Chapter 31

Come Monday morning Anna is starting her new job.

“Alright, ladies, today we have a meeting with Hendrill’s Financial. That’s not until four o’clock. In an hour we have a meeting with the department heads. After that we have a meeting with the vice presidents. Anna, you’ll come to see that we rely a lot on breaking down our efforts so each effort can be more detailed.”

Megan takes over. “We believe if you involve more people in the beginning, making less for each individual to do, there will be fewer mistakes, though that might sound counterintuitive.”

Derek continues. “Yes, and then as the final meeting gets closer we have meetings within our own company to finalize our thoughts and positions. Research will first do the research to make sure the deal is viable for us to do, and then they will later bring in leverage to use against the company we are dealing with, or in this instance we are looking to merge with. It’ll be called a merger, but we are technically buying them out. Investment Department would have bought up as much stock of that company as possible.”

“So as to have more leverage?”

Derek looks at Anna when she asks that question, but it is Sarah who answers her. “Yes! Very astute.”

Anna wants to make Derek proud of her and she knows the best way to learn is asking questions. “I assume research does their initial investigation before the company buys any of the other companies stocks?”

Derek is proud. “Yes!”

“So when a project is picked, do the heads of the departments keep each other in the loop?”

Casey is young and impressive herself so when she says, “Wow, you are very smart, Anna.” it means something.

It is Megan that continues again. “Yes, and one of the most important aspects to Sarah and your position will be to lead that very process from time to time and keep Derek up to date on all things.”

“Sarah, do you have anything to add?”

“Yes, sir,” she says to Derek. “Thank you. I’m relatively new myself; in fact Casey was an intern before I came to work for Mister Denton. Since Mister Denton had his heart attack I’ve learned so much from Megan, who was Derek’s personal assistant. One thing that I didn’t grasp at first was the nuance of structure.”

“How so?” wonders Anna.

“I thought that the vice presidents were the head of the departments, but I learned that they oversee multiple departments or divisions as they are called, so it breaks down like this; The individual departments, or divisions, do their tasks and meet almost nightly, depending on the scale of the project. Then all the department heads under one vice president meet once a week with that vice president. Also within that week all of the department heads meet with each other, often accompanied by you or me. Then all the department heads and all the vice presidents meet once a week, depending on the size of the project. After that, the vice presidents meet with Mister Jennings, and, of course Mister Denton once he returns. That happens every Monday and that is actually how the week starts off.” When Sarah called Derek, Mister Jennings, Anna smiled.

Derek turns to Megan. “Megan.”

“Yes, sir. Anna, basically there is so much information that your task as Derek’s personal assistant will be to take the pertinent information and catalog it, you know break it down for Derek. There will be times, when he has the time of course, that Derek and you together will go to as many of those meetings as possible. When the project is big enough there can be one or even two or three meetings almost every night. Sometimes they even overlap within departments and that is when there are multiple meetings per day. That is when Derek, you, Sarah and Mister Denton will split the tasks and then gather later and unify everything. The hours can be long, but when it all comes together it can be surprisingly satisfying.”

“Wow!”

“Babe, I mean, Anna, don’t let anything overwhelm you. Your title may be executed personal assistant, but you have authority and you can get help from anybody on this executive floor. That is what they are here for and you will oversee all fifteen of them. Another duty of yours.”

Anna takes a deep breath and says, “Okay, I won’t let you down.”

“Anna, even being my girlfriend, if I didn’t believe you could do this job at a high level I would have never hired you. Alright, it is going to be a very busy week, but nothing more important than this coming Friday.”

Casey is racking her brain trying to remember if she has forgotten something important. “I’m sorry, but what is this Friday?”

Derek smiles, “Your going away party, of course!”