Page 47 of September (New Orleans #9)

“On top of that, the trainer travels to the hotel, too, and we have to rent out the conference room. I saw the bill for that. Just to use it for a day and a half and have them provide bad coffee and some water… It was pretty expensive.”

“It adds up, yes.”

“What if we held the classes here instead?” Juliet suggested.

“I know we’ve done some classes here in the past, but we have the fake café that we don’t use that often anymore, and Jordana loved traveling so much, she never used it for her classes.

This company isn’t exactly the most progressive when it comes to making changes, but I ran some numbers.

They’re really basic, to start, but if we were to hold the manager, leadership, and some sales classes here, in the big conference room, we’d save over a hundred thousand dollars a year just on hotel rooms alone.

It’s even more when you add up the conference room rental and the trainer’s travel on top of gas or mileage, food, and everything else.

All in, it’s probably close to three to four hundred thousand dollars, depending on how many classes we teach and how many participants there are. ”

Her boss nodded but didn’t say anything.

“We have the space here, and I know we’re still expanding, but we rent out the top floor of this building to another company, and they only have a year left on their lease.

We have some space to grow into, and if we really wanted to do this, we could make half of a floor or a whole floor, even, a bigger and better fake store inside the office.

The one we have is pretty old and really small, so I can only fit five participants in there at a time, when we’re usually teaching ten to twenty.

We could have them do their role-plays and other activities in a bigger fake store, and I wouldn’t have to break them into smaller groups all the time, which means I’d be done training them faster.

We could also use it for new-hire training, and the old one could be turned into an office or a storage room.

We can even get those movable walls for the training spaces and host several classes at once, if we want, or just one big one.

We’d still have to get people to travel here, but we could get a deal with a local hotel and save money on the nightly rates.

We wouldn’t need to rent a conference room, we’d be able to use our own coffee and water, and we could cater in meals and save money on that front, too. The trainer wouldn’t have to travel.”

“The trainer, meaning you ?” he asked.

“Well, me for now,” Juliet said. “Think about the hours Jordana spent on the road each week, just going from place to place. That wouldn’t have to be the case anymore.

I would be here, in the office, and more productive because I’m not driving everywhere.

We could hire Andrew’s backfill and split the new person’s work with Janine,” Juliet said of the other trainer.

“I’d teach the local new-hire classes as needed and still do things in stores when required, but I’d be home at the end of every day, and the company wouldn’t be paying a per diem.

On top of that, Jordana had a company car. I wouldn’t need one of those.”

“You want the same job without all the travel,” he said and leaned forward in his chair. “What about management?”

“Management?”

“Well, if you’re here and not on the road all the time, you’d be more productive, like you said.

I was worried about putting direct reports on you because you were already adjusting to the travel, but if you’re here, do you think you could handle Janine and Andrew’s replacement, making the schedule, and teaching? ”

Juliet cleared her throat and replied, “Yes. But since that was Jordana’s job, and I’m sure I’m not making what Jordana was making, I’d want to talk about that.”

Her boss smiled and said, “We can do that. I’ll need to talk to facilities about the rooms here and how to make this all work, and we’d need someone to handle vendor relations with whatever hotel we choose.”

“I can do that,” Juliet said.

“Okay,” he replied. “Then, let me get Stacey in here, and we can talk more about the role and the money with her so that I can prepare what I need.”

“Really?” she asked. “Just like that?”

“I’ll review the doc you sent over, but it’s a good idea, Juliet.

It helps us in a lot of areas. I’m not sure if what happened with that participant and the hotel had anything to do with this idea of yours, but if this gets us out of those kinds of incidents, too, I’m definitely on board.

I’m sure HR would be as well. We’d like to prevent another Jordana situation, and I don’t want to risk you or the other trainers being uncomfortable or unsafe on the road if there’s something we can do about it.

We’ve talked to that manager who invited you to dinner, by the way.

We don’t think there was any malintent, but we did talk to him, and he understood that he crossed some lines by continuing to pressure you. ”

“Thank you. I didn’t think he meant any harm, but I also didn’t like having to explain myself to you and Stacey.”

“I know. I didn’t like putting you through that, either. I, of course, didn’t know you had your girlfriend with you, or I would’ve dropped it right there. Sorry about that. Now, let’s get this taken care of and, if we can, get you off the road. One thing, though,” he added.

“Okay.”

“We already have all the October classes scheduled and travel booked for everyone. We can work on November, but I’d still need you to travel to the classes next month.”

“One month, and I’m done with travel?”

“Let’s say five to six to eight weeks, just to be safe, but I think we can get part of November moved here, at least. I’ll also need your help finding and training Andrew’s backfill when you have the time.”

“Deal,” Juliet said.

Her boss laughed and replied, “Let’s get Stacey in here, then.”