Being called in to someone’s office on no notice was never fun. It felt too much like being in trouble.
Which was probably why Autumn Belfontaine’s stomach was knotted up so tight right now. She figured she was probably dealing with it better than a lot of people would, thanks to her experience in broadcast journalism. The techniques for dealing with stage fright went a long way to handling this kind of situation too.
As she approached the office of the Director of Training, she wondered whether she might be made to sit and wait. She really didn’t think Deena was the sort of person who’d do it as an exercise in power, like a couple of bosses she’d worked under many years ago.
But truth be told, most of her associations with Deena had been casual, social. They were both members of the Shepard lineage, so there’d been plenty of opportunity to interact in a family setting, which by agreement would almost always mean avoiding discussion of anything that could be considered business. So Autumn really didn’t have a good handle on how Deena ran her office.
Not to mention that the trip over here had presented plenty of time for Autumn to rack her memory for anything that could have merited a reprimand. The fact that she couldn’t think of anything obvious was even worse than realizing a major lapse — might there be something she hadn’t even considered that had become a problem?
And then she arrived, and Deena came right out to welcome her. “Please come in, have a seat.”
Why should her pleasant greeting, her willingness to make small talk, raise even more alarm? Was it just an echo of the particularly clumsy use of the “praise sandwich” technique by a long-ago teacher who never seemed to actually praise you for anything?
And finally Deena reached the substance of this meeting. “Autumn, we’re going to take you off the testing center.”
Autumn must’ve tensed up, because Deena smiled. “No, this is not a disciplinary action. Reggie and I both agree that you’re working way too many hours as it is. So we’re going to switch you to planning a full broadcasting curriculum, to pull together the courses we currently have into some kind of cohesive program of study.”
“OK.” Autumn tried to understand how this was supposed to be lightening her load.
“This isn’t something that has to be done next week. We’re looking at it as a long-term project to examine the existing courses we’ve put together on the fly since the establishment of Shepardsport Pirate Radio, so we can determine the gaps we need to fill. Maybe they’ll require new courses, but it’s equally possible that we just need to adjust the material and presentation of our existing courses. This is supposed to be something you can do as the time is available, rather than in a specific slot in your schedule.”
“That’s helpful, but I’ve seen too many of these open-ended projects become never-ending ones.” Autumn recalled one she’d gotten sucked into at a previous employer. “Or worse, ones that never get off the ground because there’s always something more urgent.”
“If you’re really worried about that thing, how about we make plans to touch base weekly on your progress. It’ll also help make sure you’re not overlooking something important that’s outside your regular bailiwick.”
“Thanks. That makes a lot of sense.”