watch closely [percy]

september 2001

Edith Holthouse heaved a deep sigh as she looked down at her watch. This meeting had been looming for quite some time now, written down on the desk calendar she had been lovingly gifted after being late for one too many meetings. She had drawn a box around it and everything, even used a bright color of ink so she wouldn’t forget. It really wouldn’t do well to be late for her end-of-the-year review, especially not when there was a very real possibility to earn a raise.

Sure, she might have missed three months of work earlier this year, but she had a god reason for it. She sure thought so, anyway. January had been solely dedicated to being trapped at Hogwarts and the next two months were just her taking some time off to get better with all of that. Management had been okay with the decision at the time.. he wouldn’t save the news about changing his mind until this meeting, would he? Seemed like something he might do, Edith realized with a roll of her eyes.

It was two minutes ’til. Edith pushed her chair back from her desk and weaved her way through the other cubicles, arriving at the Department Head’s office with ten seconds to spare. She knocked a few times in quick succession before inviting herself in, not really expecting him to look up from the stack of papers his nose was buried in. She closed the door behind her and took a seat, looking around and reminding herself that no matter how much she wanted to, it would be virtually impossible to remind him that it was September (a bit early for year end reviews) and still successfully ask for a raise.

She had a list of key phrases stored up, like ‘team player’ and ‘taking initiative’ and was planning to casually avoid how she pushed things right up until the deadline, waiting until 11:59 pm on the 20th to complete a form due on the 21st. The woman was at least fairly certain she wasn’t the most incompetent person in the department, but she was equally certain that Weasley would do his best to prove her wrong.

@Percival Ignatius Weasley

Percy had done a lot of research into things that made for better workplaces. He genuinely believed that happier workers made for better and more efficient work. He was already in the process of trialling six hour work days instead of eight for one of his subdivisions. He'd heard somewhere in Sweden was doing it with some success, so he thought he'd see what kinds of effects cutting hours without cutting pay had on some of his workers. It was only September, but as far as he was concerned, there was always time for reviewing his employees. He was always looking for ways to improve and streamline the systems in his department.

Edith entered his office and Percy finished his notes before putting down his quill. The redhead motioned to the seat on the other side of his desk for her to sit down. "Lets start with something easy," he said, jumping straight into it. He offered her a smile but it was kind of stiff and uncharismatic. Percy was not very good at breaking ice. At least he was self aware. He adjusted his glasses. "How have you been since coming back to work? What parts of your return after your time off made things easier and which parts were difficult?" Percy picked up his quill again. He was recording this whole thing, of course; he had a quill to one side taking notes for him, but he was taking manual notes too. Sometimes it was easier to remember his thoughts when he was reading his own handwriting.

Starting with something easy, great. Edith nodded, ready to answer a simple question, like ‘How are you?’ or ‘Crazy weather we’re having, isn’t it?’ but those questions were the sort of small talk questions that never really occurred in this office. Because of course, ‘easy’ meant something completely different to the two Gryffindors and Edith did her best not to grimace at the sound of his actual question. ‘Since coming back to work’ clearly meant since her return from her leave, when one planned week stretched into a month, one month stretched into two. They had never really addressed the issue since her initial return from Hogwarts, when all she mentioned was the Dome and let it sit at that. There had been no follow-up questions and she had been hoping they would continue following that trend.

“Er,” she started, pushing her slipping glasses back up the bridge of her nose. She had been back to work for about two weeks before requesting to move to night shift, but that had been for a completely separate reason from the Dome and not at all work related. And now that she was back on day shift and that personal life issue had wonderfully resolved itself, she found herself not dreading work as much as she normally did.

Of course, again, that was for a completely unrelated reason. And he was definitely not asking about those sorts of things making her return easier. “Er,” she started again, frowning as the magicked quill took note of her hesitation. “It’s been good,” she finally added. “I like being back out in the field.” She nodded, letting go of the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. “I think I thrive on the creative aspects of the job,” she said slowly, picking words that she wouldn’t use on a regular basis to describe her work. “Y’know, magic over paperwork, that sort of thing.” She smiled awkwardly, realizing a second too late that her humor might not be appreciated to its full extent.

“Not that I don’t love paperwork,” she added quickly, her eyes flicking back towards the quill in the air to make sure it took not of her love for the formalities that came with the job.