Chapter 18: Katie

He awoke the next morning, startled by his alarm clock. It was rare for him not to wake up on his own before the alarm went off, but this morning waking up felt like swimming to the surface of a tar pit. Nevertheless, he was fully alert in a minute or two, and rose to his usual routine, leaving his apartment in a two-family home owned by an aging lovely woman whom he thought of as an adopted grandmother more than a landlord, and she him as another grandson. He should talk to her, he thought, and let her know about his new job as she might worry about his unusual schedule which she had no doubt noticed. He’d do it tonight when he got home, if he could get here early enough after having Linda help him buy and prepare the food. He knew she went to bed early and was an early riser, but he could not afford to speak to her now as their conversations often lasted a half hour or more and he knew she’d have questions for him. So, he went out again, got into his car in the attached garage below that she rented to him, and left for work, hoping he would find a spot at the parking garage next to his office building.

Twenty minutes later, at around 8:30 a.m., he arrived at the parking garage and was pleased to learn parking was still available. He stopped by the booth where he would have to pay at the end of the day before leaving to ask about monthly parking and was again pleasantly surprised by the rates posted there as they were much more affordable than he had feared. A monthly plan would cost him little more than twice the round trip subway fare. He immediately signed up for a month-to-month plan and paid for the first month, which would be renewable every 30 days. As long as he paid the monthly fee at least one day before the end of the 30-day period, he would be guaranteed renewal of the parking privilege. He was not assigned a specific spot; it was first come first served. But he was very happy to know he could drive to work and always have a spot waiting for him somewhere in the three-story garage. He asked the attendant whether arriving later in the day would cause a problem and was assured that the garage closed to new traffic when the total number of spots were taken, and monthly customers’ spots would always be counted as occupied whether or not they were in use. He would be let in by swiping his paid-up parking card even if the sign at the entrance flashed “CLOSED” in red letters.

He was happy. No more subway rides, even if he had to work on the weekends. And fewer worries about getting mugged late at night in dingy subway stations like the ones closest to his home. Less than five minutes later, about ten minutes before 9:00 a.m., he was at his office. He booted up his Compaq and began to print schedules for his faculty who would be teaching the new COS cohort the following Monday. He would distribute these at his meeting tomorrow.

He worked on several projects for the next couple of hours, including his agenda for tomorrow’s meeting and a review of the lesson plans for all of his faculty, scanning these for content quality but more interested for now in figuring out who was behind in turning them in. He found four faculty members who were behind anywhere from a week to four weeks in turning in lesson plans. That would be addressed at tomorrow’s meeting, and he would also announce the first round of faculty classroom observations with these faculty members heading the list. The worst offenders were Vanessa Hunter, Abbas Haddad, Homer Gachette and Martha Washington. He would evaluate each of their classes beginning next week and would schedule personal meetings with each of them to discuss their evaluations and missing lesson plans.

He then started working in earnest on planning his State Education Department filing by examining the paperwork for the approved programs that Marvin had given him. It seemed straight forward enough. He had all the information he needed and filling out the paperwork would be manageable by using the approved programs as guidance. Developing the rationale for the program was the easy part, and he began drafting an outline of the benefit of providing training for individuals in just three months that would qualify them for data entry, document preparation, and a wide range of office support positions requiring the use of the MS-DOS operating system and the leading word processing, spreadsheet and database programs currently in use in most office environments. He emphasized the unique flexibility of a self-paced program that would allow students to be enrolled at any time, and the usefulness of a short, skills-based training program of value to employees who needed to update their skills by learning the new software packages. He noted the benefit of guided study in small classes limited to not more than 20 students with a full-time faculty member and an assistant to offer personalized attention as needed. Over the coming weekend, he would research U.S. Labor Department published data on employment outlook and careers in data entry and related fields, as well as unemployment data and industry need for workers with skills his new program would provide. The internet did not yet exist, but Dan had good research skills and his alumnus status gave him access to the excellent libraries at St. John’s University. He was also no stranger to the New York Public Library system should additional research be needed. He knew he would have no trouble objectively showing both a need for the type of training the new program would provide and a healthy job market for its graduates.

Around Noon, Dan’s phone rang. “Hey Dan, are you ready for lunch?” Bob asked in his usual cheerful voice.

“I would like nothing better right now, Bob, but I’ll have to take a rain check. No time today. I need to leave not later than 6:00 p.m. and need to get as much done on the new program I’m working on to get it ready to send to State Ed by Monday.”

“You don’t seriously think you’ll get that done in one day, Dan,” Bob said, scoffing.

“No, I’m just starting to put a rough draft of the proposal together that I’ll work on through the weekend. I want it ready by Monday as an extra incentive for Marvin to give me the lab I need, especially if I can work it out so there’s no significant cost involved by trading for the old Apple IIe computers. I have someone coming in Monday before Noon to look at our computers and bring a generic clone he says he’ll trade for them. I want all my ducks in a row to seal the deal if the clone PC system checks out. The Melameds are sending their IT guy from the Manhattan school to evaluate the sample PC and I want him to take back a copy of the proposal I intend to file on Monday which calls for 20 PC-compatible computers in one of our labs. No computers, no program. I know they want the program, so I’m going to do whatever it takes to make it hard for them not to agree to the computer swap or some other alternative if that falls through.”

