Neglected by Cathy Glass

Author:Cathy Glass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-11-25T13:41:38+00:00

The following morning Paula was up and dressed at the time she would have normally gone to work in preparation for the conference call her manager had arranged, although it was by phone and not video, so she wouldn’t be seen. At 8.45 she disappeared into her bedroom with her laptop, ready to log in, while I kept Jamey downstairs playing quietly.

‘Where Paula?’ he asked.

‘In her room. She will be down soon.’

He had begun to ask ‘where’ questions – ‘Where Sammy?’ ‘Where drink?’ ‘Where bus?’ and so on. I was pleased, as this was another step in the development of his language skills.

Paula was in her room for the next hour. I heard her voice a few times and also that of a man in the conference call who was rather loud. It was just before 10 a.m. before she finally appeared, looking relieved.

‘How did it go?’ I asked her.

‘Yes, good. It took me a few minutes to log in, but I wasn’t the only one. Some of the others had difficulties and joined the meeting late.’

‘Well done. What have they said about work?’

‘They’re going to send me some files to work on, but they will see how it goes. They’ve already had some orders cancelled and they’re expecting more cancellations during lockdown. They mentioned a government scheme to furlough workers. I’ve just been reading about it. It seems that, rather than make employees redundant, the employer can keep them on and they receive eighty per cent of their salary even though they are not working. Then, once lockdown is lifted, they go back to work.’

‘Hopefully it won’t come to that,’ I said, ever the optimist.

Paula had a trainee administrative position in a manufacturing firm, and I thought it was a great pity that her first permanent post after leaving college was now under threat.

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