As Girly As It Gets - The Dress Code - Part 15

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Moira thought, not much of a man lately.  “Well, either way, we have to avoid this problem in the future and head it off immediately.  So, we’re going to spend some time cross-training you to make sure that if you ever answer the phone again, we won’t all be embarrassed.  I’ll talk to someone and figure out the best way.” Moira was sitting behind the desk and Terry was in the visitor's chair.  Terry felt intimidated.  For some reason, it felt like Moira was the dominant one here.

And before Terry realized what he was saying, he said, “Sure whatever we need to do.  I don’t want to embarrass anyone.” “Great.  I’m glad we figured out a way to avoid any problems in the future.  Moira stood up and reached her hand across the desk.  Terry stood up and reached to shake her hand.  “Thank you, Terry,” Moira said.  As Moira walked out of the office she said, “Go ahead and sit down.  I’ll go get our smoothies and we can take a walk after we’re done.” Without thinking, Terry sat back down in the visitor chair.

When Moira returned she saw Terry in the visitor chair and she went ahead and sat down behind the desk.  Doreen joined them a few minutes later and they all chatted while downing their special smoothies.  Doreen and Moira discussed the need to get Terry some training on telephone answering skills.  As they took their walk, Moira suggested that Terry loosen his necktie while they walked.  She had suggested that several times in the past and Terry did find it more comfortable when walking.  When they would return, Moira would usually remind him to tighten the tie back in position.

Today, however, Moira did not remind Terry.  With his tie in a loose knot hanging down across his now C-cup breasts and his top button undone, Terry looked more feminine than ever.  After their walk, Terry made his way back to his office.  He felt comfort in returning to his chair behind the desk.  Moira had gone off on an errand and returned about 15 minutes later.  Entering Terry’s office, Moira sat down in one of his chairs.  “Terry, I think we have a plan to get you trained on the telephone system and how to handle volume calls,” Terry remembered they talked about this.

He didn’t realize it was something they needed to do right away.  He wanted to take a look at this Garver proposal.  “How do you think we should do it?” he asked. Moira explained, “We’re going to sell it as cross-training.  You and Doreen are going to sit with Christy and she will do the training.  We’ll tell anyone that asks that you are observing the cross-training and trying to make sure you know what is involved.  I also think you get some kind of HR credit for participating in cross-training activities.  It’s good for you all around.” Terry asked, “Christy the receptionist?” Moira said, “Of course, Christy the receptionist.

You were answering her calls when the problem occurred. Her phone had been forwarded to my extension by accident.  And, she has the most volume of calls.  She handles them for everyone.  Who better train you in handling calls and how to take messages?”

“You and Doreen will work with Christy starting in about 20 minutes,”  Moira told him. 20 minutes later, Doreen popped her head into Terry’s door and said, “Come on Terry.  We have class.” Terry thought Doreen seemed much too happy.  They made their way out into reception.  Christy seemed bubbly and very happy to have them there.  Christy had been told that she had two people to cross-train for the receptionist job this afternoon.

She really only paid attention to the people she had to deal with all the time.  So, she did not know Terry.  She knew there was a person named Terry.  But she did not know him.  So when she was told that she would be training two people named Doreen and Terry, she assumed that like the other people she had trained that it would be a couple of secretaries.  It was no surprise that when Christy met Terry with Doreen that it never even occurred to her to think of Terry as anything but a woman.  All evidence that she saw supported this conclusion. Terry and Doreen were seated on different sides of Christy.  Christy began to explain the basics of the phone system and the many special functions.

Terry was bothered that she kept saying things like “Ok girls now this is important.”  Terry was reluctant to correct her and he was trying to take notes.  Several other people from around the building walked by and Christy was happy to mention that she was doing some training and her trainees were Doreen and Terry.  While bothered by the implication that they were somehow subordinate to Christy, none of the people that wandered by were people Terry knew.

And, none of the people they were introduced to noticed that one of the trainees was male.  After a short while it was clear that Doreen already had a pretty good working knowledge of the phone system and how to answer the phone.  Even Christy noticed Doreen’s knowledge.  Therefore, Christy targeted more and more of her lessons directly to Terry.

