Married This Year 3: Adventures In Hiring

by Tracey Pedersen

  If she didn’t know better, she would swear he was doing it on purpose.

  They planned to spend the afternoon looking at the audit trails of the accounting department and once again, he’d insisted she be included as well as the one remaining staff member from accounts. Whatever he was up to, she was determined to say nothing and remain professional at all times. In a few months he’d be gone.

  She entered the conference room and watched as he hastily switched his phone off and slipped it into his pocket.

  Just like old times.

  “How many applications do we have?”

  “Tonnes. We’ve split them up by role but there’s still a lot to sift through. Plenty will be completely unsuitable but you said you wanted to see all of them so here they are. Jenny printed all the online applications and she’s split them into the different positions. What do you want first?”

  “First I want the ones for the HR assistant. I want your staff sorted out so you can apply yourself to more appropriate tasks. Jenny seems like she’s a great help but I can see she’s here late each night, too.”

  “I don’t need your favouritism. Mine can wait.”

  He pulled the pile she indicated toward him. “NO, they can’t. It’s not favouritism, it’s common sense. You’re running this place right now. You don’t need to be doing your own filing or replying to job applications because you only have one assistant.”

  “Let’s look at the operations manager roles then. Wouldn’t it make sense to get one of those first?”

  “No. Trust me, okay? Applicants for that role are far more likely to be already in jobs and able to sit tight. Plus, they apply for fewer roles because there are fewer that suit them. The ones for admin roles are often about to leave their job or have already left. They apply for hundreds of positions and they can be snapped up before you get back to them.”

  “Are you explaining my job to me? Really?”

  “I’m not telling you how to suck eggs, I’m just saying that I have a specific set of priorities. If you weren’t here and handling everything so well I’d be looking for an operations manager at the first opportunity. But I do have you, and that gives us some leeway. Make sense?”

  “Maybe. The jury is still out. If you turn out to be correct on this I will admit to seeing a different perspective.”

  He grinned and gave a triumphant bow. “Great. Let’s see what we’ve got shall we? I want us both to go through the whole lot. You check my discard pile and I’ll check yours and we’ll discuss.”

  “No, that’s a waste of time - let’s go through each one together.”

  He waved his arm in front of him. “If that’s what you want, let’s do it. We have accounting coming at one so I ordered us some lunch.”

  “Did you just?”

  “Yep. Sasha will bring it at twelve.”

  She scowled at him and vowed to bring her lunch tomorrow. The less time she spent alone with Cooper, the better.

  They set about going through the applications, separating the resumes into yes and no piles, several times arguing over a candidate’s suitability. The time quickly slipped by and when Sasha arrived with a chicken salad for Emily and a burger for Cooper, Emily scowled all over again.

  Bastard. Being considerate and ordering me a healthy lunch.

  They ate in silence, Cooper sipping his Passiona and grinning at her while she rolled her eyes. After lunch they quickly finished the sorting and Emily passed the piles to Jenny so she could organise the appointments. When she returned to the conference room Cooper had another surprise in store for her.

  “Sorry, I forgot to say I wanted the interviews planned a certain way.”

  “Oh really. You’re a total control freak, aren’t you? I never noticed that about you until now. What extra demands do you have?”

  “Emily, you’re so mean to me!” he laughed, not taking offence at her words. “It’s easy stuff, don’t get all twisted up at me. Just get Jenny to book no more than three interviews each day. I want you to still have time to do other tasks without staying here until midnight. Think about it. If we interview 3 people for each position that’s 30 interviews. That’s hours and hours out of our day. So we limit it to three each day and don’t overwhelm ourselves. As we fill the roles we’ll employ them and get them started. I don’t know about you but I can’t sit in interviews for eight hours a day.”

  “Well, you don’t have to sit through them, so it shouldn’t be an issue.”

  “Oh, did I forget to tell you? I’ll be interviewing with you.”

  She stared at him, stunned. “What? Ed said I had full control to hire.”

  “And you do. We won’t employ anyone you’re not convinced is the best person for the job. You always have more than one interviewer, right?”

  “Yes.” Her mind whirled as she tried to think of a reason someone else should stand in for him.

  “Great. Let’s not cut into anyone else’s day. I’m the only one around here who doesn’t have a million paper transactions to process as part of their job. I’ll accompany you until we’ve chosen everyone we need.”

  She looked down at her feet, wishing she’d thought of something to deter him.

  Fuck!

  ***

  The accounting audit took more than three hours and by the end of it Emily never wanted to see another print out of figures again. She’d explained the process they used to make sure every order was authorised by a manager as well as every outgoing payment. Anyone could raise a purchase order as long as his or her manager signed it off. The orders didn’t have to go through purchasing, they could be entered directly into the purchasing system and given to a supplier.

