On the top floor of Maycrom Gaming Corporation, the President's office.
The office was cold and spaciously boring, the furniture was wood-paneled and dull. A glass shelf at one corner of the room was cluttered with the detritus of awards.
Behind a properly spaced desk made out of mahogany wood sat a man. He was dressed in a six pieces grey suit, his head was crowned with sleek fine hair, perfectly styled to fit his cold demeanor.
He is the well-known CEO of the Maycrom Gaming Corporation. One of the potential suitors in South-Edenville, however, he lacked social instinct clues.
At age twenty, he began his gaming company. Everyone has witnessed the growth and development of the company. The games software his company developed is none that could be seconded by another gaming developing company.
Ten years later, he was thirty years old. From an unknown young man, he became the youngest richest man in the history of South-Edenville and his name appeared on the top 100 richest people in the world.
He was known as Mr. Hogan by his employees. He raised his head to look at the woman standing in front of him. His frosty azure colored eyes shot the slightly plump woman a piercing gaze but she did not shiver as expected, she had long gotten used to his glares.
"Where is my secretary?" His sculptured angular jaw moved up and down as he spoke. The reflection of his gleaming white teeth could be seen. He was the overlord of distraction.
"With due respect sir, no one had been employed to fill that position yet" the woman asserted with a small bow.
"How many weeks has it been now?!" he snapped and the woman jumped. His sharp voice could give one a scare. "Do you not know your responsibilities anymore?!" He barked.
The woman who was the head of the HR department took a secretive deep breath to calm herself. Even if she was old enough to be the mother of the young man, she remained humble since he was her boss.
"Sir, the department had not ceased searching for individuals to employ as your Personal Secretary however, the situation now is not encouraging... We will surely find a suitable person fit for the position soon" the woman said.
How could she explain to her boss that several people applied for the vacant position but they fled when they were told that they would be working as Mr. Hogan's Personal Secretary.
Yes, Mr. Hogan was infamous for his cold attitude, many of those who had related with him one time or the other ended up being psychologically affected. He was a terrific boss, to begin with.
A few secretaries who left his office just disappeared and never returned to the company, some left with tears while some were even sent away by him a few hours after they started working.
At this point, no one even applied for the job anymore. The company paid well and gave other benefits to its staff but no one wanted to risk working with the thousand years iceberg. They would rather watch the man from afar than be close to him.
The HR department was left in dismay as they had no idea of how to find Mr. Hogan a secretary within the one-week ultimatum he gave them. After that day, there was only one day left for them.
"I do not care how you will find a responsible person to work for me, I believe the country is not short of individuals now. You only have today... You know what I mean" he uttered.
Of course, the woman understood his unspoken words clearly, she could only pray a heaven-sent person come for the job. At that point, she was ready to employ just anyone. She doubted if anyone would want the job but... She could only wait.
"Yes sir!" She voiced respectfully. With a flick of his wrist, she was dismissed. The woman did not wait for a second in the office any longer.
He was left alone in his space, he picked up a lone ball pen on his table. The edges of the pen were trimmed with tiny diamonds giving it sparkles. The pen was exquisitely designed. As he used the pen to tap on his desk, his sparsely wrinkled emotionless face stared into nothingness.
"Ding!" A noise came from the computer sitting on the side of the desk. He turned his head and stared at the computer screen.
"!" His frozen face cracked, he stared closely at the computer screen with popping eyes. His face was overwhelmed with disbelief and suspicion. He moved his finger on the mouse for a while. His brows narrowed with a sharp glint.
"It is not possible" he muttered with a cold voice after a while. His cold expression returned but his eyes were clouded with unfathomable suspicions. "That person cannot be so poor now..."
In the HR department.
"Mary, what happened? Did boss yell at you again?" one of the staff ran to the woman who was previously in Mr. Hogan's office as soon she returned.
"No, it is not bad this time" Mary waved her hand and offered a small smile.
"Oh, dear Mary, we know you are our boss here but you cannot keep taking blames for us all the time" another staff spoke.
"Look at you Blakes, who is taking blames for you? I am keeping my job here" Mary rolled her eyes at her juniors.
"It is all right Mary, we all know our boss and can tell how he reacted, there is no need to hide anything from us anymore" the female staff voiced with a pitiful smile.
"Brenda... it is alright" Mary uttered.
"If you say so..." Blakes and Brenda uttered at the same time. "But you have to stop standing in for the department all the time, okay?" Brenda offered seriously.
"Why?" Mary threw her a side glance. "I am just sure I can always keep my job" she shrugged.
"Whatever" Brenda rolled her eyes. She knew she could never win an argument with her senior.
"I have a plan" Mary announced.
"Really!"
"Finally, what is it?!" Blakes and Brenda echoed.
"You two will discuss it with the others, first, you should bring down the previous announcement on the Findjob platform" Mary instructed.
"What! Why?" Brenda exchanged a confused glance with Blakes.
"Yes, the announcement on that platform is too explicit. We need to change the announcement to a simpler one. If possible, put up an announcement without mentioning the company's name, don't even mention the nature of the job, the credentials this time does not matter, meaning that anyone can apply, the announcement should be as bland as possible!" Mary instructed.
Brenda and Blakes exchanged gazes, "what are you thinking?" Blakes questioned, Brenda nodded, she was curious too.
"I am just saying that over the years, our ways of finding employees have been too high profile. Let's do something simpler this time" Mary explained.
"Oh..." They had no comments. All they knew was that Mary was planning something.
"Don't worry guys, we are only using this method this time. You know what I mean" Mary said as she patted their backs.
Of course, they finally understood Mary's theatrics, she was taking a gamble. The common platform for seeking employment in the country is called "Findjob". It is a website where all vacancies in different companies are uploaded so that employment-seeking persons could apply.
Everyone in the HR department understood the nature of the problem this time, it was possible that if they did as Mary suggested, a person or two might apply for the position. That is the only way they could be saved from Mr. Hogan's wrath.
" What if... if the person who applied is not up to the boss' standard?" Brenda questioned nervously.
"Are you asking me that?" Mary raised a questioning brow.
"Think about it, has anyone been up to his standard?" Blakes snickered.
"Right..." Bread muttered understandably. Their boss' standard is not of this world. He just cannot be pleased like mere mortals like them.
"You get it now. If we are lucky enough to employ anyone today before the deadline then we are lucky but I am also sure we will be doing this again in the next few days" Blakes explained.
"Let's inform the others and get to work. We have less than 24hrs now, anyone who finds an applicant should report to me immediately" Mary instructed.
"Yes!" Brenda and Blakes answered. Mary nodded and returned to her office while Brenda and Blakes reported the instructions to the other staff.
For the next hour, the staff in the HR department were busy bringing down their previous advertisement on the platform and were drafting a new one. When they finished the drafts and uploaded the announcement, they waited for applicants with crossed fingers.
After all, the population of the country is over a billion persons, there were a handful of job-seeking people every day. Regardless, it is not all of these people that pay attention to a platform like Findjob. There are still people who applied for jobs through the platform.
Another hour passed and yet, no one applied. The staff in the department kept their fingers crossed and waited. The only thing they could do was wait.
Thirty minutes later...
"Ah! I got one! Somebody applied!" One of the staff yelled and everyone turned to that person. They heaved a sigh of relief.