The Come Back – Jenny 58

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.]

[Old back story: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Jenny episodes maybe this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Linus looked over the desk at Jenny.

“I’ll need to see your current CV of course,” he said.

“You... what?” said Jenny.

“CV,” said Linus. “Perfectly standard request of a job applicant, don’t you think? Would be weird if not.”

“But,” said Jenny, “I worked here this time last year. I left under a year ago, I’m coming back to the same job, nothing has happened since then.”

“A lot has happened,” said Linus. “You might not think so, but this company has been through a fair bit with this pandemic…”

“That’s not what I meant. I mean know me.”

There was a pause.

“I suppose,” said Linus, “there is that. But the big chief will want to know why I didn’t look at your CV if anything untowards happens.”

Linus explained the company had had to lay off a number of people over the year. A regrettable move and not one they took immediately, but as time went by and the company rearranged itself to survive it was one which seemed necessary. Now thing were picking up a little Jenny was not the only one who was being reconsidered for re-employment. 

Jenny felt this entire situation was a little unfair, but given her circumstances she thought the best course of action would be to go along with whateverLinus required and get back into the job she knew she could do, for a business that knew she could do it. 

It wasn’t quite so straightforward for Linus, however. He was concerned about Jenny’s close ties to their previous financial administrator (Izzy, of course) who had left, if not under a cloud of ignominy then certainly surrounded by a mist of confusion and doubt. He was also a little nervous about what Jenny had been doing for the interim months, namely a strange TikTok venture with her daughter which appeared to have then been hacked, an attempted and now apparently abandoned plumbing career and of course, losing a wife while becoming a grandparent.

“None of this is a problem,” he assured her, “But I need some reassurance. On a professional level.”

“And you think my CV will give you that?” Asked Jenny.

“It’ll give me something,” said Linus. “And right now anything would be good.”

Jenny agreed to find an appropriate document and send it through as soon as she was back in front of a computer. For the time being she still had to go over her recent unemployment history. She said the plumbing idea was a good one and from what she’d seen the work was different and sort of fun. However the timing really wasn’t right. She needed to be there for her family and be the steadfast bread-winner. Heading off into the realms of being a self-employed tradesperson didn’t really tick the right boxes.

“Do you want to ask me anything?” asked Linus.

“What did Izzy do?” Jenny asked before she could reconsidering or stop herself.

Linus leaned back in his chair a little.

“I can’t go into details obviously,” he said, “And to be honest with you we’re not entirely sure of the details. There doesn’t appear to be any huge deficit or lost money anywhere, but a couple of figures don’t match what we expect them to be and certain funds seemed to have left the company and then returned. All very mysterious. We’ve had people look at it and they’re satisfied there’s nothing illegal, but I have to say we were glad to see the back of her.”

He looked up at Jenny. Jenny was determined not to cry. For half a second Linus considered apologising or saying something conciliatory, but half a second later he decided not to.

“All rather unfortunate but we’re viewing it as water under the bridge. Do you want to see where you’ll be working - or rather where you might work should we decide to give you the job?”

Later, Jenny sat inside a cafe with a deluxe hot chocolate and a twin pack of biscoff biscuits. She sighed, dipped one and sucked the chocolatey goodness from it. The workplace had changed. The office was the same shape - the room, the decor the shell of it hadn’t changed - but the rearrangement and reduction of desks, the increased signage and multiple packs of hand sanitiser made it a strange place to be. 

Jenny was longing for the security she felt in her own home, but she knew she couldn’t - shouldn’t - just stay in. Life was still there for the taking, still out there and required you to be out there, to mix with other people, talk about things and work with each other. It was like she was starting her first job. And just like when she started her first job she knew eventually she’d get used to it.