Page 7 of September
“Hey, sweetie,” she greeted when the cat rubbed herself over Gwen’s legs. “How are you?” Gwen picked her up, and the cat rubbed against her cheek. “Animals are just better than people. How are you so sweet?” The cat began purring. “How about some treats? Did you eat all your food today?”
Gwen checked the food and water bowls, cleaned the litter box, and gave the cat a few of the allowed treats. Then, she sat on the floor and used the string toy with the little fake fish attached at one end and played with her, trying not to think about how lonely she was and probably would be for a while.
CHAPTER 3
Yesterday, she’d been told that Jordana had gotten herself fired, and today, she was sitting in the office of the corporate director of training. Jordana had been responsible for three trainers, so it was likely they had all met with him in person. Why she hadn’t been called or, at least, emailed personally about Jordana’s departure right after it happened had Juliet a little concerned, though. Now, she was sitting in the guest chair, waiting for him to end a call and wishing he had just told her to come back later when he was off the phone, because she was nervous that they might be considering some kind of restructuring that could cost Juliet her job.
“Juliet, I’m sorry,” he said as he put his cell phone down on the table. “My daughter has a presentation today at school, and she hates public speaking. Her teacher said she wouldn’t do her presentation without talking to me first.” He smiled at Juliet. “She’s seven. It’s a presentation about the rainforest.”
“No problem,” she replied.
“Well, I know you’ve heard about Jordana’s departure.”
“I did, yeah.”
“Well, we’re still working through all of the details. It was pretty unexpected, as you can imagine.”
“Oh? Was it?” Juliet pretended not to know any of the details.
“There’s no way the gossip mill hasn’t reached you yet.” He gave her a glare that was half-playful and half-serious. “I’m sure most of the company knows what happened by now.”
“I heard it was… unexpected,” she said, using his word.
He laughed a little and replied, “You’re right about that. It’s possible we’ll have a lawsuit on our hands, but honestly, I’m not exactly surewhowould be suing us. The roaster quit on his own, so I don’t think he can sue us for anything, but he might try sexual harassment. Then again, we had no idea what was going on, and as soon as we did, we took action. The woman who harassedhimis pregnant withhischild, and from what I’ve heard, they’re going to make a go of it. So, not sure that lawsuit would hold water.” He sighed. “It’s an absolute mess, and I apologize you didn’t hear about it from me. I was out on vacation the day it happened and only found out about it myself when I checked my messages on Saturday. I didn’t want to ruin your weekend with this, and I’ve been in all-day meetings pretty much ever since to try to figure out how to best handle this mess.”
“It’s okay. I understand,” she said.
“So, let’s get to it, then. Jordana had three trainers under her and was on her way to getting my job when I leave, which won’t be tomorrow, but as we continue to expand, chances are good that I’ll be promoted or move somewhere. We’ll have to grow the team intentionally to make sure we have proper coverage. I say all this because I want you to know that there will be growth opportunities in the future.”
If he was telling her about the possibility of growth in the future, that meant there was no growth right now. That meant she wasn’t getting Jordana’s job. It was disappointing because she had allowed herself to be hopeful, but as long as they didn’t hire a bad boss to replace Jordana, she could be okay with thatfor now. Only for now, though. She had growing of her own to do, and she didn’t want to be held back by any one company.
“We’ve been talking about how to handle all of Jordana’s responsibilities,” he continued. “Since she got here before the major expansion of the past few years, her role was a unique one. We’ve been discussing how it might make sense to alter it now.”
“Oh,” Juliet said, not sure what he was saying but wanting to at least participate in the conversation.
“So, instead of hiring someone for the exact role or promoting someone into it, we’re going to make a change. I’d like to promote you to a new role that we’re creating called regional trainer. Jordana was regional training manager, but we’ve decided that we don’t need anyone to take on the role of manager since there are only three of you, and I have two direct reports, so I can handle three more. The goal would be for you to take on her training responsibilities but not the people management ones.”
“You want me to train the whole region?”
“It’s not exactly what you’re doing now. We’ll take the two other district trainers and have them split the new-hire training classes between them. They’ll schedule two classes a month and each teach one. We’ll hire in each district once a month, barring some mass departure of roasters, and have one of them do another class. Whenever they’re not teaching new hires, they’ll do one of the sales courses you and Jordana worked on together for our more high-potential roasters.”
“So, I wouldn’t be doing new-hire classes anymore?”
“Not unless you have to cover for someone. You’d be hosting the manager and leadership training courses that Jordana used to teach, and you would do the sales class for all the store managers and new openings. Jordana had been doing the new opening training for all the stores outside of her region, so we didn’t have to staff someone just for that, and I’d want youto continue that until we get to the point where we’re opening too many stores, and you can’t. We’ll figure that out then,” he replied.
“Oh, okay.” Juliet nodded, trying to take it all in. “So, I’d be traveling like Jordana was?”
“You would. I know you’re traveling from store to store now, but you’re able to go home at night. Jordana’s role included travel seventy-five percent of the time, but she chose to travel for pretty much a hundred percent. She needed to be in the office at least one day a month for meetings, but she could take those from home or on the road if she wanted to. I don’t really care if someone’s in here or in a virtual meeting. The new role we’re making would include one hundred percent travel, but we’re putting that on there because if we were to hire someone externally, we would want to be upfront with them about the travel requirements and possibilities. If you take the role, it would be closer to that seventy-five or eighty percent. You’d be making your own schedule based on the training needs and store openings, so as long as you’re teaching enough classes to get everyone through them on time, I don’t care if you travel fifty percent one month and a hundred the next.”
“That’s a lot of travel,” she said mostly to herself.
“I know. But there’s a raise, obviously, and we pay for everything, including a company car, should you want one. If you don’t, we’ll pay for mileage on your own car. The money will end up being more, and with all your costs essentially covered three weeks of the month, you’ll have few expenses, so it will be even more in the end.”
She nodded, trying to think about what he had just said. Juliet wasn’t sure if this role was what she wanted. She had never given much thought to moving up in training. The plan had been for her to be here until a role in HR presented itself, but when one had, they had gone external instead of letting herinterview. She understood. Her certifications had lapsed, and they had needed someone ready to go. She hadn’t gotten herself recertified yet, but maybe she should. As they continued to expand, more HR roles would become available, and she needed to be ready. Since she hadn’t planned to move up on this team, though, she hadn’t been thinking about what step would come next.
That next step would’ve been Jordana’s job, but it hadn’t looked like Jordana was ever going to leave, so Juliet hadn’t thought about whether or not she would even want it. It was the only role in training that was between Juliet and the man she sat in front of now, though, so if she didn’t take this job, she would probably never be able to take his should he leave or be promoted as the company continued to grow.
At first, training had only been okay in Juliet’s eyes; it was a way into the company, but she had grown to really like it. Then, she’d gotten bored with the new-hire training, and when the sales content had come along, it had reinvigorated her. Now, this role could give her a chance to continue to roll it out and to teach the well-regarded manager and leadership training courses she had always wanted to teach. It was just the travel that bugged her.
