#Writephoto – Open

From the handwritten notes of Lisa Robinson

7 July

My job is being made redundant. My boss, Prof Thompson, said the company was retrenching all the executive secretaries and replacing them with new advanced voice recorder and audio editor technology.

“Most of the scientists and researchers elected to implement the new system which will record their work and transcribe it using the speech to text technology,” he said.

Anxiety clutched my heart at his words, but I forced a smile and said: “I understand why this technology is the popular choice, it will give them a lot of flexibility with the recording process. They will have the ability to quickly start and stop their recordings, add individual notes, upload their recordings to Dropbox, GoogleDrive or Onedrive or any other cloud storage provider and download recordings by USB cable or WiFi sync to their laptops. I can see its appeal.” Lisa’s smile trembled slightly at the thought of losing her salary and having to go through the pain of looking for a new job. It was not easy with her existing skill set which were becoming obsolete in the current fast-changing job market.

“Jeff and I were talking about you, Lisa. We have been impressed by your positive attitude to learning new things and developing your career. We would like to recommend you for retraining as a data analyst by the firm if you are prepared to undergo the skills upgrading over the next couple of years. If you are agreeable to this, we thought you continue to work with our team and assist with analysing the results of our findings and collating our conclusions. You will also be responsible for assisting me with the compliance and other reports I have to prepare on a monthly basis.”

My face lit up with pleasure at the compliment. “That would be great, Prof Thompson. I would love to continue to work with Jeff and you and I would welcome an opportunity to learn new skills that will make me more employable, now and going forward.”

“That great news, Lisa. We are looking forward to working with you in your new role. Thia will contact you about enrolling in the first six-month course at the end of August. Until then, you can work as an assistance to Jacques and start learning the ropes.”

I cannot describe in words my relief and pleasure at this turn of events. The words “one door closes and another opens”, a favourite saying of my mother’s, popped into my mind.

I wonder how much of this surprising offer is Jeff’s doing. I have always known he really likes me, even though I am married. My mother would say he is sweet on me. Prof Thompson is a lovely man, but he is so ditzy, I can’t see him thinking up this scheme on his own.

This post was written for Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo prompt. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/06/27/thursday-photo-prompt-open-writephoto/