Standing Before Love (Myra and Sean) novel Chapter 439

Silence hung heavy in the air of the meeting room. Upon witnessing such a reaction from everybody else, Heather gave them a faint smile that immediately thawed out the chilly look on her face. Lighting up the enclosed space in everybody’s heart, her smile was as bright as the sun. It was so enticing that those people could hardly avert their gaze from her.

“Allow me to start by introducing myself. My name is Heather Langston. Heather, otherwise known as Calluna vulgaris, derived its name from the Greek word ‘kallunein’, which means to beautify, or sweep clean. Incidentally, I came with the intention to improve things by purging those that are unnecessary.” As she spoke, she glanced at the two people. All eight of her team members present in the room knew what she meant to imply during her self introduction.

“When I was studying in Italy, I had been managing the Langston Group’s branch company in Europe. Today is my first day in the headquarters of Langston Group. To be frank, the headquarters is no match for the branch company. As you would have already known, Langston Group is currently focused on its operations in Europe.” Heather’s straightforward attitude was almost nerve wracking, especially for Blake’s subordinates.

The flabbergasted look on their faces elicited from her a satisfied smile. “This is also why Director Blake has been travelling to Europe. However, as a family who have our roots in Bradfort City, of course the Langstons would like to improve our century-old company.” The ups and downs in Heather’s words left them hanging. It was as if they were on a roller-coaster ride, and Heather might surprise them with anything at the next instant.

“I have a doctorate in economics in which I achieved outstanding performances in both its theoretical and practical aspects.” The look she wore when she was nonchalantly praising herself was somewhat adorable.

By then, Blake’s subordinates smiled awkwardly when they realized Heather shouldn’t be trifled with. Instead of them giving her a hard time in the future, it was likely that the opposite would be true, as she was obviously not a pushover. Although they already heard of Heather’s various deeds, it wasn’t until they had met her in person that they knew the rumors weren’t, in fact, an exaggeration.

“I dislike it when people give me trouble, and my orders must be carried out with perfection. If I delegate a task to you, it’s because I believe you will be able to accomplish it, so make sure that you do not half-arse it.” Heather swept her eyes across the room. She wasn’t kidding at all, as she had always been exceptionally strict when it came to her employee’s performance.

There was utter silence in the room when everybody was mulling over what Heather just told them. Every line she said hit home, so nobody dared take her lightly. It was apparent that it would be an uphill climb from then on.

“Who’s next?” Heather arched her brow while gazing at Bilbo. Since she was obviously cueing him, Bilbo offered to go next. Following the format which she used, he introduced himself in a straightforward manner to show his support toward her.

Heather was satisfied by his introduction. After that, everybody introduced themselves in their own unique ways. Throughout the process, she was happy that she was able to know more about her team members.

“Next on, let us cut to the chase.” Forty minutes had passed by then. From the looks of it, all eight of them acknowledged that the first meeting would take a long time. However, Heather gave them a task after giving them a brief explanation using the PPT that she had made just now.

“You should come up with your own opinions regarding the project. Tomorrow, each of you will be handing me a proposal about this. Nobody is to discuss this among yourselves.” She had a stoic look on her face that left them feeling all strung up. “It’s just like how lecturers don’t like to receive two similar theses. When this happens to be the case, my lecturer would have the students rewrite them.” She was smirking when she spoke, and her words sounded threatening.

“By the way, I mean it when I say I want all eight of your proposals tomorrow. Even if your proposal got rejected, you will still be required to hand in another one that would satisfy me by tomorrow.” She gave them an ultimatum, as she was adamant that the team should think hard about the project, and that everybody should contribute to the project instead of constantly relying on other people’s wisdom.

To her, the company had no need for employees who would make no contribution toward the company. In that regard, she was even more merciless than Blake. Although Langston Group was a distinguished company that only accepted elites, it was overstaffed nonetheless.

When she was managing the branch company in Europe, she had laid off quite a number of employees. After all, it wasn’t a good thing to have too many people holding a similar position. Having too many employees would only lead to office politics that would affect their performance. Instead of having that, she would rather offer a higher salary to one person so that he could do his best while on the job. Eight people was a little excessive for the team. From her point of view, four or five would be enough, so she wouldn’t hesitate to kick whoever that didn’t perform well out of the team.

When the meeting was over, everybody felt relieved, as Heather had given them quite a lot of pressure. Bilbo was even feeling fortunate that he had accepted her offer earlier, or else she wouldn’t have let him off the hook that easily.

They had a two hour lunch break after that, so they were actually working for only six hours per day. Langston Group was relaxed in that regard, which was another reason people fought to get into the company. Since the company wasn’t putting a lot of focus on their headquarters, there wasn’t a lot to do while working there.

Nonetheless, as a family that had a reputation to keep up, the Langstons wouldn’t allow the headquarters of their company to look too shoddy, so they made sure to have as many employees as other companies.

That was one of the aspects that annoyed Heather, and she couldn’t understand Blake’s reasons for not changing what happened either. She acknowledged his capabilities and ambition, but he was a bit of a wild card, for she never knew what he was up to.

Heather didn’t have a lot of power over the company, so all she could do at that point was focus on completing the project with outstanding results. She wouldn’t be crossing paths with Langston Group in the future anyway, so she decided to focus on her own company instead.

Actually, she had complicated feelings toward Langston Group, which perhaps stemmed from her anger toward its lackadaisical policies. Unfortunately, she would never inherit the company, and Blake would never do as she wished either.