The first day of the work immersion with Hale was a little bit intense. However, he doesn't know if he can survive the test to happen later. He is not aware that the try-out test will be today, he never reviewed anything. Surely he will be roasted by the strictness of their boss.
The break had just ended, and they were given time to prepare and review for later tests. But Hale is in trouble, he forgot to bring his important notes for his practice. He is just crossing his fingers and praying he can demonstrate right from tests.
"Good day, ABM trainees. I hope you are all set physically and mentally. We are now going to start the tests. For our first test, you will be dealing with data collection and visual presentation using Microsoft Excel. As you can see, we put different physical folders on your desk. Those folders consist of data, all you need to do is to filter the information. In other words, you will make a table and a graph. Am I understood?"
"Yes, boss!"
The trainees went to their desks and then opened the worksheet. Hale opened his mouth like O when he explored the folders. Like seriously, they are going to filter a thousand papers just to enter it into a single visual presentation.
"And by the way, you are going to work on that in just thirty minutes. Long time, right? Well, you are so lucky because you were being pampered for your first test."
Hale bit his lips and raised his right eyebrow. He is shocked about the workplace, he thinks that clerical work is easy. He underestimated the task in the first second, but now he is struggling with how to work fast.
Harrison is strolling the desks of the trainees observing how they work. Until he noticed that there was someone who used the worksheet without advanced formulas. He stopped there and patted the shoulder of that person.
Hale felt the electric current from his shoulder when someone touched his shoulder.
"X-Xander..."
Harrison massaged his head when he heard that name again. "Did you just call me with that name? Oh please, don't you ever say that again. Ohh ouch, my head..."
"Oh no..." Hale bit his finger when he saw the reaction of the boss by just mentioning the name of his dead boss's secret boyfriend.
His heart races when Harrison looks on his monitor observing his formulas. The boss just grimaced and smirked when noticed some simple execution on the worksheet.
"May I see you how you work? I just want to see if you will pass this test."
Hale moved his fingers fast and continued what he started. The time came that he needed to create a bar code on the fifth column of the table but he worked on it manually. He doesn't have an idea how to make a shortcut so he didn't need to put vertical lines with different thicknesses.
"Uhrrmm! Hale, are you just a beginner in Microsoft Excel? We are in the 21st century and still you are working like that? How disappointing! You have three columns to work on but only three minutes are remaining. Do you think you can finish the first test? Come on, break a leg!"
Hale's hands are now trembling. He is intimidated by Harrison, this is not the boss he dreamed of. He is just gaining confidence from Armando and Xander so that he will not experience a breakdown. The task is quite tough and it kills him eventually like torture.
And the time had just ended, the trainees stopped working on the computer then left the desk. They formed in line before the boss spilled the points on the test.
"So far, I saw someone here that has great potential. I also saw the worst ones, he/she works like an old-fashioned user and demonstrated traditionally. Don't you know that we require speed and flexibility in terms of clerical work because we are in a competitive company?"
Hale is guilty of this, but he is not expecting that there is also another trainee who works like he did. He is hoping that he will pass even if he never executed well.
"Since this is just the first test, I will consider anyone. But I am warning you, please self-train yourself, just explore online to earn more knowledge. Now, let me introduce you to the second test. As ABM students, you must be mastering bookkeeping. And for our task, would be bank reconciliation. Quite easy, right? You can go back now to your desk. I will just give you five minutes to accomplish the task."
Hale is doubting now on why he entered this strand. He is not totally good at bookkeeping, even making a ledger gives him a headache, and it will be more intense especially since they are working with bank reconciliation.
The data is ready when they face the monitor. The numbers are overwhelming and the transactions are quite many.
"Are they sure we can do this? Why so many transactions? Ugh."
The trainees scratch their heads while studying the transactions. The CEO might be joking in giving a task, it seems like they are impossible to accomplish. Are they living in a movie Mission Impossible?
The time is ticking and still, they are reading the numbers carefully and spotting the double entries and errors.
"One minute left, you must be finalizing now."
Everyone acted fast just to finish the task. They finally formed a solution to reconcile the bank transactions. However, Hale is missing one thing, he cannot execute the balancing. He must have an eagle eye or else he will not pass and not be accepted to work here in this company as a trainee.
"Hands off! Please leave the desk and form a line."
He is now crossing his fingers and breathing deeply.
"May I call Hale, Jacklyn, and Lea?"
The three trainees went in front to face the boss and hear the comments. The probability that they passed or failed is fifty percent. This is kinda terrifying as they still don't know if they are lucky or not.
"Jacklyn, you didn't finish the task the same as the first test. Lea, you almost hit the mark but unfortunately, you didn't make it. And now, Hale, you missed an entry and never found the remaining errors which resulted in unreconciled output. What is happening with you? Are you really taking ABM? I can't sense you deserve to graduate with that strand. What a shame that you didn't have a quality performance. What am I supposed to do so that we can let you enter this company?"
"U-Uhmm... Boss, I think we must have training with you. The purpose of work immersion is to mold the students in the workplace. What is the point we are called as trainees if we will not be trained?"
Harrison cleared his throat. "Then I was wrong, ain't I? So you think what we did here is not a sort of training? Would I need to teach anything that was taught in your class? Hhhmm?"
"With due honesty, I am not saying that we must be retaught, our teachers will be offended if they find out we learned nothing."
"Then what are you pointing out?"
"I noticed that the tasks are impossible to execute perfectly. What if you train us how to work with so much time pressure? We will accept the challenges but we must learn them from you."
"You have a good point. I like your honesty, I appreciate your suggestions as well. Well, starting tomorrow we can do that.
Hale deeply sighed after the intriguing scene. He didn't expect that Harrison would understand what he said. He really wanted to have a healthy conversation just to make things clear.
He is now wondering if this boss knows his job in terms of handling trainees. If Xander is the boss, he will not experience the nightmare here.
After a few seconds, they heard a fire alarm and everyone ran and panicked. Harrison triggered his anxiety when he knew that there was an emergency in the company. He has had a phobia and trauma with fires since he was in a bomb incident.
Hale had a chance to get out of the room when everyone exited there, but he noticed that his boss passed out and was lying on the floor.
"B-B-Boss! Oh my... oh dear, oh dear... Heeeelpppp!"
Luckily, a security guard went into the room and assisted them. Harrison became unconscious.
"Oh god, please wake up, boss," Hale whispered himself and prayed silently.
The fire is at the grand entrance, and the people here panicked more thinking that they cannot go out and escape safely.
Hale finds some exits so that he can leave this place. But he cannot let the boss remain unconscious, he is planning to do CPR but he is hesitating. But he still did it...
Harrison inhaled dramatically and got back to his senses. He was surprised when Hale's face was just two centimeters distant from his head.
"Did you just kiss me, Hale?"