Chapter 7: A Tricky Combination

The advertisement for a sales person had run the previous weekend and already résumés were arriving at the store. I decided not to review any of them until Wednesday when I felt the bulk of the responses would have arrived. No one used the mail any more. They were either delivered by hand or by e-mail.

In the meantime, I was still trying to figure out just what Kim was all about. I was happy that we had a date on Saturday, but still confused about the strange interlude on the back deck last Saturday. It was uncomfortable but, in the end, I got the result I was hoping for. Still, it seemed like a very strange few minutes.

I blocked out a couple of hours to review the résumés on Wednesday morning and set about going through them. There were twenty-four in all. Most were local, but several were from outside the area. The job market was tight and I expected I would get quite a strong reply to the ad.

Once I had gone through them, I would give them to Len Murchison to get his thoughts. He was our comptroller, but he was also a good judge of character and wouldn't have any bias that would rule out a good candidate. When it came to actual interviews I wanted Len to talk to them separately, again to get his unvarnished opinion. I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would find a likely candidate in this pile.

I began to do through them, quickly weeding out several that didn't look very promising and set them aside. A pair of them were very amateurish and full of errors and omissions, ruling them out right away. Another couple were from people with no business experience at all. They might be suitable for a trainee position but that wasn't what I was looking for.

Around file number fifteen, I was stopped cold. The applicant was Kimberly Lorraine Penny. It took me a minute to open the cover page and begin to read. According to her history, she had worked for a large national packaging company selling to manufacturing and industrial customers. She had worked for them for seven years before taking maternity leave, presumably for Deborah. She never went back.

Attached to the back of her résumé was a letter of recommendation from the general manager of the company. It was effusive in praise of her talent and work ethic. If she chose to re-enter the job market she would have been rehired by the company. The letter was dated sixteen months after taking her leave.

I sat back in my chair. This was completely unexpected. She must have dropped it off when she came in to buy the barbeque on Saturday. She hadn't said a word about it that evening. I thought about the implications of hiring someone I might be involved with. It could be a dangerous step but it also might be a smart one. There were two or three ways this could go but not all of them were good.

I picked up the phone and dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Hi ... it's Norm. I've just read your résumé. I had no idea you were looking for a job or that you had applied for our sales position. You didn't say a word about it on Saturday."

"No, I didn't. I assumed you would find it this week and decide what to do about it. I didn't want to influence you on Saturday."

"Do you need the job? You haven't been working for some time according to this."

"No ... the settlement from the insurance company on my husband's accident has left me well off. With Deb getting older and needing me less I wanted to find something meaningful to do that I would enjoy. Your sales position sounded very interesting, so I thought 'what the hell' and pulled up my old CV, updated it and dropped it off on Saturday."

"So you're serious then?"

"Absolutely. I've been watching the help wanted ads hoping something interesting might show up and it did. It was just a fluke that it was your place."

"I want to talk to you about this job, Kim. I also want one of my staff to talk to you as well. I don't want to be biased, but just looking at your background and knowing you, well, I don't think I'd be totally neutral."

"I understand. When would you like to meet?"

"Is tomorrow afternoon too soon?" I asked.

"No ... not at all."

"Good. Why don't we meet here at two o'clock? That will give me plenty of time to discuss the job, have you meet with Len Murchison, my comptroller, and show you around."

"I'll be there. Do I need to bring anything with me?"

"Nope. I've got what I need here in front of me. I'll see you tomorrow then."

We signed off and I hung up the phone. This was a completely unexpected development. I got up and walked over to Len's office.

"Len, can you spare me some time to interview a candidate for Barry's sales position tomorrow afternoon."

"Sure. About what time?"

"Three o'clock if I don't get too involved with my interview."

"Fine. I'll be here," he smiled.

I walked back out onto the floor of our showroom. It wasn't terribly busy, but I knew from experience that this was normal for a Wednesday afternoon. I had three sales people on at present, one in vacuums and sewing, one in TV and Sound, and one in appliances. Any one of them could help out in another department along with me if the store suddenly got busy. It was an old formula that had worked well over time.

"You won't guess who applied for the sales job," I said to Candy at dinner that night.

"Mrs. Penny," she said immediately. "She asked me about the job on Friday night. I told her you had a couple of women on sales so it wasn't an obstacle."

"Thanks. You didn't mention it though."

"I wasn't sure if she was going to apply. I thought she might. She wants to find something to do instead of sitting at home alone during the day. Deb says her mom used to be in sales years ago before she was born."

"Yes. She was very successful by the sound of it. It will be interesting to interview her."

"Why don't you just give her the job, Dad? You know you're going to anyway."

"It doesn't work that way. There are laws about giving people an equal opportunity to apply for the job. Whoever I choose, it has to be fair and justifiable. If I don't interview anyone else, that would be deemed unfair."

"I'm sure you'll find a way, Dad," Candy said giving it no more thought.

I wondered. I hadn't seen any résumés that indicated experience yet, but I hadn't looked at them all either. For that reason I'd brought them all home in my briefcase with the intention to go over them that evening. Was I already deciding Kim was my choice? I was acting like it. I had some thinking to do before her interview tomorrow.

I went though all the applications that evening and pulled five that I thought had potential. Two of them had retail sales experience and one of those two had sold appliances. Two others had industrial sales experience and the fifth was Kim. Three men and two women.

To be honest, when it came to everything except electronics, I had a preference for female sales people. They used the products we sold far more than men did. Most of them could operate any sewing machine, microwave oven, or washing machine. True, some of the new models were much more electronically sophisticated, but they understood the basics of what the machines were expected to do and that made them a quick study when new models came along.

I sat down with Len on Thursday morning and we worked out a schedule for the remaining four interviews. I would write a letter to the unsuccessful applicants thanking for their interest and promising we would keep their information on file. After Kim, we would do two each day, Friday and the following Monday.

Kim arrived promptly at two that afternoon and I greeted her, showing her into my office. I already knew a lot about her, but it was her work experience that I was interested in.

"This is strange, I've got to admit," I confessed. "I already know quite a bit about you. I don't know anything about your work history or experience, so that's what I want to concentrate on this afternoon. Tell me about your sales job."

Kim responded immediately.

"I began on the customer service desk and worked there for almost three years. I was slated to be promoted to customer service manager when I heard about a new sales territory being opened up. I applied for the job and after a lot of interviewing and testing, I was given it. It was great. I was selling corrugated boxes, which isn't that interesting a product. What were interesting were the customers.

"They were in all kinds of businesses and I couldn't help but learn a lot about them as I learned what they needed and what was important to them. I loved the job and as a result I did really well. I was on straight salary but soon I was earning some nice bonuses. I couldn't have been happier.

"I was dating a guy I met at one of the customers. He was a sales rep too and we seemed to hit it off really well. We were both successful and the next thing we knew we had fallen in love.

"It was always my plan to have a family, so when I discovered I was pregnant I was just as happy as could be. My boyfriend, Tom, was delighted as well. We got married and I worked until my eighth month then took maternity leave. At that time I was planning to return to work and my employer let me know I would be welcomed back.

"When I gave birth to Deborah there were some complications and the result was that I couldn't have any more children. At the time it didn't matter. We had our daughter and I was going to be the best mother I knew how. Within a few months I knew I didn't want to go back to work. I was too involved with Deborah to give her up to a nanny or day care. Tom was doing so well in his job that we didn't need the money, so I decided to be a full time mom.