Brianna stared at the screen, hearing her coworkers throw around terms like "pivot tables" and "data visualization" as if they were discussing the weather. She had no clue what any of them meant.
"So we'll run the numbers through the algorithm and- oh, Brianna, you'll do the quarterly reports with the new system, right?"
"Uh? Uhmm.. yeah! Sure thing, Derek."
The meeting recessed and the group disbanded, talking metrics and KPIs. Brianna was still wedged in her chair, attempting to fake being absorbed in her notes. She'd been bluffing her way through these tech meetings for months now.
Three weeks ago, the company had announced that they were "going digital" with everything. Everyone else, it appeared, had been waiting years for this to happen. Everyone but Brianna.
She'd been at Meridian Insurance for twelve years, same desk, same routine. Then overnight everything changed and she felt like she'd woken up in a different world.
"Hey Bri, you coming to lunch?"
Tessa was standing at her cubicle, laptop bag over her shoulder. Even Tessa, twenty-four and only there for two years, seemed to know everything about the new systems.
"I'll catch up with you guys later. I just need to finish something here."
Tessa shrugged and left.
Brianna waited for the office to empty, then opened her computer. She spotted "Excel." At least that name was familiar. But when it opened, there were buttons and things everywhere that definitely weren't there previously. Charts, graphs, something called "Power Query" - when did Excel become so complicated?
Her phone rang. Thank God, something she at least knew how to handle.
"Meridian Insurance, this is Brianna."
"Hi, I'm calling to inquire about my claim status. I filed it through your website but I'm not receiving any status updates."
Brianna opened the company website and fumbled around blindly. "Let me, uh- can you tell me your policy number?"
"Sure, it's 4-4-7-8-9-2-1. Should be in your system under Rodriguez."
Brianna plugged the numbers into each search box she could find. Nothing came up. She tried variations but still nothing.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Rodriguez, our system is a bit slow today. Can I have one of our technical staff call you back?"
"This is my third call on this. What's going on there?"
"I do understand your frustration, I really do. Someone will call you back within the hour, for sure."
She slammed the receiver down and wrote "Rodriguez - claim status - URGENT" on a sticky note, which she slapped on her monitor next to some fifteen others exactly like it.
At 3 PM, Brianna had eight additional sticky notes and a growing sense of desperation on her desk. Derek passed by.
"How's the quarterly report?"
"Good, good. Wrapping it up."
He got a glimpse of her screen, which was on the company home page. "Starting from the beginning, huh? Need any assistance with the templates?"
"Templates? No, I'm fine. Just verifying some numbers."
Derek nodded, looking puzzled. "Alright, just keep in mind it's due tomorrow morning. The board presentation is at nine."
After he'd left, Brianna dug her face into her hands. Tomorrow morning. Board presentation. She was completely screwed.
Guess the sentence: "Need any help with the templates?".
She'd missed all the training sessions for the new systems. When HR sent out emails about "Digital Transformation Workshops" or "Cloud-Based Solutions Seminars," she'd deleted them. She figured she could learn it as she went along and pick it up naturally like she always did.
This was not a new phone system to learn or extensions to memorize, though.
People started packing up around 4:30. Brianna faked working until the office was nearly empty, then walked over to Tessa's station.
"Hey, um- you got a minute?"
Tessa looked up from her laptop. "What's up?"
Brianna took a breath. "I need help. Like, real help. I have no idea how to work any of these new systems and I've been more or less flying by the seat of my pants for weeks."
Tessa's eyebrows went up. "Wait, seriously? But you've been here forever. I figured you knew all this stuff better than anyone."
"That's the problem. I've been doing it the same way for so long that when everything changed, I just I got left behind."
Tessa closed her laptop and swung her chair around to face Brianna. "Okay, first question - did you miss all the training sessions?"
"I may have missed some of them. Okay, okay, I missed all of them. They just seemed so boring and I thought I could pick it up myself."
