“What if things don’t turn around the way they think it will?” Grace asked. “If the financial position doesn’t improve as quickly as they hope, could they decide to keep the promotion freeze in place for longer? And the pay increase freeze, too, and so on?”
Clive opened his hands and shrugged. “It’s a possibility. But I can only assume that the programme of action that’s about to be announced is designed to turn things around as quickly as possible. There’s no point worrying about what might or might not happen a year from now.”
Grace disagreed with this comment, although she didn’t say so. Why wouldn’t she worry about what the situation could be in a year?
“Look, we’re all keeping our jobs here at the Hamblehurst Manor and we’re in a strong position because of the success of this hotel,” Clive said, trying to reassure her. “We’re not about to lose our jobs, unlike some other unlucky people elsewhere in the business. And while none of us will like the idea of pay freezes or promotion prospects being postponed, at least they are only being postponed and will be reinstated in due course.”
“I understand. It’s just… this is a shock.”
“Of course it is. But look, there’s always a silver lining. I know how much you love your job, Grace, and I know you always want to go the extra mile here. While a formal promotion to a full manager position won’t now happen for a while, that doesn’t mean we can’t involve you more in some of the tasks and duties you would have been undertaking had you gone through the rest of the promotion process and secured the job formally.”
“Oh?” Grace said.
“Sure,” Clive said, his tone enthusiastic. “And with the hiring freeze imposed at senior level, my guess is there will be plenty of things that need to get done around here. You might not have the job title yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do the actual job.”
Clive seemed pleased with this overview, but Grace was less convinced. Much as she loved working at the hotel and taking on extra duties to prove her worth, she wasn’t sure how she felt about doing a full manager’s job without either the title or the pay that came with it.
What if all that extra work never led to the promotion she so desperately wanted?
“Sorry, Grace, I need to rush off to a meeting that’s about to start,” Clive said, rising from his chair.
Grace got up too, feeling dazed as her mind swirled.
“Look, I know this has been a lot to take in, and I know how much you wanted this promotion,” Clive said. “But you are a bright and hard-working young person, Grace, and I’m sure we can still get you working on at least some of the key tasks you’d hoped to take on once you had the promotion in the bag. All will be well, Grace.”
“I hope so.”
“And in the meantime, you now have several days off to adjust to this news, and once you’re back next week, we’ll sit down together and discuss the work you might want to take on while you wait for the promotion process to open up again.”
Clive was steering her towards the door, his smile reassuring, but Grace didn’t feel a great deal of comfort from his words. Too many thoughts were whipping around inside her head to be sure exactly how she felt about any of this.
“Drop me a message or an email if you need to ask any more questions about this,” Clive said, locking the office door behind them. “I’m jammed all day today, but I promise I’ll get back in touch as soon as I can. Okay?”
Grace nodded. “Thanks.”
“Chin up, Grace,” Clive said kindly. “Everything will be fine. This is just an unexpected bump in the road.”
She smiled, or at least she tried to. It wasn’t easy trying to look grateful for his rallying words. Clive dashed off quickly, and Grace was relieved she didn’t have to maintain the pretence of being okay with all this.
She wasn’t okay—not by a long shot.
When Clive had asked to meet with her today, she thought he was about to share valuable information for her promotion application. She thought he was about to tell her the application had progressed to the next stage in the process and that she was one step closer to becoming a full manager, in charge of her own dedicated portfolio of work.
Instead, he’d told her the entire promotion process had been shelved.
For so long, she’d imagined herself winning that promotion and becoming a proper manager. Now, it was suddenly all gone, and Clive’s reassurances that things would return to normal in a year or so didn’t make her feel any better.
“Oh, Grace, there you are!”
Grace looked up and saw one of her colleagues walking towards her across the staff office suite.
“Can you come and help with a billing issue at the reception desk?” her colleague asked. “A guest is querying his invoice and we need a supervisor to sort it out.”
“I’ll be right there,” Grace replied.
Her colleague dashed off to return to the reception desk. Grace lingered for a second, taking some deep breaths to settle her mind. The news Clive had just delivered might have left her stunned and horribly disappointed, but she still had an eight-hour shift ahead of her, which meant she needed a clear head.
What mattered right now was looking after the hotel guests and doing her job.
Once her shift was over, she could think about what had just happened and how it had left her so thoroughly shocked.
Until then, there was no time to be shocked, because looking after the hotel’s guests came first—always.
