“Hey Rica, you want a job?” She turned when she heard her co-worker Erma’s voice as she exited the elevator. It was mid-morning and everyone else was at their desks.
“A job! Where?”
“Triumphant Insurance wants a Telephone Operator.”
“Tch, I applied and they said they don’t have any vacancy at this time.”
“Oh, that’s a form letter they send to people who have no connections, me know somebody in Personnel. You can’t get job unless you know somebody in Personnel you know. So wha’ ‘appen, you interested?”
“Okay,” replied Rica a little skeptical . “I guess it won’t hurt to try again.”
“Okay just write your application and take it in personally. Don’t mail it you know!”
“Okay ma’am, thanks.” Rica turned towards her desk and Erma continued to the ladies’ room.
Change is so stressful, she thought, but working in the same office for three straight years can really get to a person. It was time to move on.
Two weeks later, Erma took her one side.
“Wha’ ‘appen? You never took in the application?”
“Yes, I did,” Rica said, a puzzled expression on her face.
“But Miss Brown said she hasn’t seen it. Who you gave it to?”
“I left it at the security desk.”
“Naw, man! You should have taken it directly to Personnel,” said Erma almost stuttering with annoyance.
“But you never told me that! You said carry it in and you never gave me a contact person or anything!”
“Alright, just do over one and take it directly to Personnel. Tell Miss Brown I sent you.”
“Okay, now you talking. You never gave me that information before.”
Rica was also a little annoyed that she had to do it all over again. She hated writing applications and she hated starting over but it was so hard to fit in.
Two weeks later she got a call to do an interview for Triumphant Insurance in two days. The following day she got a letter from Triumphant Insurance saying there was no vacancy at that time in response to the application she had hand delivered to the security desk.