A few weeks ago, me and dad went to lunch at a restaurant in town. We were surprised to see a waitress we knew from another local restaurant there. Turns out she works at both places. She's always very friendly, so when she seated us and asked us how are you, or maybe she even said so what's new (even though we don't really know her) I must've mentioned my new job.

It could have ended there, but instead she asked me to tell her about it, so I briefly did. When I mentioned it was "pharma," she said she had a friend who was looking for work and had a pharma background.

Again, it could have ended there, but I gave her my email address and told her to have her friend send me her resume and I would pass it on to my manager, not really knowing this woman's background or whether my company could use someone like her.

So I've been trading emails with the woman who is job searching. She lives in my hometown. I guess I could relate to her situation. She is feeling kind of desperate, is single and fears she will lose her house. Her dog just got diagnosed with cancer. I think she is in her 40s. She certainly has a sold work history.

So I gave my manager her resume a few weeks ago; he seemed interested, but I never heard anything else from him, and the woman, "V.," would have told me if he'd contacted her.

So I asked my manager about it yesterday to see if I could get any idea if she was even someone he would consider/have a need for, and it sounds like a possibility, actually. He just wants to wait til after the holidays because it has been so busy, but he said he could see her doing his job when he is stuck in daylong conference calls. What he does is make sure the work flow continues and doesn't get bogged down. He is always trying to make sure I have work to do, for instance. The work really comes and goes in spurts and there are plenty of times throughout the day when I have nothing to do, sometimes for as long as an hour or more at a time. Not very efficient but I can see how sometimes that can't be avoided.

Anyway, V. is immensely grateful to me already, although I told her I don't feel I did very much. The opportunity to help presented itself to me, and I was happy to try to help someone, especially another single woman living in my hometown in circumstances similar to what I've gone through.

It would be kind of funny to end up working with this woman. I havn't met her yet. She wants to take me out to lunch; I suggested coffee since I know she's got money problems and really, lunch isn't necessary. I will tell her what I an about the company.