A nna sat down at her desk, excited but nervous at the same
time. It was her first day at her new job at Fisher Holdings, and
her new coworker Chuck sat down next to her to explain her job
duties. Chuck looked to be in his mid-twenties, around Anna’s age,
and seemed like a really nice guy. Anna was glad to have somebody
her age at the office; at her last job she’d been the youngest by
far. She jotted down some notes, but the job seemed pretty
straightforward—as an Executive Assistant, her role was to support
the CEO, Brian Fisher. This mostly involved setting up his meetings
with clients, making some phone calls on his behalf, and responding
to emails in his inbox.
Chuck went on and explained that he
used to support Brian, but now that Anna was starting, he would be
supporting their CFO. “I asked to be switched,” he
clarified.
“Why did you ask to be
switched?”
“Because Brian is an…,” Chuck stopped
upon seeing the worried look come across Anna’s face. “I mean,
nothing, nothing, you’ll be fine!” Anna still didn’t look
reassured. “You’ll be good,” Chuck said hurriedly, “I’ll be at my
desk if you have any questions.” And he walked off.
Ok, Anna thought to herself, I can do
this. So what if Chuck doesn’t like Brian? That doesn’t necessarily
mean he’ll be terrible to work for.
She started in on a few emails and
phone calls, and was able to get a hold of a few clients and
schedule meetings for Brian. She pulled up Brian’s calendar on her
computer screen, and even though she’d expected him to be busy, she
was shocked to see how booked his schedule was, from early morning
often late into the night.
Is this guy always working? Anna
thought to herself as she looked for a time to squeeze in the
client meetings.
“How’s it going, Anna?” Her manager,
Julie, had come to check in on her. Julie was a friendly, bubbly
woman in her late forties. Anna showed Julie the meetings she’d set
up and her progress in going through Brian’s many unread emails.
“That’s great!” said Julie, “You’re really getting the hang of this
quickly. But you’ll have to confirm the meetings with Brian. You’ve
probably already figured out that he doesn’t open all of his
calendar invitations. You’ll have to try him on his phone. Maybe
email. It’ll be good for you to introduce yourself to him anyway,
get to know each other a little.”
“Yes, sounds good, thanks Julie!” Anna
smiled and picked up the phone. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt a
rush of nerves as she dialed Brian’s number. Maybe it was what
Chuck said earlier. Anna didn’t need to be nervous though, because
Brian didn’t answer. She left a voicemail briefly introducing
herself and mentioning the meetings she set up, then also sent an
email with a similar message, just in case. And then she waited.
She glanced at her phone. She had a few texts from her mom, her
sister, and her best friend, all asking her how her new job was
going. Anna responded. Then she sent a few more emails and made a
few more phone calls to clients.
Before she knew it, it was 4:30, and
still no reply from Brian. Anna looked across the room to where
Chuck sat. He was chatting away happily on the phone. When he hung
up, Anna walked over and explained that she’d tried to contact
Brian but still hadn’t heard back.
“Typical!” Chuck said. “Don’t worry
about it, you’ve done your job, you don’t have to wait around to
talk to him. We get to go home at 5. Brian isn’t one to want to
chat anyway.”
“Can you tell me more about him?” Anna
prodded. She wanted to find out why Chuck didn’t like Brian. Was he
really that bad?
“Oh, well, you know. He’s the CEO of
the company so I guess he just… knows he’s important,” Chuck said,
smirking slightly. “He’s not too much older than us, either. He’s
like, 35. But you’d never know it from talking to him. I was
shocked when I saw him in person for the first time. He only
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