The Fifteen Minute Novel is an attempt to take a single prompt and use the last sentence written each day as a start for the next day. This year I had several prompts circling around a similar story, so I have combined them. However, the story starts the same way each day, with the last line from the day before and a timer set for fifteen minutes. The hope is to end up with a complete, if very rough draft by the end of the year. Some stories are better than others, but I always learn a whole lot about my own writing when I do this so for me it is not only a nice way to work out a story, but it is a tool for helping my writing get better. And so, we continue this story for 2024 with…
Day 69: Given her time in Evers’ office, Sophie wasn’t all that surprised.
Given her time in Evers’ office, Sophie wasn’t all that surprised. She closed the probationary letter and clicked open the evaluation form. She quickly scanned it, noticed that she was listed as uncooperative and had all of her performance benchmarks checked as poor. Again there were notes marking her as not a team player and marking her work down as late or incomplete.
It was nearly the polar opposite of the review that Elizabeth had given her.
‘I wonder how that will look.’ Sophie thought. She knew that the two reviews were going to be compared as part of Evers’ evaluation. As they couldn’t look more different she wasn’t sure what would happen. She felt a bit of the tenson headache slipping back in. Sophie closed the evaluation and opened a folder she kept of all of her previous evaluations. She took the evaluation file and transferred it to the saved file. After a moment of thought she started clicking on the previous evaluation forms, looking them over. She had been in the office longer than Evers had, her previous supervisor retiring and Evers taking his place.
Her previous supervisor, Emma Marks always gave Sophie a high approval rating and when she listed items for her to work on, they were always logical. Sophie remembered looking at the suggestions and incorporating them as best as possible. She also noticed that any improvements were marked on the following evaluation. Ms. Marks had always been a fair evaluator.
When Sophie clicked through the evaluations Evers gave her, Sophie saw that she never ranked higher than fair. ‘And the criticisms weren’t anything I could do anything about.’ None of his comments contained actionable items. She looked at the months where more work from the others started to be sent her way. When she didn’t have time to take on other projects for people her ratings took a dip and she was listed as not a team player. On months where she took the work from others her ratings went back to fair and the comments made involved her improving team mentality.
Worry over what those ratings would do to her over all longevity with the company was what caused Sophie to stay late so many nights. Looking at the reviews, adding the newest one as well as the probationary letter to her file, Sophie felt something inside her click.
She felt her worry drain away. Either the review for Elizabeth would stand or Mr. Evers evaluation would go in her file. If it leaned towards Elizabeth, then it would be fine. If it leaned towards Evers, then Sophie would start looking for a new job.
Ten til Midnight 