Budgeting
Maya's office, the morning after the team meeting
On Tuesday morning, the two senior colleagues sat opposite Maya with resignation letters face down. One said Sam had made decisions privately; the other feared Maya would do the same. Maya did not defend herself. She admitted the handover had been poor, asked them to help design weekly check-ins and promised not to take over work they knew better. They tore up the letters, but warned that trust would depend on what she did next.
By Friday, both colleagues were still there. Then Maya had to take responsibility for the department budget. Sam's old note was clipped to the spreadsheet: "It only starts to make sense once you've stared at it for a week." Maya did not have a week. Payroll was due, the team's heavy workload was growing, and she had to keep calm long enough to ask for help.
The same office, late afternoon, spreadsheet open
Going line by line, Maya saw where the money was leaking. The office would get through a staggering amount of paper and coffee every week, and those small costs added up. But cutting everything felt like a thorny issue: people had already worked hard to trust her. Lena arrived with coffee and said, "Don't make this about blame."
Maya promised to make an effort to renegotiate the contract and help the team break the habit of over-ordering. The staff agreed to carry on with the trial for a month because she had asked rather than ordered. Their agreement helped her gain confidence. The unexplained charge became a pressing matter when payroll came closer. One line still refused to balance: a payment to a supplier nobody could explain. Three days later, Maya traced it to an account with no name beside it. She did not accuse anyone; she asked who had approved it and waited for the answer.