As Girly As It Gets - The Dress Code - Part 14

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Terry said, “I guess I didn’t think of it that way.  I know you’ve helped me a lot.  And, frankly, I’ll need a lot of help in the future.” Moira said, “Good.  Now go inside and go to sleep.  I have to get home and get my own beauty sleep so I can be here to pick you up in the morning.” Terry said good night and went inside.  He pulled his old bras out of his drawer and put them on the bed.  He removed the tags and placed his new bras in his dresser.

He then put the older bras in the bag and placed the bag in the second bedroom.  As he left the room, he looked back at the bag of bras he had set in the closet.  How strange was it that he was hoping to get back into those bras?  While his desire was to get rid of his breasts, he knew that the process of doing so would involve them shrinking which would take him on a path to wearing his old smaller bras.  He shook his head as he shut off the light. Tuesday Morning, as usual, Terry collected his clothing and donned his exercise gear before Moira picked him up.

After their stop by the fruit bar, Moira and Terry quickly dropped in on the stylists for a finish before leaving for work.  Moira mentioned that Terry’s eyebrows had a few stray hairs and the stylist took it as a cue to pluck two or three hairs from each side of his eyes, just to remove some stragglers.  Terry started to complain but she seemed to be done before she started.

Before Terry could say anything else, the stylist had brushed a quick pencil across his brows to finish them,  The stylist showed Terry his look in the mirror and it seemed totally unnoticeable.  Terry thought he looked pretty good and assumed his concerns were over nothing.  He wanted a good professional look.  The stylist noticed Terry had a chip in one of his nails even though it was clear polish.  She grabbed an emery board and smoothed things out.  She told Terry, “You need to keep an eye on your nails between visits.  Do you have a delicate emery board in your bag?”

Terry said, “No I don’t think I do.” The stylist grabbed one out of her shelf of implements and handed it to him along with a little pencil. Terry wasn’t sure what else he could say, “Thanks.”  And he put the board and pencil in the side pocket of his bag. As they made their way to the car, Moira answered the question Terry had been afraid to ask.  “Terry, the pencil is called an eyebrow pencil.  She gave it to you so that you could touch up your eyebrows if needed.

Most women carry one in their purse or their makeup bag.  If you notice your brows are a little uneven you can quickly touch it up.” Terry thanked her while saying to himself that he figured he didn’t need the pencil. At work, the morning devolved quickly.  Since Doreen and Moira had both stopped filing and avoided any copying unless absolutely required, they each had a nice pile of filing and copying.  Terry got the girls their coffee and then headed for the file room.  Once the filing was done it was just before 9:00 and everyone was arriving.

Terry made his way to the copier.  Soon, several of the other girls had dropped off copying.  Some of them stayed for a few minutes and chatted with him about office gossip.  Terry was devising a system, which any good secretary had to have, for keeping track of his various copying assignments. He used post-its and had several piles to know to who to return the different copying jobs.  Several of the girls asked him to simply return the originals and place copies in interoffice envelopes.  Terry filled out the envelopes while the copying machine was busy.  Moira stopped by and talked to him for a minute when she was going to get herself a coffee refill.

Terry worked through the typical morning break and did not finish all of his jobs until after 11:00.  He spent another 15 minutes delivering the different jobs to girls in the office and finally dropped a pile of outgoing inter-office memos.  Terry got himself a fresh cup of coffee and found his way into his office a little before 11:30.  Terry was brought up short as he approached his door and realized there was someone in his office.  He turned to ask Moira but her desk was empty.  At the door, he realized Moira was sitting at his desk and there were two people in the other chairs.  Terry listened for a minute and realized they were going over one of their outstanding proposals.

Terry didn’t want to interrupt.  So, he made his way over to Moira’s desk.  While he was thinking about what to do, he realized his legs were a little tired from standing all morning.  He took a seat in Terry’s chair and looked around the office.  Everyone was pretty busy.  At that moment, the phone rang.  Terry looked down at the phone.  He wasn’t sure if the call was for Moira, himself, or just the office.  Terry picked up the call and said, “Finance Department, can I help you?” The voice said, “Yes, I’m looking for Moira.” Terry responded, “Moira is in a meeting can I take a message?” The voice said, “Sure.  This is Phil Martin.  I was calling to get her the final data on the Garver Project.

Just have her give me a call.  My number is 818-555-1423.” Terry was frantically trying to write the message down on a post-it he found on the desk.  Terry said, “Hold on a second.  Could you repeat the number?” The caller seemed annoyed, “Yeah, 818-555-1423.  You got that honey?” Terry didn’t answer right away as he was trying to finish his notes in small letters on both sides of the post-it. The caller sounded more annoyed, “Did you get the message?” Terry proceeded to repeat the message and the call was disconnected. Doreen was watching this from across the room.  Terry looked like a kid that had been thrown in with the big boys.  She had watched him frantically searching for a pen and then looking for something to write on.

