Page 7 of Strictly Business

I leave my office, leaving behind my handbag and jacket, taking only a small notepad and a pen to write my login down on. I go down to the first floor and go and tap on the door of the IT department. No one answers my knock and I realize I’m being a bit silly. The IT department is unlikely to have a secretary for the main door – it’s not like they will have clients visiting them – and so I open the door and step inside of the department.

The room is less busy than I expected. I can see a huge glass walled room full of servers with flashing blue and green lights. There are several offices after the server room and then the rest of the area is open plan with the employees sitting in their own little cubicles at a centralized desk. There are only three people currently sitting at the desk and one of them is on a phone call. Another one looks up at the sound of the door closing behind me. He smiles at me, and I smile back.

“Hi,” I say. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what the procedure is, but I’m new here and I don’t have any login details for my computer.”

“Well let’s get that fixed for you,” he says. “Come on over here. I’m Adam by the way.”

I move closer and sit down on the seat from the cubicle next to Adam’s.

“What’s your name and position and your location within the building?” Adam says.

“I’m Serena West and I am Wyatt’s new associate. I work on the third floor,” I say.

“Oh, you are office royalty,” Adam laughs.

I laugh with him, not wanting him to think I’m taking myself too seriously. He turns away from me and types away on his keyboard, clicking about and typing and then clicking some more until he finally stops and looks back at me and smiles.

“All sorted,” he says.

“Thank you,” I say. I go to ask him for the details but luckily, he speaks first, and I manage to avoid embarrassing myself with my question.

“So, I’ve obviously done you a main login so you can get onto the server. I’ve set you up an email account and I’ve given you logins for all the programs I think you will need,” Adam says. “I’ve sent a document with all those logins to your printer. The first time you use each one, it will prompt you to change the password. Do this and don’t disclose the password to anyone else. And if you find you have any other programs you need access to, my extension number is on the printout so you can call me or pop back in and I’ll get you sorted.”

“Thank you, Adam,” I say. “You have no idea how helpful you’ve been.”

“Anytime,” he says.

I smile again and then I get up and leave the room. I decide to head to the finance department while I am out of the office anyway and so I walk up a floor rather than using the elevator. I find the finance department and go in and introduce myself to the first person I see who turns out to be a payroll clerk and can add me to the payment system and send me everything I need to fill in.

“What’s your email address?” the payroll clerk asks.

“I don’t know,” I say, cringing as I admit to this. “I’ve literally just come from the IT department where Adam has just sorted all my logins and an email address for me. He’s sent them to my printer, but I haven’t been back to my office yet.”

“Not to worry, I’m sure I can crack it. Unless your name is super common,” she says.

“I don’t think it’s that common,” I say. “It’s Serena West.”

She types and then looks up at me and smiles.

“You’re right. You’re the only Serena and the only West on our directory. So, your email address is going to be Serena dot West at Smart Marketing Solutions dot com. I’ve sent you a bunch of forms there. If you haven’t received them, or for some reason your email address is something different, pop back down and we’ll sort it,” she says.

“Thank you,” I say.

I check my watch as I climb the final flight of stairs back up to my floor. It’s not even twelve o’clock yet and I have managed to get myself online and sort my paperwork for the finance team. Not a bad start Serena, I tell myself.

CHAPTER5

Serena

Igo back to my office and go straight to my printer where sure enough, a printout of logins is sitting there waiting for me. I enter the details into the main sign on screen and I am rewarded with the sight of a desktop. It has a fair few folders and files and I have no idea if they might turn out to be important or not, so I make a new folder and title itNot my circusand then I put all the files and folders in it so that I am starting anew.

I remember what Adam said and I change my main login’s password and jot the new one down on the printout and then I go to the company email and find that the payroll clerk was spot on about my email address. I find her email and quickly download all the forms I need to complete.

I get them all done and sent back and then I change the password on my email account and note that down too. I login to the main software next, a nice, all in one design solution where I can design graphics and mood boards and branding boards and ads and everything I ever dreamed of, all in one place. I quickly change my password and note down the new one and then I put the cheat sheet in my top drawer. At least those are empty. I was half expecting to find the person before me to have left things in the drawers after seeing the mess left behind on the desktop of the computer.

I pick up the Hislop’s file and read through the notes. There isn’t a whole lot of detail because the brand is trusting us to appeal to their target market for them. I like that because it means I can do my thing and help them properly. I hate it when I am asked to do a campaign, but the client has put all these caveats in and ultimately, they get in the way of my work. I have never understood the logic of someone who pays an expert to do something for them but then ties their hands and won’t let them do it the right way.

What I gather from the short brief is that Hislop’s is brand new and that is it a high end, more expensive brand than what is currently available. They are hoping to appeal to the owners of show dogs, stud dogs and those owners with plenty of spare cash and lots of love for their fur babies who only want the best of everything.

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