, lots. C’mon in.”
Jackie looks less tired now as she sits down on one of the chairs, and I imagine that the caffeine must have gotten into her veins.
“Is there any sort of employee manual?”
Looking vaguely apologetic, she says, “No, there’s nothing like that. Things have been a bit like a runaway train here ever since I came aboard.”
“When was that?”
“A little over two years ago. And there have been three different HR managers here during that time.”
Inwardly, I wince. Maybe this is why Derek tracked me down and accepted my pie-in-the-sky salary request. “You’re not interested in the position?” I ask the older woman.
Jackie shakes her head. “No, ma’am. I’m happy working on payroll and benefits, and I’ll be even happier when I can retire in the next five years or so.”
Nodding, I say, “Makes sense. Why do you think there’s so much turnover here?”
Jackie bites her bottom lip, her head turning briefly toward the open door of my office. “There are some exit interviews in the files. I’ll find those for you and you can read for yourself.”
“Okay, I’d appreciate that. It won’t make any sense to hire people if they’re just going to turn around and leave in a few months.”
Jackie nods, and though she’d been frowning at our topic of discussion a moment ago, suddenly she starts to giggle. Immediately, she lifts her hand to cover her mouth, as if what she’s laughing about is inappropriate, but her laughter persists.
“What’s funny?”
Shaking her head, she wipes a tear from her watering eyes. “I shouldn’t be laughing. I really shouldn’t.”
My curiosity builds as I give her a moment to compose herself. Finally, her voice low but full of merriment, she says, “The last HR manager, Josh, he liked to eat. He was always snacking. On what turned out to be his last day here, Imani in customer service had brought in donuts for the office, and several of us were gathered in the break room enjoying the treats.
“Josh was in there, too. He was eating one donut, and he had another one on a plate, ready to take back to his office.” Jackie mimes this, holding an invisible donut to her mouth with one hand, and holding a plate with her other hand.
“Jansen came in just then, looking for his assistant, and when he spotted Josh, he barked out his name, startling Josh so much that he almost dropped the plate. The donut on the plate bounced up and luckily landed back where it belonged. Josh set both donuts down on a table while Jansen proceeded to give him a short but severe dressing down in front of everyone.”
I wince again, visibly this time, unable to imagine how embarrassing the man in front of everyone could have been called for. “What was it about?”
“Apparently, Jansen had tasked Josh with formalizing safety rules for the coffee shops, and Josh hadn’t met the deadline.”
“That’s it?”
“Maybe there was more he was unhappy with, because he had a lot of harsh things to say. So much so, that Josh quit on the spot, telling Jansen that today was going to be his last day. Jansen told him that he could leave immediately, and Josh pushed past all of us and headed right out the door.”
“What was funny about that?” I’m trying to keep a neutral expression for Jackie’s sake, but inside, I’m cringing and keeping a tally of all the things that are wrong with the scene she described.
“As we were standing there stunned and silent—there were maybe ten of us in the break room—Josh came barreling back in. He grabbed his plate of donuts and then left again without saying a word to anyone.” Jackie erupts into another fit of giggles, shaking her head at the memory.
That is kind of funny even though the overall situation isn’t funny at all. “They must have been good donuts,” I say.
Jackie gets a faraway look in her eyes. “They were, actually.”
“All of the HR managers coming and going must be hard on you.”
“It’s not ideal, that’s for sure.”
“I’ll be sure to find a good replacement before my six months are over.”
“Your what? Six months?”
“Derek and Jansen didn’t tell you? I’m just here on a short-term basis.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry to be yet another manager coming and going, but that’s the arrangement. ”
“We’ll, I’m sorry to hear that,” she says, her expression warm. “I like you already, Ana.”
“I bet you say that to all your HR managers,” I say, and we both crack up.
I eat my lunch in the break room, where I chat with the delicious-donut-buyer herself, Imani, and learn what things are like for her in customer service. Her department is shorthanded as well, but she doesn’t complain.
Derek and Jansen’s assistant, Gloria, comes in to make a fancy coffee as I’m leaving, but there’s no sign of the men themselves.
I spend a good portion of the afternoon looking through files, where I get an eyeful. The donut dasher was far from the first employee to leave without giving two weeks’ notice. Notably, there was an accountant whose only notice was to change his out-of-office message to “I am out of the office and don't plan on ever coming back.”
There are complaints about Jansen and Derek threaded through the files, things like “I don’t understand how men who do so much good can be such jerks” and “no amount of money is worth this stress.”
I definitely have my work cut out for me, and even though it’s daunting, it’s also a little bit thrilling. I think I can make a big difference here, if I can get some changes made at the top. The men are difficult, but surely they won’t be completely unreasonable when their business is on the line, right?
In preparation for meeting with them, I make a list of the positions that need to be filled, with notes on which might be best staffed by temporary or temp-to-hire employees for quickest results before I focus on the long-term hires.
I also start drafting a list of goals outside of staffing, including formulating some sort of official employee handbook. I don’t mind asking questions and exploring on my own, because I consider myself to be a self-starter, but some people do much better with structured orientation and training programs, and as Community Bean grows, it needs to have things like that in place.
I also make notes on preliminary ideas for making this a place where people enjoy working. Irritable bosses aside, building a sense of camaraderie could help people weather the stresses of a growing company.
As the hours pass by, I’m surprised that I haven’t seen Derek or Jansen all day, though maybe it’s for the best. The less I see of them, the easier it will be to keep my mind on business.
That point is proven when Derek knocks on my open door just after five-thirty, when I’m gathering my things to go home.
All he says is my name, but you’d have thought I just read a scene from one of my favorite romance books by the way my body responds to him.
I do my best to maintain my composure, but I’m sure he can see my heated cheeks and hear the huskiness in my voice when I greet him.
He closes the door behind him, and every inappropriate thing I’d already been feeling is amplified by a factor of sixty-nine, which is just a completely random number and bears no resemblance to what I’m thinking about right now.
“How was your day?” he asks.
On shaky legs, I stand and move around my desk, as if he’s hard, shiny steel and I’m a giant magnet, physically unable to resist getting closer to him. I do somehow manage to stop a couple of feet away, at a perfectly professional distance. “… Good. I didn’t think I was going to see you before I left.”
“I’ve been here all day.”
“Your door was closed. I didn’t want to bother you.”
He crosses the little safety zone I left between us with one long stride, and his hand goes to my ponytail, where he grasps it and gently tugs, tipping my head back so that I’m looking up at him, my face just inches from his crisp white dress shirt .
His eyes slowly descend from mine, down to my mouth, then my chest. “What color is your lingerie today?”
My heart is doing double time as I catch my breath and find my voice. “That isn’t an appropriate question for you to ask.”
His hand trails down the center of my back, where I’m sure he feels the strap of my bra through my shirt. “Are you going to report me to HR?”
I grin and draw on all my inner resources to take a step back from him. “I wasn’t joking. We can’t do this anymore.”
He stays where he is, and I’m glad, because if he touches me again, I’m not sure I have the strength to back up my words.
“I need to meet with you and Jansen to discuss my hiring plans,” I say, slipping back behind the safety of my desk and steadying my voice. “Are you available tomorrow?”
“Come see us as soon as you get in.” His eyes are full of heat, and I realize I’m holding my breath as I await his next move. When he opens my door and exits as smoothly as he entered, I can’t decide if I’m relieved or disappointed.