Creating an Industrial Empire in 19th Century Parallel World

Poul reviewed papers on the desk as he waited for Amelia to come down to his office. It's been ten minutes now, and he is beginning to wonder what's taking her so long.

Finally, there was a knock on the door. Jonathan doesn't knock often, meaning it can only be one person behind it. It was Amelia.

"Come in," Poul said and the door was promptly opened. He was correct, it was Amelia who was knocking on the door, and is now entering the office.

"I'm done unpacking, Sir Nielsen," Amelia announced as she stood in front of Poul's desk.

"Umu…Please take a seat, we will begin shortly," Poul said, shutting down the folder in his hand and stowing it in the drawer down the desk.

Amelia sat on the chair and watched her boss preparing for the briefing.

"Okay, now that's aside, we can begin by formally introducing ourselves. I'm Poul Nielsen, the founder of the Axelsen and Nielsen Air Brake Company. We have one affiliate company, which is the Axelsen and Nielsen Union Switch and Signal Company. As you can infer from this, we work mostly on train safety devices. So far we are hailed as one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States and my partner and I intended to keep it that way. The only problem is that we are swamped with paperwork, hindering us from working on another project. The paper is not going to read itself so we are hiring someone who would do the job for us. So, Amelia Weiss, tell me about yourself."

"Well, I'm Amelia Weiss, I was born in France, and have been working with Caroline Dupont, the Founder of Loreal formally for six years. Ten years if you include the training."

'Loreal was a successful company with products reaching all around the world, and transforming how people take care of themselves. Knowing that you worked for that company who have reached great heights is making me and my partner want to hire you."

"I am honored, Sir Nielsen."

"Then, Miss Weiss, how much does your former employer pay you a month? Honestly, I have no idea about the salary range of a renowned secretary such as you."

"When I was working with Loreal, I was earning about two hundred fifty to three hundred dollars per month," Amelia said.

"What?" Poul's eyes widened in shock. "Two hundred fifty? You make a hundred dollars more than I'm paying my engineers."

(A/N. I made a slight change to the engineer's salary. It was an honest mistake. 250 dollars was too high so I scaled it down to a reasonable 150 dollars.)

"The salary doesn't concern me, Sir Nielsen. I am fine if I learn a lot less than your engineers. After all, the reason why my salary was high was because of my personal relationship with Miss Caroline. I shouldn't be earning that much."

"Don't think low about yourself. The company won't be where it is now without you helping her," Poul said. He then paused as he pondered an acceptable range of salary he can pay for her service.

"How about I start you on with one hundred dollars per month and increase it based on your performance?" Poul suggested.

"That's fine by me," Amelia agreed to his suggestion.

"Then, Miss Amelia Weiss, welcome to the Axelsen and Nielsen Air Brake Company. Now if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me or Jonathan, if I'm not around."

"Uhm…first question, Sir Nielsen."

"Oh?" Poul mused. "You are eager to work now, aren't you? Well, what is it?"

"Yes, there's a lot of time before the day ends so I'd like to do work now. May I ask how many departments your company has currently?"

"Departments?" Poul tilted his head to the side.

"Departments, such as marketing department, finance department, production department, and human resource department. The ones that keep the company running smoothly."

"Ahh…that, we pretty much do the marketing, finance, production, and human resources by ourselves," Poul answered the moment he understood her question.

"And by that you mean, you and Jonathan? Doing all those things?" Amelia asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Poul confirmed.

Amelia sighed. "No wonder you are swamped with papers because you have no people to work on that. You are understaffed and it's affecting your efficiency as both the minds of the company. This is going to be a rough start, I wonder how you manage to stay afloat while all of the company operations are done by the two of you."

"Is it really that bad?" Poul chuckled nervously.

"Very bad, Sir Nielsen," Amelia said, deadpanning. "In addition to the financial reports you have to write, you also need to peruse every document going in and out of the company. You have to tackle the problems of the company by yourself instead of having someone do that. All of it is time-consuming. What could have been a time you can use on innovating, improving, and developing products has been consumed by the paperwork alone."

"I see…I kind of agree with your observations. Yes, we have to deal with those things personally. Well, now that we have you onboard, I was hoping you can arrange and fix it for us."

"Don't worry, Sir Nielsen. This is my specialty. I will make the company run smoothly to the point you only have to sit back and relax," Amelia said with a determined expression.

"I love the confidence," Poul responded, smiling at the young woman's confidence and determination. "So, where do we start?"

Amelia leaned forward in her chair and began. "We start by hiring more staff for every department. Finance manager, product manager, marketing manager, human resources manager, marketing specialist, business analyst, accountant, sales representative, administrative assistant, and a lot more. They will be the ones directly reporting to me, compiling it, and reporting it directly to you."

"Do we really need a lot of those staffers?" Poul queried.

"Yes, we do. As I said, your company is way too understaffed. You are limiting your company's efficiency and productivity by not hiring enough manpower. It may not be the case for a small company but your company is growing so fast that it can't keep up with the daily demands. Worst, your company may grind to a halt if there was mismanagement. So they are not a need, they are a must-have. I'll go and draft a job poster in the evening. Do you have a printing press here?"

"We have one," Poul said.

"Good. I'm also going to need the paperwork your company has had since birth. I will organize it for our future personnel to study and read."

"I will prepare it, but it has thousands of pages. Just by talking with you, I can see that you will push yourself too hard. Are you going to be okay?"

"It's my job, Sir Nielsen. There's nothing I can do about it. Don't worry, I'm used to that kind of workload."

"Okay. Is there anything you need?"

"I think that's all for now, Sir Nielsen. Thank you for giving me this job. I won't disappoint you. I'd like to start working now."

"Very well," Poul agreed and started taking out files and working together with Amelia.