Chapter 3 - Sensitivity

Two months has passed since Katherina made her first contact with Ellie. During that time Katherina set about in her plan to deceive Ellie into believing in her. It took some frequent casual meetings and cleverly placed conversations with Ellie, but Katherina can tell that she has successfully implanted the idea to Ellie. This was confirmed when they met the previous week.

During their casual conversation, Ellie revealed that she brought up the topic during a conversation with Deanne. She tried to convey to Deanne that there is a possibility that things could improve if only Deanne is more receptive to efforts by Katherina. The conversation ended with Ellie telling Deanne "Everyone to their own opinion" as Deanne knows that Katherina is not sincere. Ellie finds it hard to believe that Katherina is insincere especially since she has never heard Katherina utter a bad word about Deanne. Instead, she has only heard praises from Katherina about Deanne's work. On the other hand, during a private conversation Deanne confided in Ellie about her suspicions that Katherina is not truthful and playing office politics. Ellie wonders who is actually playing office politics.

Hearing that, Katherina knew that she has it made and Ellie believes Katherina rather than Deanne. That night itself, Katherina treated herself to a nice dinner as a reward for successfully placing Deanne in a bad light with Ellie. Deceit has always been something she is highly skilled in. She guessed correctly that Ellie will not discuss this with other parties. If Ellie discovers what Katherina said to Carol about Deanne she will know that Katherina said the direct opposite to Carol about Deanne's work. Although mostly fictitious, Katherina has only complaints about Deanne's work when she is with Carol, Kane, or Stephen.

Since her objective is achieved and Ellie's usefulness has reduced, Katherina has started to gradually reduce her casual conversations with Ellie. If Ellie ever ask, she will say that she is busy especially since everyone in her Sales Support team has resigned, with the exception of the clerk. It has turned into a useful excuse which she has over-utilised lately but everyone, including those in management, believes it willingly. With it, she has also delegated almost all of her work to other parties. She ensures that she has "heart-to-heart" conversations with the other parties and show disguised concern about the delegated work to maintain false involvement thereby ensuring that credit for work done goes to her.

Unfortunately for Katherina, a new project started in GBourse that needed web programmers so Jean and Jerry were both assigned to the project. Since GBourse is in the Top 5 Customers for SRIMOF, they were contracted to the project for the next six months. Their absence has created a void in her pool of rumour mongers in the office which resulted in lesser backstabbing for Deanne.

"Hi Katherina, can I have a few minutes of your time?", asked Deanne. "Oh yes, of course, my dear", says Katherina surprised by Deanne's presence. "Please don't take this wrongly, I would like to talk to you about my team". "Oh, what about your team?", says Katherina in a nice voice. "Well, they have asked me to talk to you because lately when I assign tasks to them, they feel pressured as they also have to complete the tasks you asked them to do.", says Deanne. "I was not aware that they were getting tasks from you directly so my dateline to them does not provide time for the tasks you gave them. They told me when I gave them their assignments this morning.", Deanne continues.

"I don't believe that, they will not complain about that.", Katherina retorted feeling insulted. "Oh, please don't misunderstand, I am not telling you not to give them work, I am asking you to please inform me too so that I can cater for it when I assign tasks to them.", says Deanne. "Well, the President of the company told me that I can approach anyone and ask them to do work without having to ask their superior.", says Katherina in a nice voice while disguising her anger. "That's not what I mean, my team did not complain, they just ask me to discuss with you about it. You can ask them to do work for you but please keep me in the picture so that I won't overload them. That's all that I am asking.", says Deanne. "I don't believe your team members said that and anyways the President gave me the all-clear.", repeated Katherina, feeling indignant that a measly executive could approach her and talk to her about such matters. "I will talk to your team members about it.", says Katherina firmly. Seeing Katherina's refusal to listen to her Deanne decided not to pursue the matter and said "Well, thank you for your time, Katherina, please keep me in the picture. Thanks.". "Hmmph", Katherina responded. "Have a nice day", says Deanne and left Katherina's office.

"How dare she! I have never felt so insulted. Saying such things to me, someone needs to tell her that she is just an executive. I am a manager, I have every right to tell anyone in this office to do work for me. Who does she think she is. Well, this will not be the end of it. I am going to complain against her to Kane and I will continue to give work to her team members. Hmmph!", Katherina thinks to herself seething with anger. "Kane will hear about this and I will make her pay for this but I will only complain tomorrow. I need to think about what to say before telling Kane.", Katherina thought as she console herself.