The sun shone with a warmth Felicity didn’t feel in her heart as she stepped in from the humid clutches of the summer morning’s crowded rush. Her heels clicked on the marble floor as she strode towards the elevator that would take her up to her office. Even here in the ground floor lobby, she could already feel her temper starting to rise in anticipation of yet another day ahead, and she paused ever so slightly just before she jabbed the elevator call button.
Felicity had barely had a chance to put her things down in the stillness of her corner office when her new assistant burst in without knocking and started sputtering about a mix-up in Felicity’s schedule. It took all of Felicity’s resolve not to tear into the girl, but the cold harshness of her voice was still enough to make Olivia blanche into silence.
“Stop blubbering like an idiot! Start again.”
“I, um, made a mistake in your schedule,” stammered Olivia. “You were supposed to have a breakfast meeting with the visiting CFO-”
“Yes I’m aware,” snapped Felicity, “And I’m trying to finish preparing before he arrives.”
The girl looked like she might be about to cry. “I’m so sorry, but he’s not coming here. That’s my mistake…” She trailed off and gulped at Felicity’s glare.
“Let me guess, he wanted to meet at his hotel and you forgot?”
Olivia nodded nervously. “He’d heard good reviews of The Lobby at the Peninsula and didn’t want to fight his way through the Causeway Bay rush hour traffic.”
Felicity closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She was going to be late. Unavoidably, embarrassingly late. But before she had time to stew, her assistant piped up.
“If I may?” Olivia hesitated only slightly, but quelled her nervousness and continued when Felicity didn’t stop her. “The CFO is a foodie, and I’m sure he would welcome the chance to enjoy his breakfast in peace without the distraction of work. I’ll let him know there was a mistake in the scheduling, but that you’ll be joining him for coffee after he’s eaten.” When Felicity’s expression softened slightly in consideration, Olivia ventured “From his last visit to Hong Kong, he seems pretty laid back, and you won’t be too late. I don’t think he’d mind, and, I take full responsibility for my mistake.”
At Olivia’s last suggestion, a sharp rebuke flashed through Felicity’s mind. But she had to admit to herself that Olivia was right. Paul was distinctively Australian in his relaxed attitude, and his girth spoke of his love of food. She would actually have a much more successful meeting with him to secure extra funding for the Hong Kong bureau if he were happily well-fed when she broached additional items to her initial proposal, and if she had nothing but positive energy to match. Her frustrations aside at Olivia’s rocky probation performance, would it really achieve anything to lash out at the poor girl? She was so eager to do well, and in many ways reminded Felicity of herself in another age, when she felt she had so much to prove as the only woman at the office, and a young one at that. Times had changed since then, but Felicity recognised the hunger and anxiety written on a face accustomed to anger but begging for patience. She decided that her anger was unproductive and to focus on the more important impending negotiations that warranted a greater focus of her emotional energy.
Surprising even herself with a rare — if subtle — smile, Felicity nodded to her shocked assistant. “Make it happen, Olivia.”
Food for thought: How can giving in to your anger be less productive than letting go?
