Budgeting
Maya's office, the morning after the team meeting
The walkout never happened. A frank meeting and one honest apology had won the team back, and by Friday the floor felt settled again. Now a quieter problem landed on Maya's desk: from this month, she had to take responsibility for the whole department budget.
Sam: I've left you the spreadsheet. It only really starts to make sense once you've stared at it for a week, so don't panic if the numbers look like noise at first.
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 single week, and those small costs quietly added up to a fortune.
Lena grinned and helped her build a cleaner sheet. Whichever way Maya tackled the waste, slowly the numbers started to balance out — until one line refused to. Being responsible for a whole team's money was daunting, but she was getting the hang of it faster than she'd expected.