salience

He walks past my cube whistling a three doors down song. Boss is glad to be back. Our office is pretty nice for the small number of people who actually work here. Ascend is sales based, so most of the full time consultants are onsite, doing their thing. You know, consulting, schmoozing, not here. They tell me the company's been in this building since it was founded. First as one cube in shared space on the first floor, then three cubes and then five. After the black earnings from first year were posted, everyone was able to move two floors up, to suite 3400. And it's a huge room. You are cleared with a security badge into the office, and you're in an informal lobby. There's a secretary's desk, complete with phone and directory. The interview room is to the right, the breakroom to the left. Past that desk is the main room: 10 cubicles in the middle of the floor surrounded by 6 glass walled offices and one conference room.

My cube is next to this guy Steve's office, one of the three VPs. Jim is my direct boss, VP of sales, but he's across the room so I can breathe. Jamie is my office momma, the accounting lady who brings me cookies every morning.

Today is only my fifth full day here, but I already know that all of the VPs walk the circle around the cubes when they're thinking of how to word a proposal or what to say to the just hired consultant, apparently an older friend of a VP from back in the day. See he was found reading a novel at his desk--very obviously not consulting--by his client. It would be an understatement to say the VPs are all in a state of horrified shock over whether to fire him now or yesterday.

So it's midmorning and I'm dealing with the postpartum depression of my last mailing that's just gone out, in the middle of hacking through a pile of excel, when Jamie starts yelling for me from her cube down the way:

"Maria!!"
"What momma Jamie??" I yell back.
"It's Jim--he's on the phone, jumping around the office!!"
"So they pay you to spy, is that it??"
"His trip downtown must've been fun, eh?!"
"No kidding--he's a happy guy today!!"

And I'm thinking, this is nice, contained work, excel. I've already sorted through and mailed over a 1000 of the ITG proposals. It was the launch of my project, and man did it suck. Monday I have meetings with the Mercury folk, the guys who are partnering with Ascend for all of its ITG clients, and from their enthusiastic emails, they have much to share. After that, I start my follow up calls...

"Hey, momma Jamie!!"
"What beauty?!"
"Merc says they'll pay me $120 for the first 5!!"
"Each?!"
"Each!!"

(For the first five meetings I set up for the downtown guys with these folk.)

And then it's Jim, from his office:
"Maria!!"
"Yeah boss??"
"Hartford just called--Monday."
"Already?? That's awesome!!"
"Y'know it!!"

And it's a new feeling. Everyone's excited, the ITG campaign has officially begun. I go back to my excel after our celebratory walk around the office, Momma Jamie sits down in my cube with me.

"Maria, this is so neat--an idea they had at the beginning of May is now taking shape. But you know what the really neat thing is?? It started with you."

I smile. Just think, this is day number five of hire forty two. Success and recognition already and I'm just getting over the fact that there's no secretary for the desk out front.