Read this article in Portuguese: “A nova assistente do Jairo“
That day, Jairo came home from work more distracted than usual. He didn’t even return the enthusiastic welcome his dog gave him. He hung up his car keys and set his briefcase down in the corner almost mechanically.
His gaze was distant. It was as if he were replaying the movie of his day in his mind, trying to make sense of what had happened.
“Everything okay, Jairo?” his wife asked, already sensing that something wasn’t well.
“Huh? Yes. Everything’s fine.”
He answered as though he had just been caught doing something he shouldn’t.
“What happened?”
“My boss assigned me an assistant to help with my work.”
It was a straightforward answer, but there seemed to be something else hidden beneath the surface. Jairo sounded hesitant, struggling to organize his thoughts.
“Is she pretty?”
“No! I mean… I don’t know. I’ve never seen her in person.”
“So she hasn’t started yet.”
“She has. We worked together all day today, but only through text messages.”
Janaina found it odd that the new assistant worked remotely. After the pandemic, Jairo’s boss had pushed hard to bring everyone back to the office. Even colleagues who had moved to the countryside had been required to return.
Jairo sat down in his armchair and turned down the TV. He looked at Janaina and spoke as someone who had just reached a conclusion.
“She’s good.”
“Good how? Edgard never hires anyone who’s really competent. He’d rather save money.”
“No, really. She’s good.”
Jairo explained that his boss, Edgard, had said the assistant was there to help with everything and, in doing so, increase the department’s productivity. Instead of doing the work himself, from now on Jairo’s job would simply be to delegate tasks to the assistant, review the results, and make whatever corrections were necessary.
It didn’t sound like a good idea. How could a newly hired assistant know how to do work that had taken him years to learn? Before assigning her anything important, Jairo decided to test her knowledge.
He asked whether she was familiar with the leading authors in his field. Not only did she confirm that she was, but she also summarized each of their main academic contributions. Industry reference models, guides, and general knowledge… The assistant seemed to know everything.
“So she’s well educated?”
“Exceptionally well educated. But that was only the beginning.”
Jairo decided to test the assistant with a real assignment. He gave her a template along with a set of files containing information that needed to be compiled into one of the company’s standard documents.
“I figured that, since she’d be doing my work, I’d have plenty of time to do something else. Maybe I’d even have the rest of the day free. I could finally start planning that trip you’ve been asking me about for so long.”
“And did you?”
“Not a chance! It didn’t even take a minute before she sent the completed document back.”
“She finished it in less than a minute?”
“Yes! She did in less than a minute what normally takes me hours.”
“Then it must have been awful.”
“That’s what shocked me the most. I’d never seen such a well-written document before. Perfect grammar and spelling. Well organized. Crystal-clear writing. A few pieces of information were missing, that’s true, but they were things I hadn’t given her, so there was no way she could have known. I asked her to add them and… whoosh! The revised version came back in seconds.”
Jairo still looked bewildered. He couldn’t decide whether he should feel excited about having such an assistant from now on or worried that she might replace him before long.
Janaina noticed her husband’s concern and decided to reassure him.
“Don’t worry, Jairo. An assistant that smart isn’t going to want your job. Relax. You cost them less than their electricity bill.”
For the first time since he had walked through the door, Jairo smiled. Even though he wasn’t entirely sure whether his wife’s remark was meant to comfort him or insult him.
“She’ll want Edgard’s job. He’s the one who should be worried!”
And what about you?
💬 Leave a comment on the LinkedIn post for this article and let me know what you think about this story and whether you’d like to see more chronicles like this in future editions.
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