Chapter 26: I'm The Team Leader
Chapter 26: I'm The Team Leader
For the next week, Janessa had been tasked with some trivial things, such as printing and photocopying files and sorting out documents.
She was an academic achiever with a sound educational background, yet she had been going from one side of the office to another doing such menial tasks as ordered by a team leader.
In recent days, however, Janessa felt that her workload had considerably increased from before.
Her duties were not particularly difficult, but she found herself staying at the office until seven or eight o'clock every day to finish the day's work.
Most of the colleagues got off work at five or six o'clock in the afternoon.
When Janessa went to work on Monday, she placed the work documents that were assigned to her last week on Sally's desk and said calmly, "Sally, here are the work documents you wanted last week.I am aware that my colleagues are busy writing up plans, so I do most of these menial tasks daily.However, I'm concerned that the interns may run out of work to do."
Every year, the Lu Group would recruit many interns from various universities in the city.
These students were evaluated based on their work ethics and ability to do their daily tasks.
Afterwards, they could be given the chance to be promoted as the company's formal employees, and those who excelled during the internship period would have the opportunity to participate in some of the company's advanced projects.
Sally bristled in irritation when this was pointed out to her, and her face darkened.
"I'm the team leader here.I don't need you to lecture me on how to delegate tasks."
She pointed at the folders she had yet to open and then flung them toward Janessa.
"These documents do not pass muster.Go back and do them again."
Obviously, she had a target on Janessa's back.
Janessa was not that stupid to prepare the documents a second time.
Instead, she took them back to her desk and did something else.
An hour later, Sally went to the office pantry to make coffee.
When she passed by Janessa's desk, she caught a glimpse of the plan her team was preparing on the screen.
Janessa, who had just returned from the tea room, frowned with displeasure when she saw Sally on her seat.
"Janessa, don't think that you can do whatever you want just because the CEO recruited you personally.Did I ask you to do this? You can't even do your job well, so why are you writing up a plan?"
Sally purposely raised her voice, and everyone in the office turned to see her scold Janessa.
Most of them were just quietly watching.
This scene was nothing new.
After all, Sally was known for enjoying making work difficult for new hires.
She was particularly harsh on anyone who was beautiful and capable, making it nearly impossible for them to do their work for at least two months before she would let them work normally.
Although she was bossy and demanding in the office, she was good at what she did.
Thus, the director only turned a blind eye to her behavior.
However, it was hard for the rank-and-file employees to face such a team leader every day.
"My job? Sally, please don't tell me that my job only included printing documents every day.I'm not even qualified to attend team meetings."
During the regularly scheduled team meeting two days ago, Janessa followed the team members into the meeting room, but Sally asked her to make coffee for everyone.
By the time she had finished, the meeting was already over.
Nobody discussed the arrangements for her job and its scope, so she now she only helped out her colleagues and were drafting plans casually.
"Do you think you can get any special treatment just because you were sent here by Corbin? You can't even sort out the documents well.What qualifications do you have to draft plans?"
Sally's chest heaved violently.
She was infuriated that the upstart new hire dared to talk back.
In comparison, Janessa stood leisurely aside.
She looked like she was nothing more than a vaguely interested bystander.
The thing that actually triggered Sally's ire was that, when she skimmed over Janessa’s draft, she found that the rookie's proposal was ten times better than what she herself had written.
The content of the draft demonstrated an understanding that exceeded what one would expect a new hire to have.
"I've never thought that there was anything special about me coming here with Corbin's help, but you have shown me the Lu Group's special treatment of its employees."
With one calmly delivered statement, Janessa exposed the issue of employee quality in the Lu Group.
Many people’ sighed, worried about Janessa‘s employment.
Sally was the cousin of the director.
Without such a connection, she would never have been able to get away with her attitude in the office.
Janessa was courting trouble with her words.
"Janessa, don't go too far.Change these documents right away, or even the CEO can't protect you!"
"I don't have a problem with modifying these documents, Team Leader, but could you first point out to me which sections of these documents are unqualified? I'd like to know so that I can modify them according to your exact specifications.I don't want to delay your work!"
Suddenly placed on the hot seat, Sally felt the blood drain from her face.
She didn't even glance at the documents, so how could she pinpoint what was wrong? Besides, these documents were all abandoned proposals this month, so any modifications to them were useless.
"You even need me to teach you how to modify documents? How in the world did you get your MBA?"
After saying her weak parting shot, Sally whirled around and stalked out, leaving behind a group of onlookers who were staring at Janessa in awe.
"Wow, Janessa, you're so fierce!"
Shelby leaned over from the desk beside Janessa's.
The woman's eyes were wide with admiration.
"What?"
Actually, Sally bullied her and she just wanted to get problems solved.
How was that fierce at all? What did that even mean? Was that how kids talked nowadays? "I heard from the people around here that Sally has never been so aggravated like she did today.Last time, the employee who used to sit at your desk got such a bad scolding from her that she burst into tears.I haven't seen her come to work since then."
As the witness of the last incident, Shelby still remembered how harsh the scolding was and how miserable the poor girl was the entire time.
Janessa smiled at Shelby and gently reminded her, "Focus on your work!"
Then, she shuffled around files into different folders.
After sorting them out, she set aside her proposal draft and continued to print various documents.
During lunch, Janessa stepped outside to eat and shortly returned to the office.
While she was in a cubicle in the employee restroom, she heard some people come in and inadvertently eavesdropped on their conversation.
"Why do you think Sally was targeting Janessa like this? Do they know each other outside of the office? Do they have a grudge against each other?"
"I don't think so.These days, I think it's obvious that Sally has it in for Janessa.She didn't treat me that harshly when I was just starting."
"No matter what, Janessa is definitely not your average rookie.People who were hired before could not put up with Sally’s abuse and usually ended up quitting within a week.How could Janessa stay here for so long and dare to challenge the team leader's authority so openly? That's not easy!"
"You're right.I mean, she was sent directly from the CEO's office, so there's no way that she's only an ordinary hire."
"Do you think Linda will find about this? After all, Sally is Linda's cousin.She could definitely make Janessa's work unbearable."
"Would Linda dare to harm someone directly sent by the CEO's office? Maybe they sent her so she could spy on us and directly report to the CEO the problems in the Planning Department."
"Who knows? Let's see who will win in the end!"
The conversation between the two women gradually faded away.
Janessa only came out of the cubicle when she could no longer hear anything outside.
Shaking her head, she turned on the faucet to wash her hands.
'‘Just because it was Rayan who directly recruited me into the company, I am supposed to be treated like this? How could Rayan have such subordinates?’' Her head filled with such thoughts, Janessa calmly stepped out of the bathroom and returned to her desk.