Harden Project

When Jourdan signed a three month contract to work on the project full time she never thought it would be so hard and fun. It wasn't so much the work but the work volume that made the job challenging. For the first two months she worked alone which was how she liked it. She was always on top of her game being the first to be done with her projects and always finishing ahead of schedule.

"Jourdan, can you come to my office for a minute?" Her boss said as he walked pasted her cubical.

The first thing that came to her mind was what did she do wrong, but she knew that wasn't it. She saved her work on her computer and logged out. As she walked to her boss’s office she became nervous. She hardly talked to her boss much, except for the morning meetings. Her boss's door was open so she just walked in.

"Please, close the door and sit," her boss said. Jourdan complied.

"For the past two months you have been a great asset to this company. The work that you have accomplished and in such short time is astonishing, which is why I'm giving you a new assignment. Plus if you pull this off I would like to keep you here. Have you on as a full time manager, if you would accept it."

"What's the assignment?"

"The customer of the project that you have been working on kind of threw a curve ball. They didn't change anything to the project but they wish to add a member to our team to help get the job done."

"That doesn't seem too bad. If they are providing free help it can only benefit us. Who is it?"

"Yeah but bad help is as good as no help. His name is Chase and he's the CEO's son. I've had a talk with him. He does have some skills but he has the attitude of a teenager. Thinks he's never wrong. I can't deny him joining our team. It may affect our future multimillion dollar deal that we may have if this project is successful. What I want you to do is adopt him, take him under your wing and watch him close."

"Is he that bad?"

"Teenagers have those kind of attitudes that have no business being in this kind of work."

"How old is he?"

"23."

"He's not a teenager."

"I know. I said that he has the attitude of one. I need you to just keep him busy with small stuff and keep an eye on him."

"When is he joining us?"

"Next Monday."

"OK. Sounds like it would be no problem. I'll keep an eye on him."

"I appreciate it. Thanks."

.. ..

When next Monday came along she was a bit excited. She considered it as being a manager for the first time. It would be good practice for her possible future job. Even though it was one person she felt privileged to be watching over someone. She had a few hours before Casey came in so she tried to do as much work as she could to be ahead before he came in. The few hours flew by quick because before she knew it he was knocking on her cubical.

"Hey, my name is Casey. Are you Jourdan?"

"That's me. Nice to meet you," she said raising from her chair and reaching out her hand. Casey accepted it.

"So what have you been told so far?"

"Well, I know that you guys are working on a project for my dad and he wanted me to join you guys to help out and get some work experience."

"What kind of skills do you have? See if I can have you do something that you might enjoy."

"I'm a pretty good gamer. You know, computers and stuff."

"That's good. We're actually creating a program for your dad's company so that he can manage his merchandise. Things like knowing how much of an item they have and notifies them if they need to order more. How about you work on typing up the written programming notes," Jourden said pointing at a stack of papers on her desk. She thought it was safe for him to do that because they usually don't care about the notes. They do it more as a habit than anything else.

"Sure, no problem. Just use this laptop over here?" He said pointing behind Jourdan's little desk.

"Yep," She said handing it to him.

.. ..

Half way through the day he finished his task just before lunch time. When he did he walked off just when Jourdan left to check something with her manager. When she got back she saw that Casey was gone but didn't think nothing of it. She decided to take a look at what he done and saw that he was finished and was impressed. When she started to read his work the impressiveness she felt for him disappeared. He typed, in most cases, only half of the information. She started looking for him. The first thing she did was look at the water jug and there he was, talking to some young girl as she giggled. She immediately confronted him.

"I'm impressed with you Casey. You got done fast."

"What can I say, I'm a fast typist."

"Especially when you type up half of what is written. Why is that?"

"The reason why is because most of the reports were too wordy and dragged things on, making half of what was written useless."

"That is not what I told you to do."

"No, but I thought that it would be more efficient that way."

"I need you to retype those reports. Word for word this time."

"Or what? What are you going to do if I don't?"

The girl beside him held back a laugh and Jourdan heard gasps behind her.

