The Consequences of Failure [Afternoon Work Thread - Susan Groves]

The events of that morning were a strong reminder of just how far she would have to come in order to prove herself. Susan stared blankly at the monitor in front of her, eyes barely focused as she tried to weed through the emails. The businesswoman had slunk into work much later than anticipated, she doubt this went unnoticed. Unlike how she wanted she could not leave the training session as early as she would have liked and not as early as she had told her supervisor. But that paled in comparison to her true problem and that was as her status as a Cadet.

Susan did not take kindly to failure. To not succeed was unacceptable and there should be no excuses for her behavior. A solemn vow to grow stronger did nothing, accomplished nothing, promised nothing other than to set herself up to fail yet again. She would need to be better. That was simply that. And that left of a question of how to do it best? As her eyes glazed over, hardly paying attention to the screen in front of her Susan's mind ran through her shortcomings... but unlike before not in the worst of ways. She was lacking in several areas to be sure but to improve herself she would need to devote time and energy to any and all of those areas in different orders. Even when it came to her own growth she could ill afford to be sloppy. The fledgling Cadet clicked away from her responsibilities for once and opened a spreadsheet dedicated to furthering her advancement in all areas, a plan to conquer the challenge in front of her. This was not something she could do alone, she could not rise to the occasion by herself nor was she experienced in this area like the others. There would be hard questions to be answered and choices to be made but Susan did not turn her nose away at hard work. She had been invested into her own success for a long time now, this was no different.

To begin with what did it mean to be a successful Cadet? What was the measure of success in this field? She would  define this as the ability meet and resolve mission objectives, of course, but those fell into several groups. She quickly made a box for Investigative and began to fill boxes, she was disappointed to find that she was not as secure in this area as she had previously surmised. There were the checks in the list such as Education and Location Familiarity that she could fill but then again there were others like Prior Knowledge, Supernatural Knowledge and Teamwork in which she was lacking. The businesswoman would leave her punch list for Combat all but blank as well as Growth of Character which she sorely needed, both important parts of representing herself as a Cadet. There were intangibles to account for as well as simply garnering results, things such as her ability as a leader and tactician and the capacity to not freeze in the face of danger.

The exercise left her more exhausted than she was when she started, to see such an insurmountable task completely devoid of progress. But Susan would persevere. That is what she was best at. She would put a tick mark in that box to remind herself of it, through diligence and effort she would overcome. She was not there yet but she would be. Someday. That was why she joined, after all. To succeed and surmount this new challenge, to find a purpose and belonging. It would not be easy. She did not expect it to be. The minutes began to drift by as the pensive woman continued to hack away at her self-improvement spreadsheet, uncharacteristically shrugging off actual work in order to accomplish her own personal side project. She had forgotten all about her other responsibilities. And the consequences for failing to meet those responsibilities, particularly of her failure to show that morning. The resounding knock at her office door snapped her away from her focus and nearly caused her to fall out of her chair.
"Aaa-aaah...! ...yes? C-come in please..."

She who entered was not anyone Susan was expecting, nor did she fully enter, merely propping open her door enough to speak to her. Clara Nightingale, Mr. Thornton's secretary. He would usually show himself, something Susan took as being a bad sign.
"Ms. Groves, Mr. Thornton requests your presence immediately."
"Y-yes of course, give me a moment..." The businesswoman quickly gathered her tablet, locked her computer, and did as she was told. Dread pooled in her stomach as she glided down the hallways. She could guess what this was about, not a difficult venture. Hesitantly she would knock on the door to Mr. Thornton's office. She would be left waiting for at least two minutes before his invitation to enter.
"Come in."


She would follow instructions and sit where he gestured, fidgeting nervously. It was not often that she was in this situation, but it never improved overtime.
"Do you understand why I called you here?"
"Y-yes sir, it is regarding my absence this morning."
"Wrong, Susan." She shivered in her chair as Mr. Thornton glared her down. "It is regarding your absence this afternoon."
"Sir I-I don't believe I follo-"
"This morning you called in to cancel your attendance to a very important meeting, Susan. I instructed you to come see me when you were done with your... government mandated training... yet you chose to go to your office instead. And remain there."
"Yes sir, I-I arrived at your office directly after but you were not present, so I called a-and left-"
"You should have kept waiting." He did not raise his voice but Susan could feel the threat in his words. "I did not authorize this little excursion and three hours is far too little warning, it will not happen again."
"I-I apologize sir, b-but it was a mandatory government event a-"
"Susan." The woman would immediately quiet herself. "I personally don't care if your house was on fire, if it wasn't scheduled at least a day in advance it could have waited. You made a commitment to be here this morning at a certain time and you broke your word. I looked like a fool in front of Rathian Inc. because I did not have your hard numbers to back up my pitch. Do you know what damage you have potentially caused?"
Susan sunk lower in her seat, feeling the guilt bite in hard n the back of her head. "...I'm sorry sir..."
"Sorry doesn't cut it, Susan! This company isn't run on sorry it's run on dedication and loyalty! Now. Revise."
"...This will never happen again, sir..." Mr. Thornton calmed his demeanor yet kept up his atmosphere of frustration toward his subordinate.
"That's more like it. You are dismissed. Please check your email, I have some market data that's awaiting your review, I expect it by close of business."
"Y-yes sir, I'll get to it right away."
"Ensure that you do, let me know if you have any questions, the data is quite incomplete. You'll need to fill in some blanks." Just as she had entered to find his wrath Mr. Thornton shifted back to being professionally casual. Susan left quickly but not in terror nor in shame, more in purpose. She was given a task to complete on top of all her others but this one was of high prestige and importance. Her mind wandered as she drifted back to her office in a purposeful stride, pondering how these events aligned with her personal spreadsheet...