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“I think a month should be enough time to get someone new in place and give them some training.”
“A month is very fair. Thank you.” Vivian’s policy for resignation was two weeks of notice, but she wasn’t surprised that Jane was going the extra mile, making sure she didn’t leave Vivian hanging.
It would be a blow, losing someone like Jane. Good assistants were hard to find, and Jane fit in perfectly with the other employees.
It wasn’t just finding someone good—it was finding someone good who also got along with everyone else Vivian employed. That was tricky and might take some trial and error.
Vivian did her best to focus on her work as usual and not her dismay at having the perfect workspace she had created here disrupted. She didn’t need to worry about sorting a replacement yet. Jane got the advertisements for the position out within hours, and she was busy combing through applications.
There were many of them—Vivian supposed she had that article about employee satisfaction to thank—and finding the gems among the rocks took some skill.
Fortunately, Jane was well up to the task and soon had a folder of five top potential candidates for Vivian to interview.
Vivian didn’t suppose it would be possible to get someone quite as good as Jane, but perhaps with some training, her replacement could learn to equal Jane’s efficiency and skill. Work ethic was something that couldn’t be learned. Finding someone who was willing to put in the work and had the right kind of personality was the most important thing.
You could train in skills if you weren’t afraid of hard work, but people who didn’t like to work typically didn’t change, and neither did non-cooperative personalities generally shift at all.
Jane knew all of this, of course, and picked accordingly. All Vivian had to do was interview the replacements. She wasn’t worried about the process, though she was still sad to be losing Jane. The hiring process, however, was something she’d done many times before.
How different could this time be?
2
Emma
Emma Williams was nervous. Of course she was nervous. This opportunity seemed almost too good to be true.
She had heard all about Sterling Enterprises—most everyone in the business world had. Emma had been impressed when she’d read that article about employee satisfaction at the company. It sounded like working there would be a dream, and she was quick to put in her application when they had an opening.
She hadn’t really expected to land an interview. Her hometown was a small place that no one around here seemed to have heard of. Sure, she had great references, but those were from smaller companies, nothing like the huge corporations of New York.
Emma really wanted this job. She needed this new start. She was ready.
“Mom, I don’t want to go.”
“Lily, we have to go. I have to speak to these people about a job.”
“But I won’t know anyone there!”
“I’m sure you’ll make friends quickly,” Emma soothed. “Besides, it’ll only be for an hour or so. I’ll take you out for ice cream afterward, okay?”
Lily brightened at the thought of ice cream. “Okay. But I want a big one.”
“One big ice cream, coming up.”
Emma had been giving Lily more treats than she usually did lately. She mostly had Lily eating healthily with one or two treats a week, but moving states was always going to be hard, especially when you were eight and worried about fitting in with your peers.
A little extra ice cream to help smooth the transition wasn’t going to kill her. They would get back into a rhythm soon enough.
When Emma had mentioned to the lady who called her about her application—Jane, she remembered—that she would need to find a babysitter for Lily while she was at the interview, Jane had offered to let Lily hang out at the daycare while Emma was busy.
It was summer, and there would be plenty of other kids around Lily’s age for her to talk to. Once school started, the daycare would be mostly infants and toddlers who were too young to go to school yet, but Emma had already enrolled Lily in a school just a few blocks away from their new apartment.
This place really did sound like a dream. Emma was worried that it was too good to be true, but if that was the case, she would find out soon enough.
She dropped Lily off at the daycare first, hovering long enough to watch a kind-looking woman welcome Lily and set her up with some toys. A girl about Lily’s age approached her with a doll and asked if she would like to play dolls.
Lily responded enthusiastically and she soon seemed to forget all about Emma. Lily had always loved dolls and even since she was getting older, her interest hadn’t waned. If she got hired here, Emma would try to find out the other girl’s name and see if she could arrange a play date.
