It all made her smile.
“Hey Dar?”
She paused and looked around a cube wall. “Yes?”
“Can you check this code progression?”
Even more so. “Sure.” Dar pulled up a rolling stool and cracked her knuckles. “Lemme see.”
**
Kerry signed off on the contracts and dropped them into her out bin, then paused. “Well, since you made your admin a manager, who are you expecting to come pick that up, Kerrison?” She asked herself wryly. “Get out of that big company mentality and get off your ass and take them down instead.”
She got up and retrieved the contracts, then made her way out through Mayte's space to the main corridor. She waved at Maria through her open door, then continued on to the suite of offices taken up by the accounting group. “Hey Col.”
“Hey girl.” Colleen was supervising the installation of a set of file cabinets, which lined the walls of the good sized storage area her department had been assigned.
Kerry came over to where she was standing. “Wasn't technology supposed to get rid of all this paper?”
Colleen laughed. “Oooo sure.” She held her hand out. “When you bits and bytes types are 100 percent sure you can't lose them in the ether, we'll stop printing.”
“Point made.” Kerry handed her over the contracts. “Can you execute these, please? I'll stop by HR with the personnel requests for them.”
Colleen studied the contracts, whistling softly under her breath. “Good gracious.” She glanced up at Kerry, who returned the look with a wry, slightly sheepish grin. “I was telling my brother about this place. He thinks it's really that you and the tall dark and dauntless one have the touch.”
Kerry cocked her head to one side. “What touch?”
Colleen rubbed her thumb against her first two fingers. “The money touch, or really, success.” She said. “Most people would have been out there pounding the pavement handing out fliers looking for work. Not you guys.”
“Oh, that won't keep up.” Kerry shook her head. “We caught a break because of the government projects.”
“And these?” Colleen held up the contracts.
“Well, we're lucky in that, we've got a history in this industry.” Kerry put her hands behind her back and rocked up and down a few times. “And we've got a history of success, between the two of us. If we didn't, we probably would be out there pounding pavement.”
“Lucky for the rest of us.” Colleen winked at her. “Let me get these squared away and filed, in these bonny new cabinets of mine. Half a drawer already with documentation.” She indicated one set, which carefully labeled drawers.
“We should talk about off site storage.” Kerry said. “Set up an account with Iron Mountain, at least.”
“Already did that, m'dear.” Colleen said. “But it would be better if we could transfer it all digitally. The tapes.. I never much did trust them.”
“Me either.” Kerry confessed. “Let me see what I can come up with, okay? I”m going to go grab a cup of coffee.”
“Surely.” Colleen went into the office with the folder, leaving Kerry to emerge back into the hall and head for the stairs dropping down them in an easy rhythm.
“Roberts Automation.” The receptionist was answering the phone, as she got down to that level. “Yes? Oh, yes, let me put you through to our accounting department.” She gave Kerry a little wave. “I”m sure they're interested in a new stationary vendor.”
Kerry rolled her eyes and chuckled as she ducked into the downstairs break room, newly finished and equipped with tables and microwaves and two big refrigerators. The coffee service had been moved inside and off it's cart, and she nodded in approval at the newly plumbed drink machines and the box with it's selection of teas.
The refrigerator was already full of lunch boxes when she opened it, and jars of various condiments in the door pockets as well.
They had a smaller kitchen upstairs, but Kerry had decided to keep things on the lower level, to encourage people to get up and move around not get stuck in their chairs all day long. She opened one of the cabinets, stepping back as she spotted lines of neatly logo'd mugs inside, in their blue, gray and buff colors.
“Nice.” She took one down and examined it, then put it down and selected a green tea bag rather than the coffee she'd intended on making. She added some honey to the beverage then took her cup and strolled around the lower level. She could hear carpenters and other workmen near by, and she stuck her head inside one of the nearly finished staff work areas whose door had a ladder parked next to it.
The room was empty and looked large, but Kerry knew once they got the modular furniture inside, it would rapidly shrink and she counted in her head how many cubes it would hold. “Sheesh.”
This would be the room for the support group the HR firm was busy hiring. They would report to Mark, but as she imagined the space she made a mental note to set aside the back section – which had a little angle to it and windows that overlooked the garden - for a supervisor.
Yet another person they'd have to hire.
Wow. Kerry moved along the corridor and headed around to the back side of the building, where the HR group had moved having expanded to require more space. She entered their new office, finding six people there with modular furniture, all busy on the phone.
She looked around, but the supervisor had spotted her and hurried over. “Busy in here.”
“Boy is it” The woman said. “Let me tell you something Ms. Roberts, I've been doing this for fifteen years and I've never seen a company come off the blocks like this one has.”
“I'll take that as a compliment.” Kerry smiled. “But I've got another set of requests for employees. We're going to need four more web developers, and two mobile specialists.”
“My goodness.”
“And next week, the support area's going to be ready, so we need to fill it.” Kerry said, almost apologetically. “Six tech support people and a supervisor. That's all for us.”
“Wow.” The woman seemed slightly overwhelmed. “I”m going to have to call up some other agencies. Our pools are almost empty.” She grinned though. “But that's the kind of problem I like to have.”
Kerry remembered something. “Let me send you a list of possibles. I had heard of some layoffs in the recent past that could end up working in our favor.” She patted the woman on the arm. “See what I can do.”
She left the HR people in a buzz of activity, and went along the back side hallway heading for the other set of steps leading back up to the 2nd floor.
Going past the loading dock though, she paused when she heard voices outside. She turned and went to the dock, sticking her head out of the big rolling door to find Carlos there with their persistent antagonist, Wheels. “Hey.”
Carlos was standing on the dock, his big, muscular arms crossed over his chest, regarding the disabled man at street level. “Hello there, ma'am. Was just having a discussion with this guy.” He indicated Wheels. “He doesn't like that I had Waste Management put a locked hatch on the garbage dumpsters.”
Ah. Kerry hadn't realized their new security manager had done such a thing. “Well, it's s shame that people couldn't just abide by our wishes, but there ya go. Good job.” She returned Wheel's dour glare with a mild expression. “I'm not really sure what your problem is.”
“It's just garbage.” Wheels said. “Why do you care if someone roots in it?”
“Cause it makes a mess we gotta clean up.” Carlos answered him. “I saw what you did yesterday. That's why I had them come out today and lock it. Guy had to spend two hours cleaning up after you.”