“Call my secretary and have her set up an appointment with me. I’d like to talk to you about your professional goals.”
“Sweet,” Meghan says with a bright smile. “Thanks, Mr. Morgan.”
Graham doesn’t respond to that; instead, he turns to me. “We need to talk. You do the same. Set up an appointment with me. Today.”
I nod and give him a small smile. It’s fake because none of this makes me feel like smiling. Why do I feel like I’ve already screwed the pooch on this job?
Graham stands and addresses the remaining people in the room. “You will all meet with Alison today. Spread the word: if anyone else decides to skip, they’re out.”
Wow. It’s rather harsh, but I suppose it had to be said.
As Graham turns to leave, he stops. “Meghan, you stay. You can go first.”
“Sounds good, boss,” she says, giving Graham a salute.
I’m so tempted to laugh at her salute and response, but I know better. Instead, I keep quiet until everyone except Meghan leaves the room.
* * *
I endedup talking to Meghan for over an hour. She had a great deal of insight into the department even though she’s only worked at the company for a little over two months. Before that, she worked several retail jobs at a mall in Connecticut.
“I’m young, but I’ve already figured out that every place is the same,” she told me. “There are good people and backstabbing assholes no matter where you work. The key is to figure out the personalities to know how to work with them.”
I nodded and just said, “I see.”
And I did. She was right. Every organization is made up of a cross-section of personalities, just like she said. It’s also smart to gauge each of those personalities, especially if you’re just starting out.
With that said, people can change due to circumstances. Take the author of the green folder, for example. Something happened that made that person so disgruntled, they spent a great deal of their time compiling reports on everyone else.
Meghan filled in some other blanks for me as well, like the dynamic between Clive and Ben. What she said surprised me. “I don’t know what Clive’s deal is with Ben, because Ben’s nice. Like super nice. Plus, he’s likeubercreative. He’s always throwing out awesome ideas at our team meetings.” She leans closer. “And… he helps people.” She nodded and raised her brows up and down. “You know, as in hesavespeople. At least that’s the story that’s been going around.”
Super nice? Uber creative? Saves people? I wanted to ask her about all of those things, but she had more to say on the subject.
“I could learn a lot from Ben. I’d put in for Clive’s job, but they said they weren’t going to fill it.”
“To be his assistant? They aren’t going to fill it? Why not?”
Meghan shrugged. “I don’t know. Every other manager has one. If you ask me, someone’s got it out for Ben.”
Hmm, interesting. “Who told you they weren’t going to fill it?”
“Just someone in the break room. I can’t remember who said it.”
“So, it’s a rumor?”
She shrugged. “I guess, but rumors are usually pretty accurate around here.”
“They can be, but you need to be careful with rumors.” I know firsthand how wrong the rumor mill can be. In my last job, we were told the company was doing well, making record profits. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
“Why don’t I check on Clive’s old job? I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“That’d be great. I could also ask Mr. Morgan about it at our meeting.” She gave me a sly smile.
“You could. But if I were you, Meghan, I’d think big when you talk to Mr. Morgan.”
“Think big?”
“Yeah. Tell him what your goals are for your future. For example, do you want to be a marketing manager? Art director? Think beyond the job as an assistant.”