As the lesson progressed, Christy handed the headset to Terry for some on-the-job training.  Since Terry was clearly not familiar with the system, and Christy was not a highly educated person, she corrected Terry like he was a simpleton when he made mistakes.  Most of the people she trained were new employees and below her in the hierarchy.  She had no idea who Terry was.  She also did not know any other way to deal with people.

Christy told them they had to smile all the time because the reception desk was the first thing many people saw when coming in.  They had to give a good impression.  Although they were not talking to most of the people walking by, they were the face of the company at this location.  Christy also emphasized that when you talk with a smile people on the other end of the phone can tell the difference.  She said there had been studies. Terry and Doreen tried to smile and nod to people as they walked past.  Christy did not like the way Terry answered the phone.

She did not like Terry’s greeting.  She did not like that he was asking the wrong questions.  She did not like how he was notating things.  Terry was getting frustrated.  As time went on the lesson migrated to both Doreen and Christy offering help to get Terry to change his behavior.  They told Terry to try using a more sing-song voice and talk in a nice voice.  Christy said that when answering the telephone saying, “Good afternoon. Thank you for calling.  How can I direct your call?”  It seemed simple.  But Terry kept getting it wrong the first few times.

Eventually, they got Terry through the first few steps of answering the phone and had him trained on the proper telephone messaging process.  They taught Terry what the second steps were in processing the calls and ways to appease and delay callers.  When Christy finally congratulated Terry and Doreen on completing the training, Terry was exhausted.  Terry was stunned as he returned to his office to find that he had spent the entire afternoon virtually being trained on the telephone system.  Moira congratulated Terry and after checking his messages, he and Moira made their way out of the office. Christy pulled up the Human Resources system and filled out her time sheet.

She noted that she had trained and certified two new people on the receptionist desk and she supplied Doreen’s name along with Terri Moran. Human resources added Doreen and Terri to the list of available people trained to replace the receptionist.  Human resources noted that Terri was in the system as Terry.  They added an alias that allowed either entry as valid.  This also allowed people to send e-mails to terry.moran@companyname or terri.moran@companyname.  They had done this for several of the employees with common variable name spelling alternatives.

Terry was mentally worn out after the afternoon of training.  As he sat at home in front of the TV, he couldn’t actually remember doing any real work.  As had been the pattern lately, he ate very little and fell asleep.  The morning fruit bar drinks and lunch smoothies had lowered Terry’s appetite.  With the workouts, Terry had lost weight.  Terry paid little attention when the people at All of U discussed the different drinks they offered.

He never took the time to read any of their literature on their offerings either.  The fruit bar drinks and the smoothies included all kinds of additives including synthetic hormones designed to smooth out people’s mental attitudes and to help their system maintain a certain balance.  Of course, since most of the clients at All of U were women, the synthetic hormones were mostly estrogen based.  Like many women, Moira took several over-the-counter supplements that also had a collection of additives designed to help women.

These pills were suggested for mood management, regulation of metabolism, and sometimes the management of sexual stimuli or contraception.  She had offered some of those pills to Terry when he felt a little sick at the office for a while.  Terry felt the pills helped and he had been taking them religiously ever since.

Terry’s unexplained breast development and fat redistribution to his hips along with his dieting and exercise had converted his once slim figure into a tantalizing feminine shape.  Terry now had 38 C-cup breasts, a slim waist, and slightly enhanced hips giving him a distinct hourglass figure.  However, since Terry seldom wore figure-hugging clothing, he did not display this figure to anyone except the members of his morning exercise class. The changes had been slow and subtle.  Therefore, Terry while aware of changes seemed blind to the totality of the changes.

He didn’t want to look at his breasts.  So as soon as he was out of the shower, he applied the skin creams Moira had gotten him to help keep his skin moisturized and looking great.  But, Terry avoided looking in the mirror except when he had a top or robe on.  Therefore, Terry was not staring at his nude figure in a mirror.  Terry was obviously aware that his breasts were significantly larger than when he had virtually no breasts at all.

He had not really realized how much the areola had grown.  He knew that when he rubbed his nipples or massaged his breasts that it felt great and he enjoyed spending a few minutes on that area of his body in the shower.  Since the changes were slow Terry had never really considered the massive changes from a full-body perspective. On Wednesday, Terry showered and dressed in his workout gear.  Then he prepared his clothes for work and a bag with clothes for the cleaners.  When Moira arrived, Terry threw everything in the car and they were on their way.

