Conjecture

Illustration: Phan Nhan

Nearly 5 years after graduating, Khue has changed to several different jobs, but every time she has worked, she quits. Some places have overlapping internal and external work, lots of overtime but not much salary, some places have jobs that match her ability but have organizational problems and conflicts with colleagues. Some places have stable income but she works in a different field, struggling to the point of going crazy. This time, Khue is determined to register to find a job at the famous fashion company Woman Shin, with the desire to work in the field of communication that she studied to unleash her creativity. On the morning of the interview, Khue's father called to encourage her, but also threatened her:

- If you can't find a stable job this time, go back to your hometown and apply to work at the district office. At most, join your brothers and sisters in farming and gardening. It's a bit hard but a lot of fun, don't worry.

- Don't worry, Dad. If I can't find a good job by the end of this year, I will listen to you.

Khue said that so that her father wouldn't tell her one story after another, and that would only make her more confused. After ending the call, she quickly made her way to the company, feeling a bit excited and nervous at the thought of the tense interview. This was one of the five branch companies of the Fashion Shine Group, with tens of thousands of employees from departments, executive boards, and workers directly involved in production and sales in the system. Just hearing about it made her feel how large it was. While walking and looking around the large campus, Khue didn't notice that she bumped into a woman who was also walking while hunching over to listen to the phone, her hand rummaging for something in her bag. The unexpected collision made Khue lose her balance and almost fall, and the file bag flew into the miniature landscape and rockery in the yard in front of the administrative area. She quickly grabbed the file bag from the water but it was all soaked. Looking at the simple clothes the woman was wearing, she guessed that she was also here to apply for a job, Khue angrily said:

- Hey lady, are you not looking where you are going?

- Hey, you didn't even look, so why are you blaming others? - the woman replied stubbornly.

- You like to argue like that, do you believe I will scratch your face, huh huh?

- Okay, okay, I scared you. Please forgive me, it's nothing.

Hearing the woman lower her voice and be humble, Khue felt that she was getting impatient. Looking at the clock, it was almost time for the interview, she had no choice but to put the wet file bag in the trash and hurried into the elevator, not knowing that the incident that had just happened between the two of them had been accidentally seen by the HR secretary from upstairs.

Khue was interviewed without a resume. The HR manager looked disappointed:

- Where is your application?

- I… I dropped it on the way, so…, so no - Khue stammered.

- This attitude is not acceptable. Careless, too careless. Without documents, what's the point of interviewing? Please go out.

Having decided to return to the countryside this time to work in the garden, pond, barn, or become a lowly office worker with a meager salary, Khue burst out:

- Do you guys consider resumes more important than qualifications and abilities when recruiting people? I don't have a resume, why don't you try asking and listen to my direct answer. In that case, I don't need this crappy company!

Khue then stood up abruptly and walked out of the room with long strides. As soon as the door opened, the HR secretary ran in. Not knowing what the two of them were talking about, Khue had not yet reached the end of the hallway when the HR manager followed behind:

- Hey, girl. Stop right there. You… you're hired. You can start tomorrow.

- You're not kidding me. No application, no interview, I... I got hired?

- Yes, yes… Additional documents can be added later.

Khue was so happy that she thanked him profusely and left. The HR manager turned to the secretary and said:

- Luckily you informed me in time, otherwise what would you say when the CEO asks?

- Which room should I put her in now?

- Marketing Department.

- But that room is full, isn't it?

- Then find an excuse to fire the intern.

***

On the first day of work, after getting acquainted with her colleagues, Khue was immediately assigned to write an advertising script for a new shirt model. Being assigned to the desired position, she was very excited about this task. Receiving product information from the team leader, just as she turned on her computer to start working, she heard Dung from the marketing department come over and say:

- Hey, new employee, go downstairs and buy me a glass of orange juice.

- But I…

- But whatever, go quickly, I'm busy. I'll help you later. Hurry up.

Khue hesitated and looked around, seeing everyone was concentrating on their work and not paying attention to anything, thinking back to the scene of an old ghost bullying a new ghost. But as a new person, if she wanted to reason or argue, she was afraid it would be “difficult to live”, so she would listen to them for now to keep the peace, once she got used to the job, it would not be too late to “fight back”. While waiting for the elevator, Khue met the secretary of the HR department. She asked Khue:

- Where are you going during working hours?

- Yes, I'll go buy Dung a glass of orange juice.

- Um… - The secretary nodded, waving her hand to signal her to go.

