Uncertainty

Junction

He didn't consider himself a man who followed traditions or considered it important to create any of his own, but apparently starting the year without an assistant was becoming one. The worst part was that he hadn't even asked for such a tradition to begin, and he was getting fed up with the situation.

Since his return to his hometown to start working in the company, he had heard several rumors about other big businessmen wanting to ally with him or at least not get in his way, it was no secret that he had good business judgment and that he used to get his way when he set his sights on one. He didn't use to make many alliances unless it was strictly necessary when he recognized that he didn't have enough knowledge in some specific field, even though he knew he had to be social and maintain good relationships he used to work better alone.

'Neji Hyūga, Business Negotiations Manager' said his business card, however he considered it an unrealistic position. While such an area existed in his company, he wasn't exactly the manager, or not in the usual way a manager could be summed up. He didn't have many subordinates under him or oversee the entire department, he didn't attend meetings with the coordinators or focus on quarterly metrics with the company's general meeting. No, none of that really interested him. There were two coordinators who took care of all that part that was irrelevant to him, while he took care of what was really important, negotiating.

That was his job, to evaluate the market always looking for new business, keep the current ones running, and make the necessary reformulations of strategies, but always keeping his goal in expanding the Hyūga Company. Since his arrival they had practically doubled their reach, and he had contacts around the world, which was why it wasn't unusual for him to travel or have meetings at different times. His only real subordinate was his assistant, the person who helped him organize his schedule, answer the phone and sometimes review some documents.

But they didn't last, the first assistant he had was the one that lasted the longest, and she was only there for a year. The reason for her departure? A better job offer. He didn't consider that the conditions of working for him were bad, the salary was good if compared to the same position in other companies, and if you take into account for example that time he spent 2 months traveling out of the country, it wasn't even that he demanded too much. He did demand, there was no doubt about that, but not so much that at the first offer from another place they would run away.

When the second assistant left with the same motive, he asked him which company he was going to. He frowned as he listened to him. No, no one wanted to be his enemy or get in his way, but apparently stealing his assistants from him didn't fall into that category. Because that was what had started to happen, apparently everyone else thought it was a great idea to hire the people who had worked for him.

The moment he saw the message that his most recent assistant had resigned, he wasn't surprised, he just thought that he was going to post a notice or comment in the Club that if they wanted him to train their future employees, they should cover those salaries. Have the decency to resign with a few days' notice? No, apparently no one thought that was necessary.

So his unbidden start-of-the-year tradition had him in a bad mood, especially since in his days off for the little year-end vacation, he had taken the opportunity to research a couple of projects with which to start that new year. Instead he was checking his mail to make sure himself what appointments he had scheduled, and some other pending that he shouldn't have if his assistant was there. Among his emails he had an answer in French, it was a negotiation he hadn't closed yet from the time he was traveling in Europe with his wife.

His assistant was his interpreter for that language, so he frowned because he knew that using an internet translator wasn't very reliable and he preferred that someone who really mastered that language did it, he was going to have to look for an interpreter just for that answer. And that was when he remembered that one of the coordinators the year before, when he was without an assistant for a few days or she was missing, helped him with that, so he picked up the phone and heard her stumble on the other end of the line, saying that she would be in his office in a minute.