First Day at Work

Mandy sat at the lobby of the office. She had been so excited to go to work that she barely had any sleep. She started her day early, made a hearty breakfast for herself. She took time to pick her outfit and do her hair and make-up. She wanted to look nice today and make a good first impression not only to her co-workers but to her boss as well.

"You will look for Josephine Chen. She will be your manager and will orient you on your job and all other things you need to know," her father said yesterday as they ate their lunch.

"I hope she's nice," Mandy thought as she drove to work. The streets were surprisingly empty with only a couple of cars passing Mandy's.

"I think I'm a bit too early," Mandy said to herself. She turned on the car radio but nothing good was on so she decided to connect her phone to the car and listened to her playlist. It was a fairly quick drive considering it was Monday.

When Mandy got to the office building, the parking lot was still quite empty. She picked a slot near the elevator, got out of her car and went up.

She has never met any of their employees. Her dad never took her to work. He was always serious about not bringing children to the work place. For him, children are a distraction. So Mandy never really went with her dad to see his office or meet his people. Today would be the first time.

Maybe her dad had already planned this way ahead of time. Maybe the reason why her dad never brought her to work was because he wanted her to work undercover someday. She made a mental note to ask her father about it someday.

The place looks nice. The lobby was well lit but it doesn't hurt the eyes. There was a painting of a landscape at the right wall and on the other side was a big logo of their company - EGC - Enriquez Group of Companies.

"Well, at least he named the company after all of us," Mandy thought with a smile as she studied the logo.

She looked at her watch. 5 minutes to 8 o'clock. People are starting to come in and tapping their Identification Cards to the machine to log in for work. She struggled to see their names as their information flashed on the screen. But she was seated too far to see. She sat back, sitting as tall as she can. She doesn't want to slouch but the sofa was too soft that she's having a hard time sitting straight. She was feeling the pillow on her back, and tried to push against it so that she could sit farther and maybe make it easier for her to sit without slouching. But sitting back, she noticed it crumpled her blouse so in a rush of panic, she suddenly stood up, almost knocking over the vase on the table beside her. The vase shook and it looked like it will fall over. She tried to hold it to stop it from shaking but her fingers hit the vase, causing it to fall. Suddenly, another hand caught it before it hit the floor. She looked at the person who was bent down beside her.

"Careful, Miss," he simply said. He smiled as he placed the vase back to the table.

He fixed his hair, running his fingers through them. Mandy didn't realize she was staring at him.

"Are you here to see someone?"

Mandy felt nervous. She didn't know if it was from the vase falling or from him catching it.

"Are you here to see someone?" He repeated.

"Yes! Yes. I am here to see someone," Mandy regained her composure. "I am here to see Ms. Josephine Chen. I am the new Office Assistant. I am Mand…"

"Nobody knows you are my daughter," she suddenly remembered her father say. She forgot to ask her dad if she would use a different name.

"I mean, my name is…." Mandy quickly looked around, thinking of a good name.

"Your name is…," said the guy in front of her, waiting for her name.

Toot toot… Toot toot… Toot toot! The machine sounded an alarm signifying it's exactly 8 o'clock in the morning.

"Oh shoot! I forgot to time in!" The guy fumbled for his ID and tapped it on the machine. He was a minute late. He hurried to open the door.

"Uhm, I guess I'll see you around," he said to Mandy as he rushed through the door, without waiting for Mandy to reply.

Mandy was left there standing. She wasn't able to reply because she was still fumbling for a name.

"Oh, my gosh! That… was… embarrassing!" Mandy said out loud. She sat down again, covering her eyes with her hands.

"And I couldn't even give him my name," she said, as she softly slapped her thigh with her hand.

"Who was that guy?" Mandy thought. She could still remember how nice he smelled and how he ran his fingers through his hair. She remembered how he caught the vase just in time to save her from a more embarrassing situation.

"Miss Amanda Garcia?" A voice from behind her said.

She turned around to see a tall, slim lady with thick glasses standing behind her. Mandy thought she looked young, maybe around twenty-five years old.

"Are you Amanda Garcia? The new Office Assistant?"

"Yes. Yes, I am," Mandy replied.

"Miss Josephine Chen will see you now. This way please."

Mandy followed the lady. "She must be Josephine's secretary," she thought.

Amanda Garcia. So that's the name she will use here. Amanda is actually her real name while Garcia is her mother's maiden surname.

"At least it's easy to remember," she said to herself.

Mandy was led through a short hallway. As they entered a door, she saw work cubicles, most of which were occupied. Some people were still chatting while others were already on their computers working. Some were on the phone while others were writing. It was exactly how she imagined an office would look like.

"Just like in the movies," she thought.

The lady stopped in front of a closed door and knocked softly.

"Come in." She heard a woman answer from inside.

The lady opened the door and motioned for Mandy to come in. As Mandy entered, she could see a lady sitting behind the table. She wore reading glasses while typing on her laptop. She didn't look up as Mandy entered. The door closed softly behind her.

"Please sit down," Josephine said. She was still typing on her laptop.

Mandy sat on the chair in front of Josephine's table. She felt like she was inside a clinic, talking to a doctor. She suddenly felt cold. She looked down at her thin blouse and noticed the slight wrinkle. She let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry. Did I somehow bore you or something?" Josephine said from behind her glasses. She looked at Mandy without lifting her head, only her eyes looked up.

"Oh, no… No," Mandy replied. "I was just looking at this wrinkle on my blouse and I thought…"

"It's ok. Forget about it. President Enriquez told me about you. He gave specific instructions about your work here," began Josephine. Mandy got goosebumps when she heard the word "President".

"First of all, you will be using Amanda Garcia as your name, which you probably figured out by now." Mandy was about to answer but Josephine continued. "And because President Enriquez wants to conceal your true identity, he asked me to make up a profile for you." Josephine handed Mandy some papers.

"You can read that at home and memorize it. Make sure that all the information there are the only ones you will tell anybody who ever asks about it. And if ever somebody asks you anything that is not in there — though I doubt it — you either dodge the question or figure out an answer that doesn't contradict the ones that are already there." Josephine nodded towards the papers that Mandy was already browsing.

"You will be working with a group of people which I will be introducing to you later. You will work as an Office Assistant. This work means you are the assistant of EVERYBODY. You will be told to do a lot of things. Many will require your services. You will have a 15-minute coffee break at 9:30 in the morning and another at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Lunch break is from 12 noon to 1 o'clock." Josephine got up from her chair and picked up her cellphone.

"Let's go. I will take you to your immediate superior. She will be the one to explain the work to you in detail." Josephine started to walk to the door.

"Wait," Mandy said.

"Yes? Do you have any questions, Amanda?"

"Uhm, no, I don't have any questions but…"

"Then let's go. I have a lot of things to do and have little time to chat with you. After all, your father pays me to do my job, right?" Josephine winked at her. And for the first time since Mandy entered her room, Josephine smiled.

Mandy stood up. She was going to say something but decided to keep her mouth shut.

"And by the way," Josephine stopped in her tracks so sudden that Mandy almost bumped onto her, "don't act like you're the boss here. You are an employee, you follow rules, you follow hierarchy. Those were actually your father's orders. Is that clear?"

"Crystal clear," Mandy replied. She let out a quiet sigh and made an eye roll as Josephine turned around to continue walking.

"It seems this," Mandy thought, "is going to be a long day."