“You know, Dan,” Bob answered in a sober tone, “If you get them to agree and something goes wrong, it will likely mean your job. You understand that, right?”

“Yeah, I know. But it’s worth the risk. I don’t buy the argument that it makes no difference what computer platform we use or what programs we teach our students because as long as they know the basic concepts, employers can train them on any software they want. You know better than anyone that’s unadulterated crap. The help wanted ads for secretaries and office support personnel are very specific as to what software proficiency applicants need, and it’s not typing simulations on Apple IIe computers they’re looking for” Dan replied.

“Hey, you’re preaching to the converted. I’m 100 percent with you on that. I just don’t want to see you canned. Remember: under promise and over deliver. The Melameds will take for granted that you can do what you claim and won’t be much impressed when you simply deliver what you promised. But they’ll be thrilled if you deliver more than you promised. And if you deliver less than you promised...”

“I know, I know,” Dan sighed. “But this is important, and I need to get it done before the thrill of the shiny new moneymaker fades for them. If I do nothing else while I’m here, that will make a lasting difference. The rest is irrelevant for me. If I get fired, I’ll land on my feet. I have no real ambition for advancement here and no fear of failure for setting the bar high knowing I may not reach it. I can’t in good conscience not try to change what I know needs changing.”

“The problem with you is you’re an idealist. And you know what happens to them, right?” Bob said, chuckling again.

“They miss out on lunch with their friends?” Dan quipped.

“Yeah, and then they turn into bitter, angry, unemployed realists that leave their friends to eat lunch alone permanently.” Bob replied with a half-hearted chuckle.

“Have a good lunch, Bob. Tomorrow I’ll definitely go with you.”

“Aren’t you bringing lunch for your meeting tomorrow?”

“Yeah, but I always have room for more food. Gotta make up for today, no?” Dan said, smirking.

“Fine, but I’ll hold you to that--and it will have to be an extra-long, two-beer lunch.” Bob replied, chortling once more and hanging up the phone.

Dan hung up the phone with a broad smile. And he went back to work. A short time later, Katie knocked on the door. “It’s open,” Dan said, looking up as she walked in.

“Hi boss,” she greeted, walking in and draping her handbag on the back of her small secretary’s chair by her desk. “What’s on the schedule for today” She looked at Dan expectantly with a broad smile. Dan smiled back, glad to see her. She was dressed in a black business suit with a frilly blouse and high heels. Her shapely body notwithstanding, her size and higher pitched voice reminded Dan of a little girl playing dress-up and made him feel protective of her in an irrational way. She gazed at him with big brown eyes, head cocked slightly to the right. “You o.k.?” she asked when he did not answer immediately.

“Yeah, sorry. Just thinking about what needs to be done. I’ve been working on the new program proposal. Take a look at what I have so far. Can you read my handwriting?” He handed her the handwritten report he had been preparing. “I’d like to move on to preparing the syllabus for the courses.”

Katie took the papers Dan offered and said, “Geez, your handwriting could use improvement. Buy yeah, I can read it.”

“Too many years taking too many notes too quickly. I’ll be glad to translate anything that’s unclear, if I can read it myself, that is,” Dan replied laughing. “No joke, I sometimes have trouble, so please do ask me. Think of it as a puzzle” he added smiling.

“I’ll type it up. I assume you want this in WordPerfect?”

“Yes, please, Katie. I’ll need to take a copy on floppy disk home to finish it this weekend after I do some required research that needs to be incorporated, but it will really help if you can transcribe what I have so far. Meantime I’ll work on the syllabi and get those to you as I finish them.”

“Okey dokey,” she said in her sweet voice, turning and walking the few steps to her desk to boot up the Compaq. Within a minute or two, she was busily typing, stopping from time to time to puzzle over Dan’s inscrutable handwriting. She was done long before Dan completed the first syllabus for the word processing module, printed a copy of the proposal, formatted a floppy disk and copied the file to it, labeling it as New Course Proposal. She then put the hard copy and the floppy disk in its Tyvek sleeve in a file folder labeled New Course Proposal and placed it on Dan’s desk.

“What would you like me to work on while you complete the syllabi?” She asked.

“Gosh you’re efficient,” Dan replied. “I’ll need the desk copies of the books I ordered to create the weekly reading and self-paced assignments. Would you mind going to see Mr. Chang to ask if the books arrived? They should be here today.”

“Sure. I’ll be right back” She said and left.

Dan reviewed her work and was amazed at how quickly she had completed it and without any errors. She did not ask even once for clarification about his sometimes nearly illegible scrawlings and still managed to get everything right. “Simply amazing,” Dan said out loud, shaking his head and smiling.