Tuesday
West City Branch Bureau, General Office
Today was Johny Lee's first official day on the job.
His desk was assigned to a corner near the window. The morning sun blasted directly through the glass, baking the desktop. Johny pulled the curtains shut to block the glare.
Facing him was Samson's desk; they sat face-to-face, separated only by two seventeen-inch computer monitors and a desk calendar flipped open to January.
Inside the office, everyone was busy or at least pretending to be.
Tammy, the lively girl standing by the copier, was frantically organizing a stack of documents.
Without turning her head, she shouted, "Jack! I can't free up my hands here.Help me copy these. The Bureau needs them urgently."
Jack, who looked about twenty-eight or twenty-nine, was typing lazily on his keyboard. "I'm busy too. Find someone else."
Old Quinn, the oldest person in the office, sat as immovable as a mountain. He was reading the morning newspaper and showed zero intention of helping.
Paul, who had a sharp, ferret-like face, was hunched over his desk, writing something furiously. "Wait until I finish writing this; I'll be right there."
The last person, a young married woman named Jane, was holding a compact mirror and meticulously drawing her eyebrows with a pencil.
Johny blinked. He stopped typing, stood up, and immediately volunteered. "Tammy, let me do it."
"Okay, okay." Tammy gratefully stuffed the documents into Johny's arms.
"Do you know how to use the copier? First, align them properly, then press that big green button. Yes, single-sided. Make four copies of each, then staple them and stack them there. Oh, right..don't call me 'Miss Tammy' or anything formal. I started school early and just graduated a year ago. I'm probably the same age as you and Samson."
"I'll help too." Samson, who had been sitting idly like a giant statue, quickly walked over.
Tammy nodded. "Alright, alright. One of you copy, one of you staple. The faster the better; the leaders are waiting for these."
Whirrr... Clack....
The copier ground into action. Samson, with his massive hands, clumsily but carefully stapled the finished sets.
Just as Johny and Samson finished the stack, Paul and Jane who had been doing her makeup suddenly shot up from their chairs.
Almost in unison, they said, "I'll deliver them."
They exchanged a glance. Jane smiled charmingly. "I'll deliver to the Political Department and the Confidential Department, you deliver to the Bureau Chief."
"Deal."
Paul straightened his shirt collar with sudden seriousness. Jane checked her foundation one last time.
Then, snatching the documents Johny and Samson had just prepared, the two of them breezed out of the office.
Johny and Samson watched them go, feeling a bit puzzled. They did the work, but the others ran to get the face time?
Tammy was used to it, She pursed her lips at their retreating backs. "They're never active when there's actual work to do, but as soon as they hear they're meeting a leader, they sprint out the door....Hmph."
Johny had just arrived and didn't fully understand the office politics yet, so he just smiled and didn't comment.
Suddenly, Jack beckoned them over. "Johny, Moose, come here for a moment."
Johny and Samson walked over. "What is it?"
"You both copy these tables. Do you know how to use Excel? Create the tables according to my format. The content can be dragged directly from the Word file next to it. Just copy and paste. Make sure you don't paste the wrong things! I need this before noon. Print it out when you're done."
From his tone, Jack sounded exactly like a high ranking leader giving orders.
Once Johny and Samson started making the tables, Jack relaxed. He leaned back in his chair, holding a cup of tea, and started browsing an online forum about freshwater ornamental fish.
Noon
Johny and Samson finished the Excel task. Jack glanced at the screen and nodded slightly. "Mm....Very good."
Tammy smiled teasingly.
"Leader Jack, it's lunch break now. Can we go eat?"
Jack wasn't angry at the title. He chuckled, "What kind of leader am I? Don't tease me."
Over at the other desk, Paul looked at his watch.He immediately packed up his briefcase, tucked it under his arm, and announced, "I'm going to the hospital to visit Director Zane."
He left quickly.
Jane twisted her waist as she stood up, smoothing her skirt. "Someone is treating me to lunch today. I'm not eating in the cafeteria." She sauntered out.
"Johny, Samson." Old Quinn, who hadn't spoken a word all morning, folded his newspaper and smiled kindly at them. "You haven't bought meal tickets yet, have you? Come on, use mine today."
Johny quickly waved his hand. "No need, no need.
Thank you, sir. We can just grab something outside."
Samson nodded.
"Yes, thank you, though."
Tammy interjected enthusiastically.
"What good food can you find outside around here? Don't look down on our small cafeteria; the food is actually quite good. Come on, I'll take you. Old Quinn, I'm stealing them away! Let them use my meal tickets."
Old Quinn smiled, the wrinkles around his eyes crinkling pleasantly.
"Alright. You young people should interact more. I think these two young men are quite sincere."
The Cafeteria
Tammy was ordinary-looking, but she had a great personality, talkative, familiar with everyone, and unafraid to speak her mind. While they ate at the large cafeteria on the north side of the compound, Tammy chattered away, filling them in on the office gossip.
Thanks to her, Johny finally gained a deeper understanding of the "General Office."
In other government agencies, the General Affairs Department and the General Office are usually the same thing.
However, due to the special security nature of this Bureau, the level of documents handled is different. A separate "General Office" was set up under the General Affairs Department.
It was responsible for drafting meeting documents, preparing speeches for leaders, forwarding files, and other miscellaneous grunt work.
The actual Director of the office was concurrently held by a Deputy Director of General Affairs, but he delegated everything.
The person actually in charge of their room was Deputy Director Zane, a man in his fifties who was in poor health and constantly on sick leave.
Below Deputy Director Zane were the staff members:
* Old Quinn: He had the most seniority, but rumor had it he offended a powerful leader in the Municipal Bureau years ago. He had been suppressed from promotion ever since. Now in his fifties, he was still a junior staff member.
He had likely accepted his fate and spent his days leisurely reading the newspaper, doing zero work and taking zero responsibility.
* Paul: He was intensely ambitious. He constantly hovered around the leaders, and his flattery skills were world class. If he wasn't buttering up the Director, he was chasing the Deputy Bureau Chief.
* Jack: He had connections. It was rumored that the Branch Bureau's Commissioner Gordon had a very close relationship with Jack's father. Because of this, Jack didn't pay much respect to anyone in the office other than Deputy Director Zane.
He acted like he was the boss among the staff.
* Jane: A married woman around thirty. Although she looked relatively ordinary, she loved to dress up, constantly making herself look flashy and parading in front of the Bureau leaders.The gossip was that she was hoping to become someone's mistress to climb the ladder.
* Tammy: The only one who actually did proper work. Almost all the documents, big and small, were handled by her.
Johny absorbed all of this information while chewing his rice.
Well, that's the situation.
The office was.....very complicated.
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