Terry looked really relieved to get off the phone.  She decided to have some more fun. Doreen went to the receptionist and told her to head out to lunch and just forward the receptionist line to Moira’s phone.  The receptionist thanked her and forwarded the main line.  Then Doreen returned to her desk to watch the fun. Terry was already taking a call.  He looked totally lost.  Doreen approached. Terry covered the mouthpiece. Terry asked, “I have to forward this call.  Do you know how?” Doreen said, “First, tell them you have to place them on hold for just a second to be able to forward their call.  Smile when you say it.  They can hear the smile.” Terry got the call on hold.  Doreen told him how to forward a call.  The next line rang.  Terry answered and started to ask Doreen another question.  She indicated he should put them on hold also.

Doreen said, “You have to deal with the calls in the order received.  You also need to be quicker about it.” Terry forwarded the first call and got the second person back on the line.  He figured out what they wanted and put them on hold again.  Another call came in.  He put it on hold.  Terry asked Doreen where the second call needed to go.  She showed him where to look up the numbers.  Terry forwarded the second and third calls as the phone rang again. Terry placed the new call on hold and asked Doreen why all these calls were coming to Moira’s phone.

Doreen shrugged and said, “Maybe today is the day Moira has to cover for the receptionist going to lunch.  We usually have them forward the calls instead of sitting at the receptionist's desk.  You handle the phones.  I’ll check on the receptionist.” Terry was writing down notes on post-its and the phone never seemed to pause for more than half a minute.

Doreen waited about 20 minutes and then found one of the other girls who was supposed to cover for the receptionist and asked if she could take the calls.  When she went back to Moira’s desk, Terry looked like he had been in a fight. Doreen looked at the pile of post-its and said, “Terry, I found someone else to take the calls.  By the way, that is not how you take messages.  Ask Moira and she can show you how we do it.  Everyone needs to know that.  Post-it notes are strictly against the rules for message taking.” Terry sat at the desk and had nothing to do.

He just sat there waiting for the phone to ring or for Moira to finish her meeting. Shortly, Moira’s meeting concluded.  As she was escorting the people from the office, she said, “Oh and this is Terry.  If you need anything and you can’t get ahold of me, Terry can probably help.” Terry stood up at the desk and simply nodded to the people and said, “Anything I can do to help, I’m at your service.”  Moira smiled and waved goodbye to the people. Moira looked at Terry, smiled, and asked, “Have you kept yourself busy?  The phone sounded like it went crazy for a while there.” Terry almost looked like he was going to cry.  “I was busy for a while.

But I certainly have not been productive.  Who were those guys you were meeting with?” Moira answered, “They were here to finalize and approve the proposal for Ferris Industries.  They gave their approval.  So, we are a go.  Isn’t that great?” Terry was caught off guard.  How could the proposal have been completed and approved without his involvement?  Didn’t he need to approve it?  “Moira, don’t I need to approve it to go forward?” Moira thought it was cute that he seemed unsure if his approval was needed.  “Terry, we talked over the original draft.  I’ve met with everyone involved and we have approval.  Is there some reason you think we should not move forward?” Terry wasn’t sure.  “I guess I am not sure.  I assume I am okay with it.  I’ll take another look and make sure there are no issues.  I’m sure you did a great job.” Moira, “Well, it’s a little late to change it after everyone is on board but I’ll send you the last draft everyone has approved.

Now, tell me what you have been doing to keep yourself occupied.” Terry told her about his morning in the filing and copying rooms.  He expressed concern that he basically worked through the morning.  And then when he finally came back Moira was in his office.  “So,” he said, “I decided to sit at your desk to simply give my legs a rest.  Then the phone rang.  I didn’t know what to do.  So, I answered it.”  Terry paused. Moira prompted him, “Who was the call for?” Terry said, “It was for you.  Some guy named Phil.  He said it was about a project you were working on.” Moira of course was looking for more information than this.  “Terry, Phil who?  Did you get his full name?

Did he leave a message?  My god, was it something important?” Terry quickly sat back down at Moira’s desk.  He was sorting through a pile of post-its.  Suddenly, he said, “Here it is.”  Terry proudly held up a post-it with scrawled handwriting on both sides.  Some of the writing was horizontal and some were vertical.  It was clearly a mess. Moira looked at Terry like he was an idiot.  “Is that how you document important messages?  That is a mess.

Is that something you think you should give someone in a business environment?” Terry was flustered.  He looked at the note and realized that she was right.  “I wasn’t prepared.  I had no idea I was going to answer the phone and then I had to search for paper and this is what I found.”

Moira looked at him and said, “So, that is your half-ass explanation of the first note.  But, if it was done in an emergency, why didn’t you prepare yourself better for the second call or any of the ones thereafter?  I seem to see a pile of these notes on your desk.”  She referred to it as his desk on purpose. Terry hung his head slightly.

