Glass Ceilings (26 page)

‘
Oh, come on!
She n
ever got the chance to even
try
to handle it
!
’ Claire
’s eyes flashed
and she went on in a voice loaded with accusation
,
‘She hasn’t been given many
chances at all
,
so far
, by lots of people.’

It was an obvious challenge
,
and
he
regarded her gravely
for a few moments. But all he
said
was
,
‘Thank you
,
Claire, for being honest with me.
’ H
e looked away
again
, deep in thought
, a
nd just as she was thinking
that
might have been
her
cue to leave, he turned to her and said with a glint in his eye,
‘
I’ll be more careful in future
to not act without
first
checking the facts ...
but only if you’ll be more careful
too, to not go around barrelling into people
.’

H
e nodded at her with a half
-
smile,
opened the door
,
and strode out
.

C
laire watched him go
, thinking
he looked
tired and a bit ragged.

But,
she found herself mus
ing,
despite
appear
ing the worse for wear in a wrinkled suit and
s
porting a five o’clock shadow,
that man still manages
to command
respect
.

Chapter Twelve

Verity felt a burning desire to get away fr
om her
desk with its
jangling
telephone and
the
insistent
pings of
computer
reminders and email alerts
. Surely she could find
a good reason to
escape
from
the
office for a
while.
And then
it came to her, the commitment she’d made to herself
as newly appointed CEO,
to
visit
all the
work
areas
regularly
and be visible to the
labour force
. She aimed to
address the
ir
main gripe
,
about
management
locking
themselves aw
ay i
n the ‘ivory tower’ and remaining
isolated
from
th
e everyday issues faced by
ground floor
staff
.

C
h
ecking her electronic diary, she
found a time window. It was
long enough for a
re-energising
drive
down the conveyor road to
the transfer station
,
and
then
back
again
for a
sweep of
the
refinery
site
and a few work area drop-ins
.
She buzzed Kerry on the intercom to let her know she would be out for a while.

‘Kerry?’

No answer.

‘Kerry, are you there?’

Silence greeted her again.

Verity
rose
impatiently
to her feet
and went over to the interconnecting door. The outer office was empty, no Kerry to be seen.
She’d been away fro
m her desk more often than not
that day,
as though she was avoiding her boss.

With good reason,
Verity
thought testily.
There’ll be
more than one bo
ne to pick with her when I get the
chance.

Sh
e went to her desk and typed
a
brief
pop-up message
for Kerry
on
the company intranet, thinking a little sourly
,
I wonder
if
Kerry’s absence is a sign
there’
s
another
unexpected
visit
or confrontation
awaiting
me
.
As soon as she’d sent the message
,
Verity
went into the CEO’s
en suite
to freshen up. When she looked at her face in the mirror, checking her hair was still neatly tied at the nape of her neck,
her thoughts
unexpectedly
flicked to Royce
,
and
her
brown
eyes
grew troubled
.

She asked her reflection,
w
hy are
you letting him
get to you?
He’s
only
doing what comes naturally to ruthless corporate types. It’s nothing personal.

She
took a deep breath and tucked a stray
wisp
of hair behind her ears.

He
deserves
no
special consideration. So snap out of it.

She straightened to her full height, smoothed her smart linen suit, and turned briskly to
grab
the keys to her company ca
r
from off the counter
. On her way out she
collected her hard hat—s
he’d need
it
if she ventu
r
ed into a
work area
—before
striding
purposefully over to the private staircase connecting the executive suite to
the floor below.

Once on the ground floor,
she
was about to open
the door
to the car park
when
a voice behind her called, ‘G’day, Miss Parker. H
ow’s things?
’

She glanced
around
to see the environmental officer, Ben, grinning at h
er. She smiled warmly in return
, ‘Good
thanks
,
Ben.’

‘
Hey, I wanted to let you know
about that roo, the one we found
trapped in the mud lake.’

‘Oh yes,
’ Verity said, turning to
face him
,
‘
w
hat’s the latest on its condition?’

‘All good. He’s going to be OK.’

‘Oh,
great. That’s terrific news
.’

‘Yeah, we got him out
with only a little bit of drama,
’
and Ben
rolled up the
sleeve
of his k
h
aki work shirt
.

Verity
frowned
at the
nasty-looking gash on his arm, made by the roo’s strong claws.

Ben pulled his sleeve
down again
. ‘Thankfully, he
hadn’t been in the mud for too long. There was only minor trauma to his skin
, so we gave him the old
hose-off
treatment, followed by
lashings of lanolin
cream. But the way he fought us
you’d swear we were
marinating
him,
ready for roasting
!’

They both chuckled at the mental image of
lathering sticky sauce onto
a feisty kangaroo.

‘Ben, that’s t
he best news I’ve had all day! B
ut I’m sorry to see you paid a price for your compassion.’

‘Yep, it was a good result. And don’t worry about the arm, it’s nothing. Wish all of them ended that well.’

‘When you s
ay “all of them”
, just how many incidents like this do we have?’

‘Quite a few. A whole lot too many if you ask me.’

She
regarded him
thoughtfully for a few seconds before saying
,
‘I have a job
I’d like you to do.’

‘Sure, fire away.
’

‘I want to commission a report by the environmental department, and I want you to be in charge of its preparation.’

‘Me? But—’

‘T
he report
is to
outlin
e
annual
statistics on
wildlife in
cidents, like
this one, i
nvolving the red mud lakes. It will include
details of
all the outcomes
,
along with recommendations
to address
the
problem
,
and estimated
cost
ing
s.
’ She paused and eyed him
shrewdly
.
‘
I believe you have your finger on the pulse with this, Ben, that’s why I’
m asking you to take
it
on
.
And if you want to establish a quality action team to help with the task, I’d
be very supportive of that too
.
’

Ben nodded silently and look
ed
down
at the
floor, feeling proud that the CEO
would assign him this responsibility, but
also a little stunned. Preparing a report like this one was a task
his department he
ad would normally handle, so he
wondered
what the reaction
would be
to the news.

Verity noticed Ben’
s
unease and said,
‘If your manager has any concerns about this, tell him to refer them to me.’

Ben
glanc
ed up at her gratefully
, and she
added
,
‘
I’ll put all this in an email to you
,
so you have it in writing
.
I
plan
to request
a
n
allocation of additional funding in this financial ye
ar’s budget
, assuming the
recommendations
in your report
are feasible,
’
and s
he gave him a meaningful look
.
‘
S
o I need it on my desk before the EC meeting
.
That doesn’t give you
a lot of time. What d
o you think
, is it
do-able
?’

The young man’s eyes had
been
growing increasingly wide
as she spoke. This made him
look
a little like a startled possum to Verity’s hidden amusement.
But he managed to stammer
, ‘I
…
well
…
sure, I can do that.’
H
e
paused to think before adding
more confidently, ‘Yes, I can have it to you in ti
me.
It’s just a matter of consolidating the data we already have.
Consider me on the job.’ His
f
ace broke into a wide grin.

‘Good, l
et me know if you have any problems
. A
nd take
care of that
arm. I hope you
saw the MO about it? A
nd lodged an incident report with Workplace Health
and Safety?
’

He looked
sheepish
,
but
hurriedly replied
when he saw
her reproachful
expression
,
‘
I was j
ust
on my way to
see the safety officer
.’