Chapter 3
As I expected, Michelle's show started right away.
On her first day, Thomas told her to study the company's past projects.
Just thirty minutes later, she showed up at his office door with a proposal in her hand.
"Thomas, I read the campaign we had done for Velox Motors. I think some parts could be better," she said.
Thomas was stunned and then replied politely, "Oh? Michelle, what do you have in mind? Go ahead and share."
"First, the target customer profile is not specific enough. It's too broad. Second, we could use more types of social media. We should not stick to Twitter and Facebook only..."
Michelle kept talking, using words from textbooks. She threw out one fancy phrase after another: brand positioning, performance integration, owning the conversation, and the like.
Thomas listened carefully at first, but he started to frown as she continued.
When Michelle finished, he spoke slowly, "Michelle, what you are saying makes sense in theory. But have you thought about the budget for the Velox Motors project? The client only gave us 100 thousand dollars.
"With money that tight, we are already stretching every dollar. For your plan with more social media, where would the extra money come from?"
Michelle's face turned red. "Yes, there's a budget, but our ideas should not be limited by the budget. We can try to convince the client to give us more—"
Thomas cut her off, "First day here as the new intern, you're already teaching me what to do?"
He was usually patient, but her attitude actually made him laugh. "Michelle, this is not school. Talking theory doesn't get things done here.
"Finish studying the cases and see how we actually make things work in the real world. Then you can come back with your suggestions."
Michelle had nothing to say. She held her proposal against her chest. Her face went from red to pale as she walked awkwardly back to her seat.
The room felt awkward. Some senior staff looked at each other, then at their screens as if they were busy.
I watched her on the surveillance footage. She looked like the world had wronged her. A cold smile pulled at my lips.
This was only the beginning.
All those theories Michelle had learned from books didn't work when they hit the hard wall of reality.
And I was the one who spent ten years building that wall with sweat and blood, brick by brick.
*****
Over the next few days, Michelle gave us a perfect example of "all talk, no substance."
When she was asked to take meeting minutes, she said that it was boring work. She rushed through it and did a sloppy job, full of mistakes and missing information. Christina ended up having to quietly redo the whole thing.
When she was put in charge of following up on some print materials, she started bossing the designer around. She told him to make the logo ten times bigger and use a specific shade of blue because, in her words, it would look classier.
The designer got so angry that he almost flipped his table. "Listen, these are the client's brand rules. The colors and sizes are fixed. Do you even know what brand consistency means?"
Michelle was left speechless by his retort, but she took her anger out on Christina instead.
"Christina, I need this data report finished and on my desk by the end of today," Michelle ordered.
She dropped a thick pile of papers on Christina's desk like she owned the place.
Christina was a new graduate and kind of shy. She said quietly, "Michelle, Thomas asked me to finish the poster copy first—"
"Copywriting is easy. You can do that anytime," Michelle cut her off.
She added, sounding annoyed, "I need this report tomorrow. So stop what you are doing and work on my stuff first. Is that hard to understand?"
Christina was too scared to say another word. She put down her current task and started working through the messy pile of data.
I watched everything on the surveillance footage in my office.
Linda came in with my coffee and gave me an update. "Ms. Schmitt, Team One is complaining nonstop. Thomas came to me and asked if we could move Michelle or let her go. He said she was messing up the whole team by herself."
I blew on my coffee and replied calmly, "Why rush? The real show has not started yet."
"But Christina is too nice. Michelle treats her like a personal assistant every day. I'm worried she might break," Linda said.
She looked concerned.
"Don't worry. I have it under control," I said, watching Michelle's bossy face on the screen.
"The harder she pushes, the harder Christina will push back when the time comes. Christina needs to grow. And Michelle needs a big enough stage to really show everyone what she is made of," I added.