The Boss by Robin Roseau

Author:Robin Roseau [Roseau, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robin Roseau
Published: 2016-08-04T03:00:00+00:00

Moving On

We received a nice check from California, which I banked against a rainy day. Ethan allowed me to hire up to two of his employees for my quality assurance team and even arranged interviews. Interestingly enough, one was Theresa, the woman from housekeeping I’d trained with several years ago. I hadn’t known her name last name, so I wasn’t sure which of us was more surprised when she walked into the conference room Ethan had loaned me to conduct interviews.

“Theresa!” I exclaimed. “Do you remember me?”

“I do now,” she said. “I didn’t recognize your name. I only know I was offered a possible promotion.”

We sat down, and I smiled for a moment, then said, “Do you remember the things I told you?”

“You write our software,” she said. “It works much better.”

“I’m glad,” I said. “Do you know how to use a computer?”

“Yes,” she said. “My daughter taught me. But I don’t know how to write apps.” She said ‘apps’ as if it were a magic incantation.

“But you know how to use apps.”

“Oh, yes,” she said.

“And you know how to use email?”

“Yes. And Skype.”

I smiled again. “That is good.” I glanced at the firmly shut door then leaned forward and said, somewhat conspiratorially. “I want to tell you something. You can be honest with me. Whatever you say is only between us.”

“Okay,” she said cautiously.

“Do you like your job?”

“It’s a job,” she replied. “I work hard.”

“I know you do,” I said. “Do you like working at the hotel?”

She shrugged. “It’s a job,” she said.

“Would you like a better job?”

“Does it pay more?”

“Yes,” I said. “It does.”

“What kind of job? I didn’t go to college, and sometimes my English is bad.”

“You’re English is fine,” I said. “How would you like to help test the software we write before it’s installed at the resort?”

She paused and frowned, then looked down at her hands. “I don’t know how.”

“Well,” I said. “There are two ways to test software. The first way is that you write programs that test the software.”

“I couldn’t do that.”

“I know. The second way is that you use the software, which you already do. Good software testing involves both.”

She didn’t look at all confident. I wasn’t sure what to do about that, but I had liked her when I’d worked with her, and I had liked how thorough she had been. I thought about that for a minute, then said, “Theresa, when you do your job, you seem very careful.”

“What do you mean?”

“You do everything just so. You make the bed just so. You stock the refrigerator just so. You are careful and thorough. Software testing requires someone who is careful and thorough. You must test everything, and you must intentionally try to do things wrong.”

“I don’t understand. Why would I do it wrong?”

“Imagine a new employee,” I said. “One who doesn’t know how to use the app very well. She’s going to do things wrong, and the app should help her. It shouldn’t let her, oh, I don’t know. Put fifty cans of Coke in the mini fridge.

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