  “So that’s one place we could tighten up to prevent a repeat of what’s happened.” Cooper was making notes on the whiteboard again. His jacket was on the back of his chair and Emily made a note to check the temperature of every room they worked in from now on. He turned and looked at their last remaining accounts person, Beth. “What suggestions do you have?”

  “I think it could be wise to impose some kind of dollar limit. Managers at a certain level can sign up to a certain amount, say two thousand or three thousand dollars. Above that, the order would have to be signed by someone higher up. Also, I think all purchasing should be moved back to the purchasing department. It’s spread out everywhere at the moment, I suspect because it saves employing another person.”

  “One more staff member would have been a lot cheaper than what the company is facing now,” Cooper said and Emily nodded her agreement.

  “I think we need some kind of sign off on big sales contracts, too. Maybe even at the quote stage, though that could be over the top.”

  Beth spoke again, “Any contracts that have any kind of refund or kickback should be signed by a higher manager.” She looked at them both. “You know none of this would have stopped what happened? With the three of them working together they would have got around these measures.”

  “You’re right. But we have to remember that we employ people expecting that they’ll do their job and not rip the company off. What we need to do is put the checks in place to deter them from thinking it’s a good idea in the first place. When we know that people will be checking our processes and making sure paperwork is signed off, there’s less chance of temptation or taking a risk with our livelihoods.” He stood back and read the notes on the board. “I think this is a great start. I’ll get this typed up and if you could both give it a quick glance and check it’s what we talked about, I’ll forward it to Ed and we’ll start implementing.”

  He turned to Beth, “How are you coping with your workload?”

  “There are a lot of tasks that I’m not getting to. I haven’t done any filing for a month.”

  Stop talking. Don’t say it!

  “I’d be a lot worse off if Emily didn’t take the left over invoices home each weekend and enter them for me. It’s helped me stay on track and as yet we haven’t had any suppliers upset with late payment
.”

  Cooper turned to look at Emily who kept staring at her page. “Is there any pie you don’t have your finger in Ms Pennington?”

  She smirked and kept looking down as Beth looked between the two of them. “Sorry, did I say something wrong?”

  “No Beth.” Emily finally looked at her. “Cooper thinks I do too much. I’ve tried to explain I’m taking up the slack where I can to make sure that all of you guys can manage your workload and you don’t decide to throw in the towel. He doesn’t approve.”

  “Well, I approve. Don’t forget Cooper, we’re all taking work home, too.”

  “That’s going to stop soon, I promise. The next roles we’re filling are your two missing co-worker spots. It will be hectic for a while as we get them trained, but at least you’ll be able to get all your paperwork up to date quickly. Anyone can file invoices and answer the phone, even on their first day.”

  She looked up at him with a grateful expression, and Emily felt an unfamiliar surge in the pit of her stomach.

  Jealousy.

  It can’t be jealousy. I’m not jealous of him taking all the credit, I just want the work done.

  You’re jealous of the way she’s looking at him.

  No. No, I’m not.

  Yes. Yes, you are.

  ***

  Chapter Five

  “Emily?” Sasha stuck her head in the door. “We have a little problem.”

  “Oh God, what now? I haven’t had a moment of peace since I got here this morning!”

  “Well, Lacey Waters is here for her interview. She’s a little early because she’s brought something with her that she needs me to look after while you interview her.”

  “What kind of something?”

  “A baby kind of something!”

  “What? She brought her baby to a job interview?”

  “Yep. She said that her sitter never showed up and she’d rather bring her kid, and be embarrassed, than miss the interview.”

  “Well, that’s a new one. Are you able to watch the baby?”

  “Of course. I wanted to check with you first, though. She looked like she might cry if I said no.”

  “Okay, look, it’s really no issue, so if you’re happy to do it, let’s just press on. I’ll come down soon, just let me make sure Cooper is ready.” She got up and crossed the hall to his office. “Nearly ready?”

  “Sure.

  “Our applicant brought her baby along. You know, for something different.”

  “Her baby?” Cooper looked blankly at her. “Who brings a baby to a job interview?”

  “Lacey Waters, apparently. Her sitter fell through. It’s no drama, Sasha is going to watch the baby. I wanted to give you a heads up before you meet her.”

  “Before I meet the baby?” he grinned and rolled his eyes.

  “Man, you’re annoying.”

  ***

  Lacey turned out to be a great girl that they both felt an instant connection with. She was friendly, thoughtful in her answers, had great qualifications and she won them both over as soon as she was seated at the table.

  “I know there’s an elephant in the room so let’s get it out of the way first. I know legally you can’t ask about my family situation but I want to be clear about it. I had to bring my daughter along today because I’m changing day care centres and I had a week where she didn’t have a placement. I organised a babysitter for this morning but she never showed up.”

  “It’s okay, you don’t need to explain any of that.”

  “I know, but I wanted to reassure you that childcare wasn’t an issue in any other week of my life, except this one. I’m available for full time work and I only have the one child.

