The Elevator Story

It was suppose to be one of those usual days in the office. You come in, work, interact with people, eat, do some errands for your team and then go home. Nothing out of the ordinary happens in this simple call center company where I was an HR manager. It was really supposed to be an ordinary Friday, but getting stuck in an elevator changed my life forever.

This is Jenny Mendez. A simple girl working as a HR manager in one of the newly established call centers in Makati. It was just her luck that her expertise was really needed, hence she got the HR manager’s position though she was once a call center agent. She walks around the office, folder in hand, looking into the different departments and observing their day to day routine. On her rounds she usually finds herself lingering in the Customer Care Department watching one particular Team Captain who was doing his own rounds and checking if his team was doing their job.

That was Matthew Perez. He’s what you would call the company’s “crush ng bayan”. Everybody likes him not just because of his looks but because of his personality as well. Much like Jenny, he was one of the “pioneers” in that company who help developed and established the call center department. He was one of the “newer” groups that showed skill and leadership so he got the Team Captain job when they were moving people up.

These two have been working together for almost six months already and though they treat each other as friends, they never did know how one really feels for the other. They’ve become good friends, each telling each other their problems and concerns. But they never told each other how they really feel for each other…until one Friday afternoon on their way home.

“Anything else I need to know before I head home?” Jenny asked the Customer Care Manager during their weekly status meeting.

“Yeah,” he answered. “I need the new people in for training next week. Did you get the twelve people I need?”

“I’ve asked three people to come in for their final interview tomorrow,” she answered taking down notes as she listens. “Whether or not I’ve completed the twelve you’ve asked me, who ever gets in will start training on Monday. I have the conference room ready for the training already.”

She gave a short smile that emphasized the dimple on her right cheek and she started writing again.

“Great!” The customer care manager exclaimed. He was a burly man, with a smile on his face all the time even when there are huge problems in his department. He talks to everyone in his department and gives them tips on how to better answer the phones. “That’s it! Unless someone else has something to add.”

“Yeah,” replied Greg Mariano, the Operations Head. A much younger man than Jenny or Matthew but was very smart and talented for him to get the Operations head job after only being Team Captain for a month. “We have new policies that we need to push through to our people. Matthew, Tess, Jeremy, we need to test it out if it works.”

“What new policies?” Asked Jeremy, one to the Team Captains. He’s one of the oldest people in the group but always acts like he’s young. “We haven’t even establish the latest spiels that we should be using outbound, now we’re changing policies again?”

“Well the spiels stay,” answered Greg. “But the way we record the calls and the documentation have to be different now. It’s taking too much of the agent’s time. This new policy will make their work more efficient.”

“So will this cut down the agent’s documentation time?” Matthew asked. “I mean, why should we change what we have been doing since the start if the workload would be more?”

“That’s why we need to start the new policy,” Greg replied calmly. “I mean, we need to test if it does work before we really say we continue to do it.”

“You have new people coming in,” Jenny remarked. “Are you sure that’s wise?”

They all paused for a moment and considered her words. Jenny wasn’t much of a talker. But she always made sense when she does. She was really one of those people who just keep silent and fade in the background but will eventually come out of the shadows when something goes wrong.

“We’ll just get a small team for this,” Greg answered. “The three of you need to what…draw straws or something…so that we will know which team would be our guinea pig.”

Tess raised an eyebrow at that remark. She was very opinionated and smart. She always has something to say everytime things don’t go her way. Much like Jeremy, she has a tough skin but deep down inside, she was kind and cares about her team. “Draw straws? You’re kidding right?” was all she said.

The meeting doled on until the group finally worked something out in the end. When the meeting was adjourned, Jenny said good bye to everyone and started to head out unaware that Matthew was on his way out as well. She hit the elevator button and immediately the center elevator opened for her. Jenny tentatively stepped inside, very aware that the center elevators tend to fuck up sometimes. Suddenly, she heard Matthew called out, “Jen! Hold the elevator!”

Jenny held the open button of the elevator and took a peek outside to see Matthew running down the hall trying to catch up. With a small leap coming inside, Matthew got in just in time for the automatic doors to activate and closed down to go down from the 22nd floor towards the ground floor of their building.

“You know,” Jenny started. “You didn’t have to run. I was holding the elevator door open for you.”

“I know,” Matthew answered. “But I just wanted to make a dramatic entrance through the elevator. Besides, if I didn’t run, the doors were starting to close already. You’d be alone if I didn’t run.”

He gave her a smile, which made Jenny’s heart leap.

Jenny raised an eyebrow and answered sarcastically, “Right….”

They both stared at the elevator door in silence while they wait patiently for the elevator to go down to where they were destined to be. But just as they were about to reach the 8th floor, the elevator gave a jolt and stopped sending all the lights out as well. Both passengers stumbled and found themselves in each other’s arms trying to steady themselves as the elevator came to an abrupt stop and the emergency lights went on.

“What happened?” Jenny asked as she tried to steady herself in Matthew’s arms. “Is there a power failure?”

“I hope not,” Matthew answered as he tried to steady both of them. “Wait, let me try to call Greg for confirmation.”

He brought out his phone and called their co-worker for some news. And indeed there was a power failure on the whole Metro. The generators did kick in as Greg had informed them but it wasn’t enough to power the elevators. As it turned out, there were more people in the other elevators that were stuck as well. The worst part was, they don’t know when the power would return. As Matthew was relating all this to Jenny, he noticed that she was a little edgy and unsettled. She kept looking around the dark room and walking back and forth. He noticed that she was starting to hyperventilate. Suddenly, Matthew remembered that Jenny was claustrophobic.


Another attempt to come up with a romantic story...it's not finished but that's the first part of it...I shall try to come up with a continuation of it when i have the time. =)