Chapter Four
Several days later the job applications started rolling in. Cooper suggested they go through them together and Emily ground her teeth together at this latest intrusion. This was something she or her assistant would normally do. It wasn’t a task that required a consultant who was probably being paid six figures to make improvements.
Since Cooper had arrived, she’d barely been able to shake him. The first two days they’d gone through the current staffing and advertised the vacant positions. He’d insisted she escort him across the site and explain the intricacies of each department. Several times she’d suggested that a staff member from that area should take over but all he’d done was accept their input, and insist she stick around. Her workload had been juggled between her assistant and a casual staff member to free up her time and he seemed quite pleased with his efforts.
If she didn’t know better, she would swear he was doing it on purpose.
They planned to spend the afternoon looking at the audit trails of the accounting department and once again, he’d insisted she be included as well as the one remaining staff member from accounts. Whatever he was up to, she was determined to say nothing and remain professional at all times. In a few months he’d be gone.
She entered the conference room and watched as he hastily switched his phone off and slipped it into his pocket.
Just like old times.
“How many applications do we have?”
“Tonnes. We’ve split them up by role but there’s still a lot to sift through. Plenty will be completely unsuitable but you said you wanted to see all of them so here they are. Jenny printed all the online applications and she’s split them into the different positions. What do you want first?”
“First I want the ones for the HR assistant. I want your staff sorted out so you can apply yourself to more appropriate tasks. Jenny seems like she’s a great help but I can see she’s here late each night, too.”
“I don’t need your favouritism. Mine can wait.”
He pulled the pile she indicated toward him. “NO, they can’t. It’s not favouritism, it’s common sense. You’re running this place right now. You don’t need to be doing your own filing or replying to job applications because you only have one assistant.”
“Let’s look at the operations manager roles then. Wouldn’t it make sense to get one of those first?”
“No. Trust me, okay? Applicants for that role are far more likely to be already in jobs and able to sit tight. Plus, they apply for fewer roles because there are fewer that suit them. The ones for admin roles are often about to leave their job or have already left. They apply for hundreds of positions and they can be snapped up before you get back to them.”
“Are you explaining my job to me? Really?”
“I’m not telling you how to suck eggs, I’m just saying that I have a specific set of priorities. If you weren’t here and handling everything so well I’d be looking for an operations manager at the first opportunity. But I do have you, and that gives us some leeway. Make sense?”
“Maybe. The jury is still out. If you turn out to be correct on this I will admit to seeing a different perspective.”
He grinned and gave a triumphant bow. “Great. Let’s see what we’ve got shall we? I want us both to go through the whole lot. You check my discard pile and I’ll check yours and we’ll discuss.”
“No, that’s a waste of time - let’s go through each one together.”
He waved his arm in front of him. “If that’s what you want, let’s do it. We have accounting coming at one so I ordered us some lunch.”
“Did you just?”
“Yep. Sasha will bring it at twelve.”
She scowled at him and vowed to bring her lunch tomorrow. The less time she spent alone with Cooper, the better.
They set about going through the applications, separating the resumes into yes and no piles, several times arguing over a candidate’s suitability. The time quickly slipped by and when Sasha arrived with a chicken salad for Emily and a burger for Cooper, Emily scowled all over again.
Bastard. Being considerate and ordering me a healthy lunch.
They ate in silence, Cooper sipping his Passiona and grinning at her while she rolled her eyes. After lunch they quickly finished the sorting and Emily passed the piles to Jenny so she could organise the appointments. When she returned to the conference room Cooper had another surprise in store for her.
“Sorry, I forgot to say I wanted the interviews planned a certain way.”
“Oh really. You’re a total control freak, aren’t you? I never noticed that about you until now. What extra demands do you have?”
“Emily, you’re so mean to me!” he laughed, not taking offence at her words. “It’s easy stuff, don’t get all twisted up at me. Just get Jenny to book no more than three interviews each day. I want you to still have time to do other tasks without staying here until midnight. Think about it. If we interview 3 people for each position that’s 30 interviews. That’s hours and hours out of our day. So we limit it to three each day and don’t overwhelm ourselves. As we fill the roles we’ll employ them and get them started. I don’t know about you but I can’t sit in interviews for eight hours a day.”