Each day after they had their fruit bar drink in the morning, Terry and Moira went by the finishing stylists.  Terry had gotten used to the stylist plucking one or two hairs every day or two.  He also ignored the light use of the eyebrow pencil.  The stylists would quickly do their cleanup and send them on their way.  Moira would typically involve Terry in some banter to take his mind off the makeup artists.  The stylists had initially used a brush to simply clear away any loose hairs, skin, or soap.  Terry didn’t even notice when they had added a minor amount of blush to the brush as they swept his cheekbones when completing their work.

Before they left, while Moira was working with the stylist, Terry had slipped into the pro shop and bought a third full set of workout gear as well as three more All of U shirts that he did not already own.  He had decided that he wanted to have an additional set of clothes for working out or just sitting around the house.  And, this was the simplest place for him to purchase such clothes with no one asking any questions.

He also bought a pair of workout shoes to replace his old ones at home.  Now if he decided to go for a walk or cycle at home, he’d have something that fit and was not old and worn out. At work, since Doreen had been busy in training with Terry the day before, she had a pile of filing and copying which needed to be done.  Moira had a generous pile which she gave to Terry as he delivered her morning coffee.  Terry headed off to the filing room with a smile on his face. Moira noticed an e-mail from Human Resources acknowledging that Terri with an ‘I’ had been trained on the phone system and in managing the receptionist desk.  The e-mail congratulated Terri and suggested Terri remind anyone else who trained him to enter his accomplishments on the company training form.

Moira printed the e-mail out and then deleted it.  Moira moved over to Doreen’s desk and showed her the e-mail.  Doreen nodded saying she had received a similar e-mail about her own training.  They laughed for a few minutes and then Doreen said, “You know they only assign people trained on the system to fill in when the receptionist is out.  I think they use that list to assign people.  In fact, sometimes I think it is done by the system.

Do you think Terry will get to fill in?” Moira laughed some more and then suggested, “Maybe you and I should document the things we have trained Terry to do?  You had him in the conference room.  I can document the filing and copying.  You could add an affirmation confirming his qualifications in filing and copying.  After a while, we could get some of the other girls to do the same.  After a while, he could be the best-acknowledged person at the entry-level secretarial skills.” As the morning progressed, Moira confirmed Terri’s skills at Filing. (She used the form of his name with an ‘I’ for fun.)  She confirmed he knew all the inner workings of the filing system and that he was reasonably efficient.  Some of the questions were pretty basic including questions regarding the ability to alphabetize and keep files together.

Likewise, she confirmed his training in the copying system including both basic and advanced copying capabilities along with skills in binding and following complex instructions.  She confirmed collating and usage of advanced system functions on the copier. Doreen documented Terri’s training on conference room clean-up and set-up for simple meetings.  She did not feel they had covered setting up for complex meetings or meetings including a meal.

Moira received more congratulatory messages from the system regarding his new training.  The system suggested Terri take advantage of opportunities to learn some of the advanced set-up requirements for meetings and meetings involving meals.  Moira deleted the messages after printing copies out.  She placed the copies in a folder on her desk.  Terry meanwhile spent the early morning in the filing room and was surprised when he entered the copying room at 9:20 and found no one in the room.  Terry had hoped to hand off some of his copying to one of the other girls.

However, he got into his copying.  Surprisingly, barely 5 minutes after he began copying, several of the girls brought in a variety of simple and complex copying jobs in for him.  He did not realize it but the girls had taken to waiting until he was in the copying room to make sure they could hand off their work to him.  They enjoyed having Terry handle their more menial tasks.  Terry was being treated like the new office flunky who is given all the busy work.

At 10:30 when most of the staff took their morning coffee break, Terry still had a mountain of copying.  Susan went by Moira’s desk to see if she was going to the break room for coffee.  Susan said, “We should invite Terry.  The pile in the copying room may not be done until after lunch.  When one of us is in there, we always go to break.” Moira agreed, “Good idea.  Why don’t you invite Terry?  I want to grab something off my desk.” Susan tapped Terry on the shoulder.  It felt weird but she wasn’t sure why.  “Terry, come on over to the break room.

