Chapter 3: The New Job - June 1, 2020

Amy arrives at Precious Medals at 8:25 which gives her five minutes to park and find her way into the main entrance. She introduces herself to the receptionist and HR is promptly alerted to her arrival.

A young man she did not meet during her interview comes out of a door to her left and introduces himself as Jeff Domme.

“Welcome to Precious Medals, Amy,” says Jeff as he extends his hand. “C’mon, let’s go this way and get you started.”

Jeff leads Amy into a door opposite the one he exited and down a small hallway to a door marked “security.” He lightly taps on the door and hears a muffled voice.

“Enter.”

Jeff opens the door and motions for Amy to enter.

“Hey, JJ, this is Amy. She is starting today and needs to get her photo taken and an ID made.”

JJ drops his half-eaten McMuffin on his desk and stands. He points to a pair of feet painted on the floor in front of a pale-colored wall. Amy takes a few steps and turns toward the camera. Before she can decide on a smile or straight face a flash explodes in front of her eyes.

“What?” she exclaims. “I wasn’t ready.”

JJ sits and starts to process her ID. Amy looks at Jeff hoping he can offer some support in getting her photo retaken. Jeff is the the first to crack. He smiles and then the two of them start to laugh in earnest.

“Of course, we’ll take another one,” says Jeff. “JJ gets bored in here by himself so we do what we can to spice things up.”

Amy hadn’t moved from her position and again looks toward the camera. This time JJ says, “On three, nice natural smile. One, two, three,” and the flash goes off.

“Thanks JJ. We’ll be back before lunch to collect her badge.”

“10-4,” replies JJ as he picks up his breakfast.

Jeff leads Amy back down the small hallway and past reception and then through the door he originally exited. As he walks he is giving Amy his standard new employee patter.

“Now that we have that done we’ll go to my office and finish the rest of the paperwork. Primarily your tax forms and an NDA.”

The forms take less then twenty minutes to complete. Jeff then takes Amy to the IT department.

“Hey Jeff,” he calls out to the empty room. He then looks at Amy and says, “Our head of IT is named Jeff, too. And to make life really complicated, we have two more guys named Jeff in sales, though one goes by Jeffery.”

A disheveled man trudges around a corner that Amy didn’t realize was actually a hallway.

“Hey, Jeff, this is Amy. Do you have her laptop ready?”

Without saying a word Jeff turns on his heel and slowly goes back into the hallway. A few minutes later he returns with a backpack. It has a half sheet of paper attached to the strap at the top of the backpack with Amy boldly printed in red letters.

“Thanks, Jeff,” says Jeff as he takes the backpack and hurries Amy out of the office.

“He’s a great IT guy, but not very good with social cues. Best to get what you need and get out as quickly as possible.”