Connor gives me a list of reports he wants me to try and generate. I can’t tell if he really needs them or if this is some sort of extended training exercise, but I’m in no position toargue. I’m suddenly feeling very relieved that I’m working from home the next few days where I can do this in private.
“Phone me back if you get stuck,” he says, closing out the shared screen of his desktop. His full-size image springs back up to replace it. “I don’t have any other meetings or anything this afternoon. When is the next time you’ll be in the office again?”
“Thursday,” I tell him. “I’ll get all this done before then.”
“Cool,” he says, preparing to wrap usup.
“Hey, can I ask you something? Besides your fun fact.”
“I forgot about that,” he says. “I better come up with something fast. But yeah, go forit.”
“Why did you hire me? Actually?”
“DidI hire you?” he muses. “And here I was thinking I was bamboozled into accepting you because you’d tricked your way into being reassigned.”
I give him a look like,very funny.“We both know you were going to send me packing. Why did you change your mind?”
“I guess…” He trails off. “Well, if you want the real reason—”
“Ido.”
He leans forward, like he’s getting ready to reveal a secret.
“I wanted to know…all the data I can’t find on a spreadsheet.”
I laugh, then cringe. “It’s all making sense now.”
“Where will I find it, by the way?” he wonders. “You never did reveal.”
“That’s classified, I’m afraid. Any data of this nature will be supplied to you on a need-to-know basis.”
“Sounds extremely legit,” he nods. “Nothing fishy about that at all.”
We both chuckle, then fall into silence. I watch him fidget in his seat, frowning down at the pen in front ofhim.
“If you want the truth, things have been—difficult. Recently. On the team.”
I’m caught off guard by this moment of candor, unsure of how to respond.
“And you were right about the dashboard thing. No one is using it. It’s driving me crazy,” he says, rubbing at his eyes. “You seemed like you had it in you to bully the right people.”
I had an inkling before, but I know it for certain now: Connor is nice.
It’s abundantly clear too, after seeing the rundown of the projects Data Strategy works on, that I will not be an integral part of the team, at least not on a technical level. I am the only person among them without a computer science degree, the working definition of a personality hire. I’m just as likely to be a burden as a help to him, and yet he let me stay anyway, and hasn’t been a jerk about it either, never asking for any special praise for his good deed. I register a silent vow that I’ll make every last person at Taskio use his dashboard, even if I have to stand over their desks and watch them doit.
“OK,” I say, switching gears. “Now I want your fun fact.”
“You first.”
“What?No.”
“Boss’s orders,” he says, pulling rank.
“That’s—not how this works.”
“I’d just like to remind you that you’re in your probationary period and can be let go without notice for the next three months.”
“This is an abuse of power,” I say, fighting a smile.
