"When she asked for a raise for one of the young graphic designers on the team, I realized I had to set her straight"

Mr. Shine: Does the staff take for granted that they still have jobs?

Rifka: Our employees need to feel valued in order to keep giving.

Rivka

"Mrs. Lederman?”

When Mr. Shine — known informally on the floor as the Boss, capital B — stepped into my office one morning, I was actually startled enough to spill my coffee.

The Boss never pays a visit to the cubicles of his junior employees — or even to us supervisors, slightly higher on the totem pole. If he wanted to speak to me, I’d get an email to come see him.

“Yes? Good morning, I mean, is everything okay?” I was babbling. Stop, Rifka. Chill. He’s just... well, the boss of this entire company, the one who pays your mortgage every month. I took a deep breath, mustered up a smile.

“Would you like to see where our current projects are holding?”

“We have a new client,” Mr. Shine rumbled, cutting to the chase without responding to my question. “Big client, big, big stuff. Big opportunity. He needs the highest level service and the highest level results. And he needs the job done quickly. We need to put everything else aside as much as possible, and start as soon as he’s given us the details.”

I knew what that meant. Top service, top quality, top speed. That added up to a grand total of migraine-inducing pressure — for me, and for my team.

“When would he like to—”

“He’s coming in now,” Mr. Shine cut in smoothly. “He’ll be meeting with me briefly, then we’ll be heading over to the conference room. Please be there in 15 minutes.”

Fifteen minutes? I checked my schedule — I was supposed to be interviewing a new web designer today to take over Sarah’s maternity leave, and meeting with Chaya Ruchi and Kaila about the Klein project. There were emails to answer and clients to call and — oh, yes, Sobel from Finest Florals needed the print ad today, why hadn’t Hadassah sent it to me?

Forget the new project; I already had a migraine.