Working for your parents is not something many students get the privilege of, however that is the case for sophomore Olivia Ryan. Monte Cook Games is a roleplaying game business run by Ryan’s family. RPG is a genre where players assume the roles of characters in the game in a fictional setting, according to “Your Best Game Ever,” a book about roleplaying written by Monte Cook Games. 

Monte Cook Games was started in 2012, Ryan’s father, Charles Ryan, said. Charles is one of the owners and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Monte Cook Games. As COO, Charles directs most of the marketing and business management.

Monte Cook Games has created four regular tabletop roleplaying games, and one children’s tabletop roleplaying game.

“No Thank You, Evil!” is a children’s tabletop roleplaying game made for kids as young as 5 years old. When Olivia was about 20 months old, she unintentionally named this game,  Ryan’s mother, Tammie said. Ryan and her younger brother, Rowan Ryan, eighth grader at Oxford Middle School, are the two main characters in the plot of the game.

Having a very busy schedule, Ryan works hard to balance school and work. Working almost everyday after school, Ryan said she has obtained a large responsibility working and managing the warehouse for Monte Cook Games. 

“I pack books and other orders. I also manage the inventory and orders in the warehouse,” Ryan said.

Ryan has been working for her parents’ business for nine months, she said. 

“Olivia is a very hard worker,” Tammie said. “She is very diligent and knows a lot about the products.”

One of Ryan’s co-workers, sophomore Elizabeth Enslin said working for Monte Cook Games has helped her establish great connections with people. Working together, they overcome difficulties and handle new and temporary workers.

“I know Olivia pretty well, we’ve been friends for about a year,” Enslin said. “We’ll have temporary workers come in every once in a while, so you get used to [working] with people.”

Tammie said both Ryan and Enslin spend lots of time working in the warehouse together. Working in the warehouse together, they learn business skills together.

“Both of the girls are very diligent; I would say they are very hard workers,” said Tammie.

With lots of orders going through the warehouse, Ryan finds her weekdays very busy packing orders with the rest of the workers. 

“On average, we try to get a couple hundred orders a day done,” Ryan said. “It takes about one or two days to just get an order out of the warehouse.”

Not only working with packaging, Ryan is learning other useful skills such as working with the software used in the warehouse and online store. 

After working for nine months at Monte Cook Games warehouse, Ryan is looking to move up in the family business. 

“I’m being trained to take over the position of my mom. My mom wants to work on other things for the company. So I’ve been trying to take over as the official warehouse manager,” Ryan said.

Ryan said that becoming the official warehouse manager will give her new experiences and a better look at the business world. Ryan looks to continue working for Monte Cook Games after high school, continuing to move up in positions.

Ryan said she enjoys her time with the company because she gets to work and spend quality time with both of her parents. Working under her parents makes her job a little less stressful and more fun to work.

“I like working under my mom a lot,” Ryan said. “I love hanging out with her at work, it makes work a lot better and a lot more fun.”