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 Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:01 pm
It was her first day of work, and for once, Haley was actually excited! After all of the "first days" she has been through in her working life - nearly twenty jobs at this point - this is the one that sounded the most exciting, the most promising, the most worth-getting-out-of-bed in the morning. Sure, it was just a regular clerk job at Destiny City Antiques and Collectibles, but that was already much more fun than being a barista or dog-sitter for that dog she lost.
She arrived four and half hours late, ready to get started on the right foot as she smiled to her pretty brunette co-worker.
"Hi! I'm Haley," she said, extending her hand. There were no excuses for her tardiness, mostly because she didn't even think there needed to be an excuse for her tardiness. She wasn't high, so they should be appreciative of that at the very least. "Today is my first day here, you must be my co-worker? That's ******** awesome. I can't wait to get started. Though I do have to meet a friend in like two hours."
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:10 pm
"I'm sorry, are you..." Hypatia pauses, looking down at the notes on her desk, a delicate frown forming on her lips. "Haley Jones?" Hypatia had obviously not been consulted when Haley had been hired. The first half hour of waiting for her to even show up had given Hypatia all she needed to know about the girl... Four hours, a resume about a mile long due to Haley's apparent life philosophy of 'try, try, try again!' and now this, showing up without even a hint of contrition, a meager show of guilt... "You were supposed to come in for training nearly five hours ago, Miss Jones," she said, sounding more disappointed than upset. Something with so much promise-- a co-worker that wasn't over the hill, to being with-- had turned into... this.
But, Hypatia wasn't a quitter, and the girl seemed eager enough, at least. And there weren't any customers around to hear the unexpected f-bomb (that Hypatia herself had dropped several times under her breath over the past hours whilst waiting for Haley to show up...) Gumption could go a long way, especially when it came to sales. Already writing a very strongly-worded letter to the owner of the shop about his hiring policies, the young woman put a smile on her mouth.
"Would it be possible to postpone your plans? It may take more than a few hours to get you aquainted with the shop, our procedures, and get your information for pay and the like." She gripped Haley's hand firmly in a show of good faith, hoping-- perhaps praying?-- that this wouldn't turn around to bite her in the a**. Oh, she should have stopped and gotten herself a caramel macchiato, this was going to be a long, long day...
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 12:27 pm
"Ugh, fine, I can cancel the plans if I have to," Haley groaned as she whipped out her cell and sent out a quick text to delay her plans: "hey need to cancel. coworker being a biatch. smoke out later?" She tossed the phone back into her hemp bag and dropped the bag to the ground, nearly colliding with a delicate glass antique during its drop. She was a bit frustrated and wasn't doing much to hide it. "A few hours, really? I mean, I have the time now that you made me cancel, I just can't believe this would take that long." Then, like a distracted child, her entire demeanor changed as she beamed with optimism and happiness once more - her eye focused on an antique smoking pipe. "Holy s**t, that's awesome," she exclaimed, moving over to the object with a slight skip in her step. It looked pretty fragile on its display, but that didn't stop her from picking it up and giving it a closer inspection. "Dude, you ever get to smoke out of this? I love this thing." She almost wanted to get something from her bag to smoke and test it out, but she at least had the common sense to not do that.
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:11 pm
Hypatia felt her heart stutter and skip a beat as Haley's purse went crashing to the ground, narrowly avoiding a... well, not priceless, but still expensive side table from France, upon which several glass animal figurines rested, a steal she had gotten via a very artfully navigated eBay auction, trying very hard not to visibly wince-- or to exhale her relief too loudly as Haley's bag fell to the floor without any permanent harm to the shop's stock.
"Look, I really don't want us to get off on the wrong foot here, Haley. You seem really, ah... Lively, and eager to try working here, but you were nearly five hours late, and you didn't contact either myself or the owner to let us know you'd be running late. We're not exactly the busiest shop around, but we do have our fair share of work, especially on shipment days and the like. It's really, really important to be punctual. Okay?" Hypatia's voice was light, friendly, and above all else, professional.
Her blood pressure was telling quite a different story.
"Also, if you could just... not... handle the shop's stock just yet? A lot of these materials react poorly to being handled improperly." Now her voice was firm, because she was not pussyfooting around when it came to the store's stock, almost a quarter of which she had found and purchased herself. Delicately, she plucked the pipe from Haley's hands and settled it back onto it's rest. "And no, I don't usually test the shop's items. What the owner decides to do with it afterward, however, is entirely up to them. Now, if I could just steer you toward the back, I'll walk you through the shop sections, let you know about commission, things like that...?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 5:46 pm
Haley arched a brow in annoyance as her co-worker listed off all of her failures. Other than all of the things that she had listed, Haley couldn't think of a single thing she had done wrong to deserve such a lecture! But, nonetheless, she did her best to stay calm and level-headed because at least she could be mature and responsible! She forced the sweetest smile she could muster and nodded in agreement to the girl's requests. "Trust me, I know how to handle a pipe," she said with an obvious exaggerated wink. "But sure, I'll follow. Just lead the way. I'm a very fast learner." She lied. Hell, she had practically forgotten the name of the shop already, and couldn't for the life of her remember the girl's name. Had she even said it? "What's your name, by the way?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:54 pm
Hypatia paused in leading Haley to the back room, realizing that she had, in fact, forgotten to introduce herself. It was easy to see why, of course, given the... train wreck that had been this first meeting so far. How this Haley Jones had even gotten her resume into the owner's hands to be looked over, Hypatia hadn't the foggiest.