“Well, you don’t have to sit through them, so it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Oh, did I forget to tell you? I’ll be interviewing with you.”
She stared at him, stunned. “What? Ed said I had full control to hire.”
“And you do. We won’t employ anyone you’re not convinced is the best person for the job. You always have more than one interviewer, right?”
“Yes.” Her mind whirled as she tried to think of a reason someone else should stand in for him.
“Great. Let’s not cut into anyone else’s day. I’m the only one around here who doesn’t have a million paper transactions to process as part of their job. I’ll accompany you until we’ve chosen everyone we need.”
She looked down at her feet, wishing she’d thought of something to deter him.
Fuck!
***
The accounting audit took more than three hours and by the end of it Emily never wanted to see another print out of figures again. She’d explained the process they used to make sure every order was authorised by a manager as well as every outgoing payment. Anyone could raise a purchase order as long as his or her manager signed it off. The orders didn’t have to go through purchasing, they could be entered directly into the purchasing system and given to a supplier.
“So that’s one place we could tighten up to prevent a repeat of what’s happened.” Cooper was making notes on the whiteboard again. His jacket was on the back of his chair and Emily made a note to check the temperature of every room they worked in from now on. He turned and looked at their last remaining accounts person, Beth. “What suggestions do you have?”
“I think it could be wise to impose some kind of dollar limit. Managers at a certain level can sign up to a certain amount, say two thousand or three thousand dollars. Above that, the order would have to be signed by someone higher up. Also, I think all purchasing should be moved back to the purchasing department. It’s spread out everywhere at the moment, I suspect because it saves employing another person.”
“One more staff member would have been a lot cheaper than what the company is facing now,” Cooper said and Emily nodded her agreement.
“I think we need some kind of sign off on big sales contracts, too. Maybe even at the quote stage, though that could be over the top.”
Beth spoke again, “Any contracts that have any kind of refund or kickback should be signed by a higher manager.” She looked at them both. “You know none of this would have stopped what happened? With the three of them working together they would have got around these measures.”
“You’re right. But we have to remember that we employ people expecting that they’ll do their job and not rip the company off. What we need to do is put the checks in place to deter them from thinking it’s a good idea in the first place. When we know that people will be checking our processes and making sure paperwork is signed off, there’s less chance of temptation or taking a risk with our livelihoods.” He stood back and read the notes on the board. “I think this is a great start. I’ll get this typed up and if you could both give it a quick glance and check it’s what we talked about, I’ll forward it to Ed and we’ll start implementing.”
He turned to Beth, “How are you coping with your workload?”
“There are a lot of tasks that I’m not getting to. I haven’t done any filing for a month.”
Stop talking. Don’t say it!
“I’d be a lot worse off if Emily didn’t take the left over invoices home each weekend and enter them for me. It’s helped me stay on track and as yet we haven’t had any suppliers upset with late payment.”
Cooper turned to look at Emily who kept staring at her page. “Is there any pie you don’t have your finger in Ms Pennington?”
She smirked and kept looking down as Beth looked between the two of them. “Sorry, did I say something wrong?”
“No Beth.” Emily finally looked at her. “Cooper thinks I do too much. I’ve tried to explain I’m taking up the slack where I can to make sure that all of you guys can manage your workload and you don’t decide to throw in the towel. He doesn’t approve.”
“Well, I approve. Don’t forget Cooper, we’re all taking work home, too.”
“That’s going to stop soon, I promise. The next roles we’re filling are your two missing co-worker spots. It will be hectic for a while as we get them trained, but at least you’ll be able to get all your paperwork up to date quickly. Anyone can file invoices and answer the phone, even on their first day.”
She looked up at him with a grateful expression, and Emily felt an unfamiliar surge in the pit of her stomach.
Jealousy.
It can’t be jealousy. I’m not jealous of him taking all the credit, I just want the work done.
You’re jealous of the way she’s looking at him.
No. No, I’m not.
Yes. Yes, you are.
***