Shaniqua Cross
(a.k.a. Ghost)
We could give the project to Emanuel and he'll deliver it by end-of-year. Or we could give it to Shaniqua and she'll deliver it by end-of-month.
Jondo Smith, M&M with Hegemony International
S
haniqua Cross is a project administrator assigned to the Special Projects team within Hegemony International.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
S
ince no one has ever actually seen her in the office, her "presence" is typically confined to her voice on conference calls, or her image on video conferences. Whenever she's on camera, she's always prim-and-proper. She sits in front of a large black curtain that obscures anything that may be present behind her in her home office. No one has any clue what the rest of her home (i.e., her office) looks like. Although she works remotely, her onscreen visage is always formal. She sits with stridently-erect posture, she joins every meeting on time, and she's always perfectly in-frame.
Her propensity to never be in the office has given rise to her nickname: Ghost.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
L
ittle is known of Shaniqua's pre-Hegemony history because she so rarely interacts directly with anyone on the team. She joined the Special Projects team six years ago, and she's adept at keeping her personal life... private.
Accomplishments & Achievements
S
haniqua is one of the most coveted members of the Special Projects team. She routinely receives rave reviews and executive management is well aware of her accomplishments. Despite this, there are some members of her own team who question her achievements and view her with suspicion - because some people just can't give credit to employees unless they see those workers sitting in the office, every day, at their desk.
Availability
She's known for working long hours. She's nearly always shown as being "available" on Holla and she quickly responds to inquiries - regardless of when they come in. She commonly delivers work and answers emails late into the night, or during the wee hours of the morning. Although Special Projects has no "on-call" requirement, when problems arise she's often the first to respond.
Intellectual Characteristics
S
haniqua is an extreme organizer. She never allows anything to "fall through the cracks". She's in constant communication with her stakeholders and she always brings every single project in on-time and under budget.
Communicator
Perhaps owing to her status as a remote worker, she over-compensates to her stakeholders as a constant and effective communicator. She's clear, concise, and forceful (when she needs to be). Although it's easy to discount her contributions (because... "out of sight, out of mind"), anyone who's worked directly with her will affirm her value to the company and to the team.
Morality & Philosophy
H
er ability to consistently deliver top-notch results and her dogged work ethic can give some people the impression that she's a "company woman". But this is far from the truth. Shaniqua is a calculated player. She gets her work done, and she does it well - and then she does everything she can to separate herself from the insanity that's inherent in being a Hegemony employee.
Taboos
I don't care if you don't know what you're doing. But don't muck things up for those of us who do.
Shaniqua Cross, Project Administrator with Hegemony International
S
haniqua is immensely professional and can be a joy to work with. However, her ire is quickly stoked whenever she feels she's in the presence of incompetence.. She will fight, adamantly, to have underachievers jettisoned from the team - or at least, to ensure that they're far-removed from her projects. She becomes curt, and even angry, whenever she feels compelled to accommodate those who can't perform on her level.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
S
haniqua openly covets a promotion into executive management. While this is exceedingly difficult for most frontline Hegemony employees to accomplish, it's hard to argue that she won't, one day, manage to achieve this goal. Indeed, many at the executive level already speak of her in glowing terms.
Autonomous
Beyond her broader goals of promotion, her daily objective can best be summarized as, "Leave me the hell alone." She's fully aware of her own capabilities and she abhors any inititiatives from lower-and-middle management that will only serve to slow down her progress. She will actively decline meetings if she understands them to serve nothing more than team-wide administrative purposes.
She's also an unabashed "straight shooter". She hates corporate doublespeak (i.e., accuspeak) and she's not bashful of asking anyone around her - even her superiors - to "get to the damn point".
Savvies & Ineptitudes
S
haniqua is known for cranking out a tremendous volume of high-quality work. Those who judge performance merely by in-office attendance sometimes dismiss her as being somehow "less than". But the truth is exactly the opposite. Her clients routinely rave about her ability to deliver complex solutions against ridiculously-tight deadlines.
Force Multiplier
Her efficiency is so profound that some suspect her of actually farming out her work to others. While her colleagues may complain that new hurdles will require a project deadline to be extended by months, she often answers such a challenge by delivering the product in days. Some have even gone so far as to wonder whether the "Shaniqua" that they see on video conferences is nothing more than a front - a figurehead who speaks on behalf of a much larger shadow-group.
Virtues & Personality perks
H
er extreme dedication to the task at hand can leave some with the impression that she's abrasive or generally hard to work with. But this brutally efficient mindset also offers a path to convert her into a powerful ally.
I helped Shaniqua deliver the Hellion Project last year. Since that time she's ensured that I haven't missed a deadline yet.
Tessa Robicheaux, Project Administrator with Hegemony International
Reciprocity
Shaniqua cares only about delivering the best possible work in the shortest amount of time. While she (rightfully) sees many of her coworkers as an impediment to such goals, she also recognizes (and rewards) those few employees who prove themselves capable of aiding her objectives. Once someone demonstrates the capability (and the willingness) to provide real, material help on her projects, she's keen to reciprocate by offering critical support on their projects. For those who've managed to earn her trust in such a way, she'll break her own back to ensure their success as well.
Social
Contacts & Relations
T
here are few Hegemony employees who would count her as a "friend". She simply makes no time to meet them in any type of social setting. She maintains a great many contacts within the company, but all of those contacts are on a strictly professional basis.
Social Aptitude
S
haniqua is warm and friendly with her in-house clients. But whenever she's forced to be on a team meeting - one that has no direct bearing on her projects or her deliverables - she prefers to be off-camera and largely silent. She sees anything that's not directly tied to her deliverables to be a complete waste of time. She'll answer questions when queried directly, but she makes no attempt at "small talk" with the other members of the Special Projects team.
Speech
H
er grammar and diction are exquisite. In fact, she speaks in such a formal manner that she's been accused by other Black employees as trying to be "white". Such accusations deeply annoy her, but she gives no one the satisfaction of dignifying their insults with a response.
Although she prefers to remain silent on calls that don't directly involve her stakeholders, she can be quick to correct others when they speak in clumsy or inaccurate terms. This leads some to view her as condescending and arrogant.
Current Location
Year of Birth
2041
29 Years old
Children
Sex
Female
Gender
Woman
Presentation
Feminine
Eyes
Dark brown
Hair
Straight black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Caramel
Height
1.6 m
Weight
72 kg
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Comments