"I'm Hypatia, Hypatia Kirk," she said with a smile, smoothing back a long lock of brown hair that had fallen over her shoulder. At the cost of her own personal satisfaction, she remained as professional, put-together, and... and, well, professional, damn it! as humanly possible. Chatting as amiably as she could muster, she showed Haley where all the essentials were-- the owner's office, Hypatia's own little office (actually a re-purposed supply closet but what Haley didn't know wouldn't hurt her), the small break room and the attached bathroom, and the back store room, where their recent acquisitions and extra stock that didn't quite fit in with the theme of the floor at the moment.
"So that's pretty much the basic layout of the whole shop... What do you think, would you still like to work here?" Hypatia stressed the word 'work', and tried not to feel too guilty about the hope she was holding onto that Haley would just take her out and walk away.
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:13 pm
"Of course!" Haley exclaimed. Sure, the tour was boring as hell, but that was mostly to be expected. Luckily, she was able tune out everything the girl was saying by drifting off into her own imagination - or as she saw it, flashbacks to one her past lives as a fairy princess. "I need the money and all. You know, cocaine is crazy expensive these days." She was teasing, of course! She only needed the money for more pot mostly, drawing her line of drug use just before cocaine. Her tone and inflection probably could have conveyed more sarcasm. "Should I get started now or is there more training to do?" she asked.
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:38 am
Hypatia nearly choked on her own heart at the mention of cocaine-- was this girl serious? Hypatia wasn't a prude (or so she told herself), but the cursing, the drug references, Haley's inexcusable tardiness... This was not going to work, not in the least. How was she supposed to train her, or even actually work with her? Her little sanctuary of perfectly organized sticky notes and spreadsheets was going to crash down around her ears if Haley stayed here, that much was utterly, painfully obvious. However, she was determined to be the picture of poise and calm, even if her teeth cracked from the force of her jaw-clenching.
"Well, you were scheduled for a two hour intro shift, but the shop closes up in about half an hour," Hypatia informed Haley, hands resting on her hips. "If you'd like to stay, you could just shadow me and get a feel for what's expected of you first-hand. We get a base wage for the hours worked, and there's commission as well, so customer service-- speaking appropriately to the customer, listening to their needs, that sort of thing-- is very important. Not everyone is meant for this kind of job, so it would completely understandable if someone simply wasn't suited to this sort of work and sought employment elsewhere." A little too blunt, perhaps? But Haley seemed to live in some sort of alternate realty where showing up to work four hours late and stating that she did cocaine was acceptable behavior.
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:41 pm
"Do you think I'm not good for the job or something?" Haley rose a brow, crossing her arms. Shocking. Offensive. Despicable! Where did this girl get off? A light, breathy chuckle left her lips as her demeanor cooled before it got hot. "Look, I really want this job and I don't like that you are suggesting that I'm not fit for it just because you don't like me or because I was late or because of whatever. I'm pretty sure that's like some kind of discrimination and that's so not cool, man. It's 2012, don't hate."
Thinking she just mastered the art of debating, she flipped some of long hair back smugly.
"Now I'd be happy to continue shadowing you around, but if you don't mind, I think I'll check out for the day before this turns ugly," she said as she gathered her things. As if there was no hostility between them, she reached out a hand - at first for a shake, then widening her arms to give Hypatia a big ol' hug. "I'll see tomorrow. We're going to have a lot of fun working together!"
She skipped off towards the exit, waving her hand behind her to say good bye to her new coworker...possible new best friend?!
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Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 7:00 pm
"I didn't mean to imply that you weren't capable of preforming the job," Hypatia said as sweetly as she could muster, essentially lying through her teeth. She doubted that Haley was capable of tying her own shoes most days, but she was far too polite to say so. Or so she hoped. It was actually rather well timed, Haley's exit, because a pressure had been building at the base of her neck, working up into her head into a nasty migraine since the other girl's untimely entrence into the shop. "I think we're finished here, for the day. You're entirely free to leave." And perhaps never come back, she added privately.
Walking Haley to the door, Hypatia resisted the urge to say something snotty-- such as 'don't let the door hit you on the way out' or something equally unprofessional. Instead, she settled for 'Have a great time with your friend!' and watched Haley walk out.
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