When Khue bought water, she heard the whole room was in an uproar. She asked and found out that Dung had just been fired. Everyone gathered around to whisper, Khue didn't dare say anything, just quietly put the glass of water on Dung's desk while she was packing her things. After work, the Marketing Manager found an excuse to talk to Khue, telling her if she had any difficulties at work, she could share, he would support her to the fullest. From that day on, all the colleagues in the room were generous when they met Khue, treating her like a noble person. Everyone often invited her to eat and drink after work, Khue's work was always helped from A to Z. Therefore, Khue went to work leisurely, never having to think hard about plans or worry about reporting any plans. Documents were submitted and approved, praised. Khue didn't think much, just felt that this time she applied for a job, she was favored by the God of luck. She was sure that during the interview, because of her straightforward personality and confidence in her abilities, she was hired. When she learned that Dung was fired for asking her to buy water, Khue thought that the company wanted to use that as an example, a lesson for employees to avoid discrimination between old and new employees, bullying and oppressing each other. Regarding work, Khue simply believed that support and help from colleagues was to create collective strength. She and everyone in the department were supported like that. After all, everyone helped her because the Marketing Department was always known as a talented, resourceful staff, trusted by the company's leaders. They could not let anyone in the department make any mistakes. She was new, so everyone helping her was not too much.

After working for a month, Khue heard that the CEO would come to check on the progress of the Marketing Department in preparing to launch a series of new products to the market. The staff worked overtime to arrange the rooms, promotional plans, advertising scripts and marketing activities were quickly completed. When the CEO arrived, Khue had just finished printing the documents and brought them over. When the two met, Khue was very surprised to realize that the CEO was the person who had bumped into and wet her documents during the interview:

- Oh, is it… is it you?

- Oh, it's you. I'm sorry. I was in a hurry, I was on the phone and looking for my car keys at the same time so I didn't see you.

- Yes…, I was too rude that day. I apologize to you.

***

The inspection was quick. Seeing that Khue was highly regarded by everyone here and had not done anything suspicious, the CEO breathed a sigh of relief. She recalled that morning, while preparing to go out to discuss and sign the production contract, she received a phone call from a friend who worked at the group's law office, informing her that the higher-ups had sent someone down to secretly infiltrate to monitor and collect evidence if any violations were discovered at the branch company. Because they were long-time friends, they made an exception to inform her. Today, when she met Khue again, she was certain that she was the person sent by the group. If she was not someone with "influential" status, how could she have dared to speak so rudely to her that day.

Three years have passed in a flash. Although Khue did not get many promotions at the company, she saw that everyone from top to bottom respected her, and she easily rose to the position of Deputy Head of Marketing, holding the power of life and death over dozens of people. Therefore, Khue became more and more delusional about her talent and arrogant, not caring about anyone. She forced everyone to serve her, demanding to be taken care of and pampered like a treasure. Receiving feedback from employees, the CEO was also somewhat fed up with this "supervisor". However, in order to avoid exposing the fraud in fabric quality and production contract quotes, she often clicked her tongue and let the rumors about Khue go.

While she was wondering how to resolve Khue's situation smoothly, she received a call from an old friend at the law office, secretly informing her that next month the corporation would continue to send people to monitor her. She was surprised and bewildered:

- What… what. A new supervisor? The old one hasn't even left yet and a new one has been sent?

What are you talking about? That supervisor left 3 years ago. I heard she was fired because she asked a new employee to buy water. The corporation thinks that your company does this, showing that the working environment is very good, fair and honest, so there is no need for supervision anymore.

After the call, the CEO sat there, stunned. She called a closed meeting with the key members of the Human Resources and Marketing Departments. At this point, everything was revealed. It turned out that the HR secretary, upon seeing her and Khue arguing after the collision, thought that the two were close friends. So during the interview, she reported the news to the HR Manager. Because she was afraid of offending the director's acquaintance, the HR Manager ran after Khue to hire her. The simple order to fire Dung to create a position to fill Khue's shoes was rumored by the Marketing Department staff, that Khue was a child of a powerful person who was organized, so anyone who "offended" her would be immediately ousted. If Khue was not so "special", how could she have caused her colleague to be fired on her first day at work?

Oh, the story is just a series of subjective, vague, and baseless guesses. So for the past few years, just because of a “look” from above from the secretary, everyone here has automatically revolved around Khue like a puppet. Hearing the story clearly, everyone sat motionless like living statues, their faces disheveled, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Source: http://baolamdong.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202411/loi-phong-doan-d502b68/