Doreen was watching this quiet interaction from across the office.  She wondered why they hadn’t gone into Terry’s office and Terry looked like he was being corrected for his message-taking. Moira looked at Terry.  “Do I ever give you scribbled notes on a post-it?” Terry thought, “No,” he said. “How do I give you messages?” she asked. “You usually send them in an e-mail.”  He said. Moira looked like a teacher scolding a student.  “Do you know how to send an e-mail?” Terry said in an exasperated voice, “Yes, I know how to write an e-mail.” Moira said, “Good.

You can sit right there, log into the computer and send all of those phone messages to whoever they are for via e-mail the same as anyone else in this department would have done.  I’ll grab some coffee.  I’ll even grab one for you.  But, don’t move from that chair until you are done doing this task correctly.  Look at one of the previous messages I sent you so that you get the format correctly.  Also, they all have to be cc’d to the email address phonemessages@ our company name for long-term reference.” Terry pulled up the chair and started logging in.  Moira dropped a coffee off for him a few minutes later.  She looked over his shoulder for a moment and then went into Terry’s office. Terry worked away at Moira’s desk for the next 20 minutes sending messages off to several people in the department.  Although some of the messages were for executives, all of the messages were either sent to or copied to clerical staff.  Almost every one of them took notice that they got an incoming e-mail from Terry and they thought Terry was a manager.

It would lead to some light gossip and several questions would make their way to Moira or Doreen eventually.  When Terry was done, he proudly walked into his office to let Moira know he had finished his tasks.  Moira, who was sitting at his desk, told him to have a seat while she checked.  Terry sat in one of the visitor chairs and watched Moira over the desk as she logged into her e-mail account and checked the messages. Seeing the message from Phil, she said, “Okay, so I have the message you got from Phil Martin.  Let me give him a call and see what this is all about.” Moira picked up Terry’s phone and called Phil on the number from the message. Moira heard the other end of the call answer and said, “Hi, this is Moira from finance.

I was returning your call regarding the Garver proposal.”  Terry couldn’t hear the other end of the call.  He simply watched Moira across his desk.  It didn’t occur to him to wonder why she made the call from in here or why he was in the visitor's chair. Phil said, “Thank God you got the message.  I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but who was that bimbo answering the phone earlier.  I had to repeat myself multiple times.

Frankly, I assumed the message would be lost and never get to you.  That one should probably not be allowed to answer the phones till she has more experience.  I hope that wasn’t your secretary.” Moira chuckled, “No, it was just someone who hadn’t been fully trained on the phone system.  I’ll talk to the manager about it.  Now how can I help you?” Phil continued, “Well Moira, we have been really happy with the proposal you have been helping us with.  In fact, because of your diligent assistance, we have decided to double our commitment to this proposal.”

Moira couldn’t believe it.  And Terry, watching her knew something really exciting had happened.  Moira exclaimed, “Phil, thank you very much.  We really appreciate the opportunity to help you and we’ll do all we can to show that you made the right decision.  Again, thank you very much.” As Moira hung up the phone she had a smile that stretched as far across her face as possible.  Terry stared at her waiting for her to explain.  Moira just sat there, in his chair at his desk. Finally, Terry couldn’t take it anymore, “What?  What did he say?

Why are you smiling like that?” Moira placed her palms on the desk.  She looked around the office.  Then she looked back at Terry.  “That was Phil and he is the key decision-maker on the Garver proposal.  In spite of the fact that he was put off by the, and I quote, ‘bimbo he talked to earlier’, Phil has decided that he is going to double their commitment.  This was already our largest proposal this month and now it is doubled.” Terry was most surprised because he couldn’t remember what the Garver proposal was.  He didn’t remember working on it at all.

He wasn’t sure he had even reviewed it.  And now it was the biggest proposal they were going to close.  How could that have happened? Moira looked at Terry.  “Don’t you want to congratulate me?  The Garver proposal is one of the ones I have been working on.”  She stared at Terry expectantly. “Absolutely,” Terry said, “Congratulations.  That is wonderful.  It looks like our new system is working out great.” Moira could tell that Terry was reluctant to deliver this praise.  So she thought it was time to put Terry in his place.  “There is one problem of course.” Terry asked, “What problem?”

Moira said, “The problem is the ‘bimbo’ he said answered the phone, screwed up taking his message and almost cost us the deal.  I promised him we would get that person trained on the phone and make sure it didn’t happen again.” Terry asked, “He thought I was a bimbo?  Worse, he thought I was a girl?” Moira said, “Those were his words.  And, why is it worse if he thought you were a girl?” Terry was indignant, “I’m not a girl.” Moira looked at him, “I would have thought being considered a bimbo, female or male would have been totally insulting.” Terry said, “Of course, that is insulting.  I was just surprised that he didn’t realize I was a man.”