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Description
“Hello? Yes, have you put together the budget proposal I asked for?”

Blackfire Phoenix’s attention was in a million places at once as she shuffled through the folders and files on her desk, reading their contents while somehow also having the mental bandwidth to speak on the phone. It was a level of multitasking that was unimaginable to most people, but to her, it was second nature.

“No? What do you mean you haven’t? I thought I gave you— Oh, I see.”

Her emotions seemed to jump around almost as much as her hands did, shifting from eagerness to frustration to disappointed realization within just a few seconds of conversation. All of it was within the short range of professional expression, never tipping into indifference nor a level of passion beyond what was considered appropriate for the workplace.

The one constant through it all was confidence, a staunch and, frankly, deserved self-assuredness in her own competence.

“Yes, I will get that to you as soon as possible. Ivory?”

She waved a coworker over with her free hand, the other hand holding a manila folder.

“Would you make copies of these documents? We need enough for the whole office. Checkmate will be coming from the other building to review them with us within the next couple weeks, so we need everyone up-to-date on their contents. And Gold Standard?”

She didn’t have time to respond to one coworker’s follow-up before having another task to delegate.

“Can you update our sponsor spreadsheets? The ones we’ll be using in our final budget proposal. We have some new ones since last week that need to be included; you’ll find them in our files under ‘E.’”

Then she caught the eye of another coworker.

“Forest, could you help her? I have to finish this call.”

She turned her attention back to the person on the phone.

“We will have a more efficient system down, so there won’t be any room for oversight. We can discuss it at our meeting. I’ll send out a poll to determine everyone’s availability and propose a date by tomorrow.”

She wrapped up the conversation quickly, said a quick goodbye, and sat down to write some emails immediately after hanging up.

Blackfire had a fast-paced job, there was no doubt about it. There was hardly any time for breaks as long as she was on the clock, but she built her schedule this way on purpose. Even off the clock, if she didn’t have other obligations, she was often planning and organizing for the work that was to be done in her next shift. There were projects to be done and she prided herself on being the one to coordinate it all.

Of course it took teamwork and delegation; it was never a one-person job and she never tried to take more credit than she deserved. She would be able to accomplish only a fraction of what she did without the collaboration of her coworkers and she knew this.

But Blackfire also knew she was one person that the team could not do without.

~~~~~~~~~~

Previous: Motherly Glow
Next: Sparked Tinder

Description
“Hello? Yes, have you put together the budget proposal I asked for?”

Blackfire Phoenix’s attention was in a million places at once as she shuffled through the folders and files on her desk, reading their contents while somehow also having the mental bandwidth to speak on the phone. It was a level of multitasking that was unimaginable to most people, but to her, it was second nature.

“No? What do you mean you haven’t? I thought I gave you— Oh, I see.”

Her emotions seemed to jump around almost as much as her hands did, shifting from eagerness to frustration to disappointed realization within just a few seconds of conversation. All of it was within the short range of professional expression, never tipping into indifference nor a level of passion beyond what was considered appropriate for the workplace.

The one constant through it all was confidence, a staunch and, frankly, deserved self-assuredness in her own competence.

“Yes, I will get that to you as soon as possible. Ivory?”

She waved a coworker over with her free hand, the other hand holding a manila folder.

“Would you make copies of these documents? We need enough for the whole office. Checkmate will be coming from the other building to review them with us within the next couple weeks, so we need everyone up-to-date on their contents. And Gold Standard?”

She didn’t have time to respond to one coworker’s follow-up before having another task to delegate.

“Can you update our sponsor spreadsheets? The ones we’ll be using in our final budget proposal. We have some new ones since last week that need to be included; you’ll find them in our files under ‘E.’”

Then she caught the eye of another coworker.

“Forest, could you help her? I have to finish this call.”

She turned her attention back to the person on the phone.

“We will have a more efficient system down, so there won’t be any room for oversight. We can discuss it at our meeting. I’ll send out a poll to determine everyone’s availability and propose a date by tomorrow.”

She wrapped up the conversation quickly, said a quick goodbye, and sat down to write some emails immediately after hanging up.

Blackfire had a fast-paced job, there was no doubt about it. There was hardly any time for breaks as long as she was on the clock, but she built her schedule this way on purpose. Even off the clock, if she didn’t have other obligations, she was often planning and organizing for the work that was to be done in her next shift. There were projects to be done and she prided herself on being the one to coordinate it all.

Of course it took teamwork and delegation; it was never a one-person job and she never tried to take more credit than she deserved. She would be able to accomplish only a fraction of what she did without the collaboration of her coworkers and she knew this.

But Blackfire also knew she was one person that the team could not do without.

~~~~~~~~~~

Previous: Motherly Glow
Next: Sparked Tinder