The grey
door opened zestfully.
"Hedgehoggy,
you will help me!" the little entrant declared jovially.
"Will I?"
the so addressed smiled politely.
"You will!
Because I will not do that!"
He
approached to her desk and threw some sheets of paper on it. She picked them
up, skimmed over the text and glanced uncomprehendingly on the training
officer. She knew him too well not to feel the underlying aggressiveness in his
behavior.
"You will
declare your personal officer that I am by no means willing to discuss with a
deaf."
"Why not?"
asked the young woman. "He is already recruited."
"He would
not, if I had the least to say in that case."
The door
opened again and a younger man entered.
"You may
tell him yourself now."
The elder
turned round and spoke quickly now without hiding his anger about both, the
original subject and the feeling that the clerk has attacked him from behind:
"This young chicken of yours has fixed a date for an interview with a deaf
aspirant for me. Although she might be not responsible for the recruitment, I
am not responsible for the misjudgment of the ministry either. I have better
things to do, than interviewing someone who can never work here."
"Now, now,"
the younger tried to appease him, although embarrassed himself. "As the ministry
has recruited him, they must have an idea how to design a satisfactory job for
him."
"Idea!" The
other one got excited. "Would be the first time they got ideas. I will tell you
something: They have their quota, and as he is disabled 100 p.c. they took him
in. That's it. They did not waste one thought about how to deal with that.
Devil-may-care! And we have the problems
now."
"Which
problems?" the clerk was to be heard.
Both men
stared at her perplex. Then the younger smiled, the elder burst out laughing:
"God bless your naivety! - She is incomparable our hedgehoggy, isn't she! -
What would you do with him? Let him sit by your side and show him everything?
One can't talk to him."
"Well, he
has a high-school graduation. Somehow he must be able to learn."
"We are not
at school here." snorted the training officer. "We are at work. And work has to
be done. There is no time for our clerks to nurse a helpless young man, what
you - I am sure - would find quite romantic. And what will be later on? He cannot
phone, he cannot talk to tax payers personally. He's simply wrong on this
place."
"There are
positions without or few personal contacts to tax payers. I would not prejudge
that he is wrong here."
"As you
have done before." the personal officer grinned.
"I
generally take care not to prejudge." she said seriously.
The
training officer curiously looked from one to the other.
"You know,
that she is responsible for the refusals of the three aspirants last month."
the younger explained dastardly and watching the clerk cautiously added: "Too
late to blush, lady."
"I ... " she
started to defense herself.
"Answering
back would only accuse you." he smiled predominantly. "And as the mother of one
was so kind as to call me and show herself grateful for your judgment of her daughters really abilities and claims for the
future, it is also needless to deny."
"Hm, hm,
hm, Miss Hedgehog, that is not very friendly of you." made the training
officer.
"I have no
wish to deny anything." she answered. "However the three were very well able to
make up their minds themselves."
"After
talking to you." the personnel officer insisted.
"Perhaps ..."
she corrected low. " ... after I listened to them. And isn't it much better, that
they found out before they took up the job?"
"'Found
out' is good!" was the answer. "Anyways, your abilities have my full respect,
because they will solve the problem for us."
"How so?"
the training officer wanted to know.
"Well, I
suggest, our young lady here will interview the deaf in order to let him find
out, that his abilities shall lead him to a different place."
"No." she
declared promptly. "And besides that: I am unauthorized."
"True." the
elder agreed. "What are things coming to, if every baby is allowed to
interview? She'd better sit here on her desk and learns to confine to her
duties."
A third man
entered the room. The other two nodded respectfully, the woman greeted the
director with a smile.
"Look here,
please, sir." the personal officer addressed him, before the one could take his
turn to his own bureau. "We have a problem."
"Well, if I
may help?"
"Among the
aspirants of this year is a deaf young man and we are in need of someone with
special social skills to deal with him during the interview."
The
expression of the 'special social skill' were slightly accentuated and led to
success immediately.
"But well,
we have someone here. With her social as well as her communication skills our
Miss V. surely would walk through it."
The
personal officer nodded earnestly: "That was, what I would have suggested
myself, but Miss V. seems to have difficulties in accepting a task which her
rank does not include."
"But Miss
V.," the director wondered, "when did we ever have issues about that? You know,
we always depend on you in such cases."
"You are
very kind, sir." the clerk said. "In this special case, you see, the minutes have to be
written. I am not allowed to sign them."
"Well,
well, that may our training officer do as usual, and also correct possible form
errors. You might not and need not be aware of those."
As the
clerk knew her director better, she managed to answer these words addressed to
her with a noncommittal smile.
"Form
errors?" he laughed. "Well the ones I found always were corrected by her. We
will do it very easy. Miss V. will sign, I will countersign, and you both will
not have any problem at all."
Very
satisfied with himself he nodded at the two officers and went to his bureau.
"Hedgehog,
hedgehog," said the training officer, "your naivety by time will earn you a lot
of anger and trouble." He left the room slamming the door.
"You indeed
have much to learn." declared the personal. "But first arrange an appointment
somewhere for me that I may be out of the way, when this tête-à-tête will
occur."
Alle Rechte an diesem Beitrag liegen beim Autoren. Der Beitrag wurde auf e-Stories.org vom Autor eingeschickt Barbara I..
Veröffentlicht auf e-Stories.org am 11.04.2006.