"Try me and find out."

"It's 12 o clock. Lunch time," Chase said slyly as he walked away towards the elevator.

.. ..

After the conversation with Chase, Jourdan walked into her boss's office. She caught him just before he was about to go to lunch.

“Hey, you caught me just in time,” her boss said.

“I can’t deal with him. That attitude. I can’t take it.”

“What did he do?”

“I gave him a simple task of typing the programming notes and he screws it up. He only typed half of what was written. Then when I told him to redo them, he told me or what. Like he has no consequences for his actions. He embarrassed me talking back like that.”

“Look. I know that he will be hard to deal with but we have to deal with him. His dad called to see how he was doing. He seemed oblivious to what his son is like, telling me how hard of a worker he is.”

“Then can you give him to someone else?”

“I don’t trust him with anyone else. We need to keep the brat happy so we can keep his dad happy. We need this second deal of his. It will put out company on the map.”

“OK, fine. I’ll deal with him. I’ll give him something so easy an infant can do it.”

“That’s the spirit. OK, time for lunch,” her boss said walking out his office.

.. ..

Everyday on her lunch break, Jourdan always went to this small coffee shop because she could never get enough of their coffee. She was glad to get some distance from the office. When Casey talked back to her, she felt more embarrassed than angry. Being told off like that in front of her co-workers. After she got her coffee she melted into a seat by a window to have some sun hit her. As soon as she did the door opened and there was Casey walking in with a man in his fifties. Her body tensed up and began to feel enraged of him destroying her lunch with his presence.

“Dad please,” Casey said as like a child asking for a toy.

“I stick my neck out putting you with those people, telling them how much of a good worker you are and you do this. You are worthless.”

“Dad.”

“Now you listen. Twenty-three years. For twenty-three years I put up with your crap.”

“Yeah, for twenty-three years I had to put up with you telling me how much of a screw up I am. How I’m no good and won’t amount to anything. You put me on a pedestal and scold me every time I fall. My whole life has been like that,” Casey said holding back tears.

“Yes, for your whole entire life I’ve been trying to make something of you. You never wanted to do anything. All you did was play video games all day. Video games are kid’s toys son. Then you say that you want to make them. That’s ridicules.”

The whole room was listening now. Most didn’t move and acted like nothing was happening but it was impossible not to listen in. Casey’s father started to notice as his face turned red with embarrassment. Then again, maybe anger.

“I don’t have time for this,” Casey’s father said then stormed out of the coffee shop.

Casey stood in line for a bit as he wiped tears away from his eyes. Then he looked over and saw Jourdan and started to cry even more. He walked out the door even more embarrassed.

.. ..

As she was finishing her lunch, pondering over what she saw sipping over coffee, she realized why Casey acts the way he does. He rebels because he’s always forced into doing things that he doesn’t want to get into. He has no freedom. Before she went back to the office she went to a book store and bought a book on game design and hid it in her purse. When she entered her cubical she found Casey sitting on the floor with a cup of coffee between his legs. She sat down in her chair and paused for a moment.

“So I hear that you want to get into creating video games,” Jourdan said.

“How did you hear that?”

“Your father?”

Casey said nothing. He just sat there looking down at his coffee.

“How about I make a deal with you.”

Jourdan pulled the book out of her purse and dropped it on the ground by him

“You help me out around here and I’ll teach you how to create video games.“

“Don’t you just create programs like Word and all that?”

“Yes, but one of the first things I created using programming were video games. It’s really easy. It’s just a lot of typing and figuring out how to tell the computer to do what it needs to do to get it working. Plus, do you know how I first got into programming?”

“How?”

“I tested video games to make sure they worked properly, making notes on the problems I found and possible ways of fixing them. Kind of like the notes I asked you to type up.”

Casey still said nothing. He sat motionless looking down.

“If you retype those notes I’ll teach you the basics of programming. Also when you are retyping those notes I want you to read through them as well and tell me what you think about the process of programming.”

Casey picked up the book and flipped through the pages.

“So what do you say?” Jourdan asked.

“You got yourself a deal.”