Page 48 of Things We Need to Say
‘Two weeks. That sounds serious. I thought it was just a migraine.’
‘Yes, so did I, but it appears she is suffering from severe stress.’
‘Stress?’ Emma was shocked. ‘Did she say what has caused the stress? She’s not blaming me, is she?’
‘No, you don’t need to worry about that. I’m just advising you that I’ll be taking over as your line manager in Heather’s absence.’
‘You will?’ Emma once again felt a surge of relief.
‘Yes, so if you can let me know where you’re up to in your training programme?’
‘Training programme?’
‘Yes, your four-week rota covering each department from the top to the bottom. Which departments have you covered so far?’
‘Well, um...’ Even though it wasn’t her fault that Heather had never actually told her about the plan, Emma felt the heat rise in her face. ‘I haven’t done any of them. Not really. Most of the time I’ve just been filling in wherever I’ve been needed most. So I’ve been a server in the restaurant, room cleaning, the bar and whatever admin she has needed me to do.’
Faye pursed her lips. ‘So, no formal training plan, then?’
‘No, I’m sorry. I wasn’t even aware there was one.’
‘No need for you to apologise.’ Faye put down the pen she’d been fiddling with. ‘In fact,I’msorry. We should have kept a closer eye on what was going on. There’s a lesson for us all in this and I can assure you that it will be investigated.’
‘Oh, okay.’ Emma thought to herself that, if Heather thought she was stressed now, she’d be under even more pressure when she did return to work.
‘So, we established last night that you’re experienced in functions. Where would you say you have the least knowledge?’
‘Well, I’ve never worked on Reception or had anything to do with room allocation.’
‘Right, well then, I suggest you take the weekend as your days off and from Monday you’ll start a four-week stint on Reception, followed by housekeeping, where you can learn how to run the department, not just clean rooms, then twelve weeks in the office, four doing general admin, four in finance and a further four in HR, and, after that, twelve weeks in food and beverage. How does that sound?’
‘That sounds fantastic.’
Emma was stunned. She had never imagined today would turn out like this. Finally, she was going to get the all-round training she’d been hoping for when she’d first taken the job.
‘Good. You might want to finish up any paperwork in your office for the rest of today so the decks are cleared, and I’ll liaise with Reception to sort out a new rota for the next four weeks. Is that okay?’
‘That’s wonderful, Faye. I can’t thank you enough for this.’
‘There’s no need to thank me. This should have been implemented from the start of your employment.’
Emma rose from her seat. ‘I’ll get straight to it.’
‘Good.’ As Emma was about to leave the office, Faye added, ‘Oh, sorry, just one more thing. Could you go through the paperwork on Heather’s desk and let me know if there’s anything that needs to be dealt with?’
‘Will do,’ Emma said. She was barely able to keep the smile off her face as she stopped off at the staffroom to make a quick cup of coffee. She couldn’t wait to get stuck into the outstanding paperwork so that she could start afresh on Monday, learning the ropes of Reception.
* * *
When she had cleared her own desk later that afternoon, Emma sat herself down in Heather’s chair. It felt weird to be there and occasionally she looked over her shoulder in case she was caught in the act of doing something she shouldn’t. But Faye had asked her to do this, so she was only following instructions. The desktop and in-trays were clear, so Emma opened the top drawer of the desk just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. But as she struggled with the drawer, she found she had to push down the contents before she could pull it open. Inside was a huge mass of paperwork. Emma pulled it out and piled it up in the centre of the desk. The other drawers revealed similar raftsof paperwork, which Emma piled up with the others. It formed quite an impressive tower.
Emma eyed the paper. ‘So this is where you’ve been hiding it.’ She’d often wondered how Heather always managed to look so efficient, with the top of her desk clear. Now she knew the answer — she’d been hiding it all away.
As Emma began to work her way through the pile, a knot of anxiety grew in her stomach. There was so much outstanding. Changes to future function bookings, personnel requests that needed to be followed up with HR, reports to be compiled for management meetings. As much as Emma didn’t get on with Heather, and was unhappy about the way the woman had treated her, she didn’t feel comfortable reporting her to management. It was such a mess. She began to work through it all, dealing with what she could but knowing she would have to pass a lot of it on to Faye.
Emma gasped as she read an email that had been printed out. She blinked and re-read it, not sure if she was seeing things. Her thoughts slipped back to the first function she’d overseen for Heather, when twenty guests had unexpectedly turned up. She remembered the roasting Heather had given her for not checking the paperwork, accusing her of incompetence, yet here was an email dated five days before the function advising them of the change in guest numbers. And Heather had obviously seen it because she’d printed it.
She let out the breath she’d been holding. Had this been an oversight? Had Heather printed this off and forgotten about it, or had she planned that Emma would be in charge of the function and had deliberately withheld the information to drop her in it on the day? What Emma did know was that the complaint was still being investigated and she had no choice but to pass this on to Faye. It wasn’t even a matter of conscience. She put the email to one side and continued to sort the rest ofthe papers into type of action and order of urgency. When she’d finished, she placed the most incriminating email on the top and went to find Faye.
