The conference room gradually filled as people trickled in, every seat soon
occupied.
The attendees were all senior executives from FY’s various departments, along with the whole team from the PO division.
Jonathan, technically a guest, had been assigned a seat in the front row by Peter. But when Jonathan spotted Marina already seated in the crowd, he immediately chose the seat next to her instead, prompting Genevieve and Melanie to start whispering and gossiping behind their hands.
Marina pretended she didn’t care, but inside she was absolutely thrilled.
She couldn’t wait for the entire company to know that Jonathan was her boyfriend.
Peter pulled the blinds shut, plunging the room into darkness, save for the soft glow of the projector.
Niamh stood at the front, facing a sea of faces. Even in the dim light, Jonathan and Marina, leaning together and whispering, stood out.
This meeting had been organized by Peter specifically for Niamh. Her ten new designs were being projected onscreen for the whole company’s leadership to review and score.
At first, Jonathan had scoffed at the mention of Niamh’s designs. He’d heard from Marina that none of Niamh’s drafts had ever made it through the review process. In a company filled with high achievers, he thought, keeping someone like that around was just embarrassing.
But as the slides flicked by, one after another, Marina noticed Jonathan had stopped talking to her. His eyes were glued to the screen, so focused that he didn’t even notice when she tugged his suit sleeve several times.
When the last design had been shown, Peter reopened the blinds, flooding the room with light once more.
“All right, let’s move on to scoring. A score of ninety or above counts as a pass.”
The moment Peter spoke, the designers from the PO department erupted in
disbelief.
The usual standard, set by Monica, was a passing score of sixty. Niamh had never managed to reach even that, let alone ninety.
7/0
17:330话。
Chapter 45
Most people had assumed this entire scoring session was just for show–that Peter was putting on a performance.
After all, rumors were everywhere these days: apparently, Niamh was only at FY because she was sleeping with Peter, and she had no real talent. That’s why, people said, Monica had blocked all her designs.
But Peter’s demand for such a high standard today left everyone confused.
Not just the design team, but leaders from sales, outreach, advertising, operations–every single department head in FY–each gave their score for Niamh’s ten designs. And every single design scored above ninety.
Peter didn’t look surprised at all. Niamh, on the other hand, was visibly stunned.
But the attention in the room wasn’t on Niamh. Everyone was staring at Monica.
Unable to withstand the pressure, Monica finally stood up to explain herself. She said that while Niamh’s designs were good, the PO product line focused on gold jewelry. Gold is soft, she argued, and making such intricate designs would be risky with the current manufacturing techniques.
“But as the design team lead for PO, it’s your job to select the best designs,” Karin interjected bluntly. “Whether or not the production can achieve them isn’t your problem. You should be submitting the top designs to your supervisors–the decision to put them into production isn’t up to you.”
Monica flushed bright red, unable to argue, and could only apologize.
“These days, new 5G gold techniques are making real progress,” Karin continued. “Niamh’s designs might be challenging, but they’re not impossible. In fact, they could push our company’s technical capabilities forward–gold jewelry has always been FY’s weak point.”
Once Karin finished, Niamh couldn’t help but speak up.
“I actually have some ideas about improving the hardness and craftsmanship of gold…” she said, stepping to the whiteboard and sketching out diagrams to explain her newly invented technique to the room.