  “It’s great of you to clear that up and I appreciate it.” Emily said. “It takes bravery to bring your child along when you’re not sure what kind of reaction a company will have.”

  “You’re telling me. I wanted to cry all the way here but two of us howling in the car would have been ridiculous!”

  ***

  Cooper and Emily agreed to complete a score sheet and make their decisions about the applicants right after each interview. They sat at Cooper’s desk and rehashed Lacey’s answers.

  “I liked that she didn’t let her child deter her and that she faced it head on with us at the very start. That girl has balls.”

  “She does, but what about work-wise. She’ll be your assistant, will it be a problem if she needs time off work for a sick kid or to leave early to do evening pickup.”

  “I’m surprised at you Cooper.” Emily frowned at him before looking back at her notes. “We should be looking at whether she’s a good fit for the role, not what her personal situation is.”

  He sat back in his chair and put down his pen. “You’re surprised at me? I continue to be amazed by you. She opened the door for us to consider this as part of her application and you still want to ignore it?”

  “I don’t want to ignore it. It’s the law.” She frowned at him and continued reading Lacey’s resume. “She’s totally qualified, is friendly and businesslike, plus she’s not afraid to make the hard decisions. I’d say she’s a definite yes if no one comes along to outshine her.”

  “Well, she’ll be working for you, you’re the best judge. Regardless of the kid thing, I approve.”

  ***

  Back in her office she faced the long list of emails she’d been ignoring all morning. Before she could even click on the first one, two bodies appeared in her doorway. “Emily, the server is down and you’re the only one with the security code for IT.”

  She sighed as she got up from her desk. “I’m on it.” She addressed the technician. “How long will it take to fix?”

  “It depends what it is but we’re hoping it’s just a simple server reset.”

  “I hope so too. Our system cannot be down for too long.”

  “I understand, I’ll have it running as soon as I can.”

  On the way back from granting them access, two people trailed after her in the hallway. “Emily, I need these cheques signed.”

  She glanced back and quickly delegated with a smile. “You can take those to Cooper. He has signing authority now.” She continued toward her office, pleased to have one less task to complete.

  “Emily I need the monthly reports so I can close out the month.” She sighed as she sat back at her desk.

  Baby steps. In a few weeks there’ll be someone new to complete those reports.

  “Sorry, I’m going to have to do them at home tonight. You’ll have them first thing in the morning. Would you mind chasing Jenny to pull out all the procedures that have been written around these reports? It’s one of the first tasks I want to assign to a new person so you won’t have this delay again.”

  “Will do. Sorry to nag.” Fiona left with an apologetic smile.

  Cooper stuck his head in her door next. “Hey, aren’t we meant to have an interview at two o’clock? It’s quarter past.”

  “I know. No sign of her, Jenny says. She’s tried calling but there’s no answer. I think we have our first no show.”

  “Crap.”

  Emily laughed. “Yes, that about sums it up. Be prepared for more. We have a long list of people coming and several are bound to change their minds or get a job before we get to interview them, someone recently informed me.” The words dripped sweetly from her lips and he narrowed his eyes at her.

  “Have you had lunch?” His abrupt change of direction startled her.

  “Not yet.”

  “Did you bring something with you?”

  “Yes, I brought a salad. Why all the questions?”

  He stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. “Get your bag, I’ll take you to lunch.”

  “No, really I’m fine.”

  “You’re not fine. You’re grumpy and overworked. Let’s get a quick bite to eat together so we’re feeling refreshed when we do the next interview.”

  “Why can’t you just leave me alone?” She sighed and shoo
k her head as his surfer smile appeared. He turned that smile on when he was sure no one could resist him. More often than not she was the target.

  “It’s not in my job description to leave you alone. Come on, no arguing.” He held out his hand and she grumbled as she grabbed her bag. He opened the door and she avoided his hand, stepping past him and striding down the hall.

  He insisted on taking his car and he made small talk as he drove to the corner cafe. She ignored most of what he said and answered with a short grunt here and there.

  Get lunch over with and get back to the office.

  Cooper had other thoughts, though. While she was thinking of the work piling up while she was gone, he was determined to get her talking and they stayed at lunch a lot longer than she would have liked.

  She told him all the sordid details surrounding the removal of the three top executives at Simpsons, including the moment when she knew she would have to contact Ed. “It was awful. I never wanted to be the one to tell him, but I had no choice.”

  “That’s a tough call, especially if you had been wrong.”

  “Don’t I know it? In the end I decided I’d rather be able to look at myself in the mirror, than protect my job if I’d made a mistake. I knew I wasn’t wrong, though. The evidence was right there in black and white.”

  “Ed says they will likely have to go to court and even more likely there will be a hefty fine attached to the outcome.”

  “He told me they plan to fall on their sword and admit to everything. After all, the moment they became aware of the damage done, they terminated the staff involved right away. Regardless of the disadvantage it put the business into.”

  “I like Ed.”

  “Me too. How long have you known him?”