My name is Ned and am a free-lance accountant. One of my more recent clients is a small independent sales firm, which is accustomed to subcontract certain professional services such as mine for short periods of time. I'm not even called there every day. They hired me in order to take the reports from their salespersons and produce financial statements for ordering from suppliers and for tax purposes.
One of the salespeople is Helen, and she is very attractive, with light-colored eyes, shoulder-length black hair and a very proportionate figure. At first, she was the star saleswoman, but one day, she met with a difficult client and she lost her cool. They had to reassign the account to another salesman, who had to offer a substantial discount in order to keep the customer.
After a few days after the incident, we were all summoned to a meeting in which an important announcement would be made. Neither of us had the slightest idea of the purpose of that meeting, but before entering the conference room, there was some talk about Helena being fired for her outburst.
When we all sat before the boss, he announced:
"Ladies and gentlemen, the dedication of all present is unquestionable, but unfortunately, it doesn't show at our bottom line."
We all felt uncomfortable, especially Helen, who was already considering herself as unemployed. She tried to act nonchalantly, but the morbid looks of her colleagues made her falter.
The boss continued:
"I am pleased to inform you that I will appoint Helen as administrative assistant, and all the sales staff will report to her. Nester, you will work with her in order to put an end to the scribbles that my sales team submits as their reports. Then you two will train to the personnel in order to work in a more organized way."
Everyone was surprised, especially Helen herself. She was being promoted!
In the days that followed, she and I worked in harmony, but it was obvious that she would have preferred to go back out there in contact with her clients, but her boss no longer trusted her in stressful situations. But his decision about her was the right one. She is very trustworthy and organized, in fact, hers were the best sales reports in better times, this is why she was chosen for such responsibility. But in fact, it was not a true promotion. She now earns a salary well below what she earned as commissions, and she was practically confined to the office, almost as a secretary.
The other employees agreed to report to us, at first, without raising objections, but later, disagreements arose. I had to question many of their notes because they still wrote shabby quotes and bills, and we had a hard time rewriting their figures, so irregular, into standard accounting forms. She came to nag them for their disorder and they felt the effect enough.
When took our lunch breaks, went to the bathroom or pause for any other reason, the gossip began and I could no longer ignore it:
"Did you know what happened to Helen?"
"No! Tell me!"
"Do you remember her boyfriend? I believe his name was Noel..."
"That handsome executive with hung out with her a lot?"
"It's been a while since they were last seen together..."
"He keeps going to the same spots but he has been seen in quite good company."
"Better than Helen?"
"Why yes, with even hotter chicks than her...!"