Rachel was awaken by the ceaseless and quite disturbing vibration of her phone. With her blindfold still on her face, she meandered her hands, looking for where the phone was after it rang for the umpteenth time. A lazy peep at the phone screen showed that it was Franca from work.
"what is it Franca? My shift starts in the afternoon" she said sounding tired and grumpy.
"get to the office now, the boss wants a meeting with with all the staff in the next 10 minutes" a stern voice echoed from the other side of the phone sounding more like an order than a request.
"the boss like John?" Rachel asked confused
"no, the boss like his father" Franca replied and then dropped the call..
Rachel jerked up from bed immediately, and dived into the shower. Within minutes she was out of the house and on her way to the office. She was still a fresh graduate and wasn't ready to be a victim of whatever was going on in the office that made the otherwise jovial Franca to sound like a grumpy grandmother.
Mr Francis was furious, scanning the conference hall and looking at bowed heads with no one seemingly ready to give him an explanation as to why the company lost their bid for the road construction project, even after he had secured assurances from the ministry that all the needed to do was submit a bid and they would be awarded the contract.
"has everyone in this room turned dumb or have you all suddenly lost your tongues?" he shouted as the conference room door opened and a somewhat petite lady walked in with hairband in hand still trying to pack her hair.
"And you are?" Mr Francis switched his attention to her as she tiptoed to a seat by the table.
"Rachel sir. I'm new" she replied
Mr Francis just ignored her response as if she had not even said anything or perhaps she shouldn't be there and continued with his verbal outburst with the other staff. Rachel looked around the room and it looked like a grave side with everyone looking at the floor and unable to help the situation.
She was surprised because everyone knew who was responsible for the loss of the bid, but apparently they were all scared to speak up. She had a scan around the room again and the sight made her feel like a coward that she has never been, so she raised her hand to speak. Reluctantly, Mr Francis recognized her as 'the new girl' to speak.
"thank you sir" she began "First of all, let me apologize on behalf of the team which I'm part of for losing our bid for the contract. But then I know that all of us in this room know why we lost that contract, so I'm surprised that no one is speaking up"
This ilicited disdainful, surprised and warning stares from most around the table. But Rachel did not care and continued as if she did not notice any of them.
"The reason we lost that contract was because we submitted our bid behind time and that was because the manager was not on seat to sign the necessary documents." she continued "Every time I called him, he'll just tell me that he's coming, but would never show. He only showed up on the deadline and before the papers could be signed and submitted to the ministry, the time had elapsed" she added leaving the decision making to the company owner.
Everyone was shocked that this new girl would have the audacity to criticize the company owner's son, who also doubled as the manager so openly and to his father. John the manager who had been quiet and unconcerned all through the meeting turned red instantly, staring furiously at Rachel as if he wanted to leap on her and devour her.
"Is this true?" Mr Francis asked sounding surprised. That was when the others started speaking up one by one about John's incompetence. Mr Francis knew he had to be careful in his actions as John wasn't just his manager but also his son.
Few days later it was announced that John has been transferred to another of his father's companies while Rachel got promoted to head the new project team and report directly to both the new manager and Mr Francis. She became the talk of the company, and was known as the new girl who has the owner's ears.
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