My Cruel Boss Wants Me

Chapter 2: The Start Over

Elisse wasn’t able to respond right away when Hannah suggested working for their company. She didn’t want to offend her friend by saying no right away, but at the same time, she’s not really keen about working for an ass of a boss.

Elisse: “Uhm, I don’t know Hannah. I’m not sure if I’m ready yet. Plus, I don’t think I can deal with a stressful environment right now.” 

Elisse thought this was the best reply she could give to her friend when she invited her to work with her company.

Hannah: “Come on, it will be a good distraction for you. At the same time, you get to earn money. You won’t even have to leave the house. Just plug in your laptop, get online and you’re good to go.” 

Hannah thought of what else she can say to convince her friend.

Hannah: “You are qualified enough for the open positions we have. You were always the best speaker in school, and you’re very organized. You can apply as Matt’s assistant or as a customer support person. Besides, we’ll be working together. We can b***h about our asshole boss to each other.”

Elisse chuckled at her friend’s last statement as she thought about it. It would be a welcome distraction. She won’t have enough time to wallow and be depressed, and the income would be great. She has some savings but it will soon be depleted, and she doesn’t want to ask for a handout from her sisters. She’s too old to do that. She finally gave in.

Elisse: “Okay, I will give it a try.”

Hannah: “Yey! Let’s send your application now. We need new people as soon as possible. We’re all suffering and we need help. Go get your laptop, girl!” 

Elisse got up to retrieve her laptop from her room.

Once they were online, they went to the company’s website and filled-out Elisse’s application. She has decided to apply for the customer support position since she does not have the qualifications to be a coder. She also does not want to work directly with the boss as his assistant. She reviewed her application and submitted it once she seemed satisfied. When they were done, they turned the laptop off and went back to watching on Netflix.

They weren’t really able to focus much on the show. They missed each other so much that they had so much catching up to do. They didn’t notice that it’s getting late and that it’s almost time for Hannah to go.

Before leaving, Elisse asked Hannah a few questions about the company and the job she applied for.

Elisse: “So, what will I be doing?”

Hannah: “Well, as customer support, you will be answering calls and emails from customers. It’s mostly related to their account and billing. You don’t have to worry about technical support since there’s a ticketing system that they do for that.”

Hannah continued after a sip of water.

Hannah: “You will only be working eight hours a day, with an hour of lunch, on Eastern time, so it will be in the graveyard shift for us. Phone support gets turned off after your shift so you don’t have to worry about having to render overtime or anything like that. We don’t really get a lot of calls, since most of the customer concerns require technical support, so you don’t have to worry about getting bombarded.”

Elisse seemed satisfied with what she heard. The job didn’t seem so hard.

Elisse: “Okay. Sounds easy enough. Now tell me more about the boss.”

Hannah took her time before responding to Elisse. She has so much to tell about her boss, but at the same time, she doesn’t really know much about him. She wants to be as honest as possible, without totally turning her friend off the job.

Hannah: “His name is Matthew Kim, but we call him Matt. He doesn’t like to be called Boss, or Sir, just Matt. I think he’s in his early 30’s. They say his family is really wealthy and that they have tons of business in the US and Korea. He’s half-American and half-Korean, but mainly grew up and studied in the US. He’s single and is known to be a ladies’ man. I’ve only seen him during video calls but he looks really good. He seems well-built and very masculine.” 

Hannah seems to think of what else to say before continuing.

Hannah: “I guess because he’s rich, he’s also spoiled. Which makes him the entitled ass of a boss that he is. Don’t get me wrong, he’s good at programming and coding, and seems to know the industry well, but he doesn’t handle criticisms well, and can overreact in certain situations.”

Hannah: “That is why a lot of the employees are either scared of him or hate him. Those who can’t handle him just went and left.”

Elisse seemed taken aback but was really curious about the boss.

Elisse: “Well, is there anything positive about working for your boss?”

Hannah: “The pay is really good. It’s almost thrice as much as the industry standard. Matt can also be generous when giving bonuses and likes to share the company profit to the employees.”

Hannah: “This is why I’m just sucking it up and not resigning. I won’t be able to find another job that pays this much.” 

With that, Hannah has decided to stop talking more about the company in fear of influencing Elisse to change her mind.

Elisse: “Okay. Let’s see where it goes. Hopefully, I get past the interview and start working with you. At least I have something to look forward to.”

Hannah: “Attagirl!” 

Hannah replied in triumph while holding her fist up.

After Hannah has left, Elisse decides to go back online and learn more about the company and the boss. She wants to be prepared in case she has to start working. 

She familiarized herself with the company and what they do. It helped that Hannah has been bitching about her job that she feels like she has an idea of what the company does.

She got bored reading about the company profile, so she decided to look up Matthew Kim. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of Matthew Kim’s online. She found a profile that seems to be the right person, but his socials are set to private, so she didn’t get anything from that either.

What impressed her though, is his professional profile on the company website. Matthew Kim has a Bachelor of Sciences in Computer Engineering, and a Master’s in Business Administration. He served as the President or Chairman of other companies prior to the one she applied to.

She dozed off after a few minutes and woke up startled when she heard a ping coming from her laptop. She recognized it as the email notification. When she opened her email, she saw a video interview request from Matthew Kim. It’s scheduled in five minutes.

Elisse’s eyes opened wide as she realized that she isn’t even half as ready as she needs to be for the interview.

"Holy shit.." was all Elisse could mutter to herself.