My Boss Put Me on Toilet Duty Until a French Tycoon Refused to Meet Anyone Else Chapter 01
Everyone at Horizon Enterprise stuck to their own jobs.
I worked the front desk, handling guest check-ins, packages and call transfers.
I’d been here for five years. I knew every one of the two hundred staff members and which department they belonged to.
I could name regular clients the second they stepped through the doors.
I also kept track of delivery drivers, food service workers and vendors. I knew exactly who would arrive and who their deliveries were for.
Then the new Operations Director showed up. She claimed automated systems could do all my work far better than any person.
She reassigned me to the warehouse, janitorial work and general facilities support.
Digital check-in kiosks, package lockers and an automated phone attendant took over the lobby.
Chaos followed within the first month. Clients arrived and found no one to greet them.
By the second month, scattered, unclaimed parcels littered the entrance.
On the third month, a group of French business partners came for an inspection. There was no one there to welcome them.
“What kind of business runs like this?” they asked bluntly.
The entire office fell into total disarray.
***
Horizon Enterprise occupied a six-story office campus with more than two hundred employees. Mr. Garrett Boone ran the company by one simple rule: mind your own work, and stay out of others’ business.
My name is Elowen Hale, and I’d served as the lobby concierge for five full years.
I could recognize every employee by face and tell which floor their workstation was on.
Early on in my tenure, I’d misrouted a call once, and it cost the company a major deal. That same night, I wrote down every office extension by hand.
Now the right extension popped into my head the moment a call came in. I had not made a single mistake in five years.
Packages used to pile up at the front desk. Employees would dig through them themselves, and items often went missing.
I logged every delivery, checked the recipient name, sorted the packages by department, and either placed them in the pickup area or delivered them to the right floor.
I set each parcel on the edge of desks and marked them with Post-it Notes.
People asked if the work wore me out. It did, but this way everyone could enjoy their lunch break without interruption.
In my spare time, I taught myself enough French and Japanese to greet visiting clients, walk them to meetings, and keep them comfortable until the interpreters arrived.
Once a French client visited while our interpreter was stuck in traffic. I kept the conversation going for fifteen minutes with simple French and a lot of careful listening.
By the time Mr. Boone walked in, the guest was already sipping a drink and relaxed.
“Where’s the translator?” he asked.
“Traffic held them up. I covered for a little while,” I replied.
He said nothing at first.
As he passed the lobby on his way out later that day, he tossed out a short line. “You did good today.”
The front desk was my space. I watered the office potted plants every week and kept the counter spotless. I always kept three working pens in the pen cup.
I wore the company blazer, kept my hair neatly tied back, and put on just enough makeup to look polished.
Five years of standing behind that desk had left my feet aching by the end of every shift.
“Elowen is the first impression this company gets,” Mr. Boone often said.
That year, my year-end performance bonus included an extra five thousand dollars.
Phones rang nonstop, and endless packages rolled in each day.
I covered the lobby throughout everyone’s lunch break and stayed late to close out all lobby duties after hours.
Still, I knew I mattered there. People trusted me with last-minute changes, thanked me for fixing delivery mix-ups, and sometimes left coffee at my desk after a rough morning.
That was more than enough for me.
I planned to keep working here a few more years. Once I saved enough money, I would move back to my hometown and open a flower shop.
But I never got the chance to see that dream come true.