I know you have some other stuff to do.  But when any of us are in here at break time, we put the copier on hold and simply go to the break room.  Moira will be joining us.”  She grabbed his elbow and started pulling him towards the door. Terry was caught off guard.  But he found himself being guided out the door to the break room.  Moira was there at a table with Karen and Doreen along with some of the other girls from the office.  Terry grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down with everyone.  It felt really good to get off his feet.  There were several conversations about the office and some local news items.  The girls included Terry in their interactions and Terry found he had to pay attention to what everyone was saying in case they asked him his thoughts.

Soon everyone was laughing and Terry was enjoying the break from his morning chores.  Moira and Susan walked Terry back to the copying room after the break.  Terry got back to work and delivered the final copies to the various girls in the office right before lunch.  After Terry, Doreen, and Moira finished their lunch smoothies, they decided to take a quick walk.  Moira reminded Terry that he needed to fulfill his agreement regarding taking the cleaning to the cleaners.  Moira handed two bags to Terry from behind her desk and Doreen had another bag for him.  As they left the building, Moira detoured to her car and pulled out Terry’s bag and another bag.

Terry couldn’t figure out why there were so many bags.  Moira simply said, “This is what there is for the cleaners and you agreed to take the stuff.  Other people know I usually go on Wednesday and asked me to take their stuff.  Of course, I was happy to oblige since I wasn’t taking the things.”  Terry knew that one bag was his own and that two of the bags belonged to Doreen and Moira.  He dreaded who the others belonged to.

Doreen and Moira stopped at a little women’s shop called ‘Pretty Professionals across from the cleaners and allowed Terry to take all the cleaning by himself.  Terry stood there as each bag was opened and tickets were issued.  Four bags of women’s clothing and his own.  There were numbers on each of the two bags Moira had added to their pile.  So, Terry had three ticket sets with initials and two sets with numbers.  Terry walked into the shop where Doreen and Moira were shopping.  Since the weather was nice, none of them had worn their coats.

Doreen and Moira were looking at blouses on a couple of racks in the middle of the store.  Moira asked, “All done?” Terry nodded holding up the tickets and then placing them in his bag. Moira pointed at the rack, “You should probably take a look at the choices here.  You know you need to add some new blouses.” Terry had been quickly cycling through his limited selection of blouses.  Moira had suggested they get him a few more.

But, Terry, hoping his breast problem would go away, had insisted they wait.  At this time it was looking more like the problem would be around for a while. Terry created a gap in the blouses hanging on the circular display rack.  Moira and Doreen were on the other side.  In the gap, he could see the first blouse better.  He slid the blouse over to look at the next one.  There were different colors but all seemed to be subdued and light pastels or white and ivory.  Terry quickly moved past blouses with big bows or ruffles.  Soon he got into the activity and he pulled a few out as he cycled through the available blouses in his size.

Moira and Doreen were watching him and smiling.  Terry clearly liked one or two.  Most of the blouses were not the broadcloth Terry had started with.  These were more of satin, silk, or some manmade material.  There were a few broadcloth blouses on a nearby rack.  After watching Terry uncomfortably look through the choices, Moira finally moved around to help.  Doreen came on the other side.  They both identified a couple of the silkier blouses that Terry had liked.  They were plain with different collars.

They also selected two blouses off the broadcloth rack.  With encouragement from the girls, Terry actually picked out 4 blouses he liked.  Moira and Doreen had each selected one blouse.  As they approached the checkout the lady greeted them, “Well ladies, can I help you find anything else?” Terry stiffened and started to point out that he was not a lady.  As he was forming the words, Moira’s hand swung over and grabbed Terry’s arm in a tight grasp and she looked him in the eye.  The message was clear, don’t respond.  The salesperson was surprised.  “Is there something wrong?” Moira spoke before Terry could, “No.

Nothing is wrong.  Terry is such a clothes horse that your offering to find other things could keep us here for the rest of the day.  We have to get back to work.”  Moira turned the back of her head to the saleslady and faced Terry with a stern look and said, “Right Terry?” Terry had trouble forming the words but deferring to Moira he finally said, “Yes.  We have to get back to work.”