"Man, Bri. They covered everything in those sessions. The new database, the reporting package, the customer portal. That's months of training you missed."
Brianna's face was blazing now. "I know, I know. I'm an idiot. But I need to figure out how to do this quarterly report by tomorrow morning or Derek's going to find out I don't know what I'm doing."
Tessa glanced around the empty office. "Alright, sit down. I'll give you the essentials, but this is going to be a crash course. You're going to have to actually pay attention this time."
Over the course of the next two hours, Tessa guided Brianna through the customer database, showed her how to generate reports, outlined the difference between pivot tables and regular tables, walked her through the online portal that customers used to track their claims.
It was a lot. Brianna would pause every other minute and be like, "Wait, go back. How'd you do that part again?"
Tessa was trying to be patient, but Brianna could tell she was being frustrated by having to repeat the same concepts over and over.
"Come on, I know it's a lot," said Tessa around 6:30. "But the thing is, most of this is really intuitive once you get it. You're just getting in your own head because you left it so long to learn it."
"Uh-huh, well, when you put it that way it sounds even worse."
"I didn't mean it that way. I simply meant you're acting like this is rocket science and it's not. You handled much more complicated things with the old system. Remember when you used to have to calculate all of those premium adjustments manually? This is easier than that, you just need to get accustomed to the interface."
They labored on until almost 8 PM. By the time they were done, Brianna was able to come up with something that could pass off as a quarterly report. The numbers were right, the graphs made sense, and she'd even figured out how to make it visually pleasing so that it did not shout amateur.
"Sure this is okay?" she asked for the fifth time.
"It's alright, Bri. More than alright, actually. Derek's going to be impressed."
Brianna shut the file and saved it in three places. "I don't know how I allowed myself to get this behind. Everyone else does this like it's nothing."
"Because everyone else has had months of experience working with these systems. You're comparing your day one with their day hundred. Of course it seems hard."
The next morning, Brianna arrived early and printed out her report. She'd even prepared notes with step-by-step instructions for customer portal access in the event any calls came in with questions.
The board presentation went smoothly. Derek gave her the quarterly figures hassle-free, and the board members all seemed happy with the information. Afterwards, he stopped by her desk.
"Good work on the report, Brianna. Nice neat presentation of facts. I especially liked how you broke down the regional performance metrics."
She had no idea what regional performance metrics were but smiled and thanked him.
As lunchtime drew near, her phone rang. Yet another client calling about a claim status. This time, instead of panic, Brianna logged into the portal and typed in the policy number. The customer details appeared front and center immediately.
"I can see your claim right here, Mrs. Luke. It looks like it was processed yesterday and a check was mailed this morning. You should receive it within three business days."
"Oh great! Thanks a lot. Whoever I talked to last week couldn't find anything in the system."
As she hung up, Brianna knew that was probably her last week.
Over the next few days, she grew more at ease with the fundamentals. She could pull up customer records, print out basic reports, even debug minor issues with the web interface.
The following Tuesday, there was a second email from HR promoting a training class - "Advanced Analytics and Forecasting Tools." This time, instead of deleting it, Brianna signed up.
The class was every bit as boring as she'd expected, but she forced herself to pay attention. She took notes, asked questions when she didn't understand something, and labored over the exercises until they made sense.
Afterward, she ran into Tessa in the break room.
"How was the analytics workshop?" Tessa asked.
"Painful, but useful. I finally learned how to make those forecast models Derek's always talking about."
"Look at you, becoming a data guru."
Brianna laughed. "I wouldn't go that far. But at least I don't have a clue less anymore."
"What's funny is, I'd bet half the people in this office felt the same way when the systems first switched over. You just didn't see them flailing because everyone pretends like they know what they're doing."
"Maybe. I just don't like that I wasted so much time being stubborn about it."
"Better late than never, right?"
"Hmm," she smiled.
>>> Images were generated with Meta AI.
