Story With Moral: Work Is Hell
Marlin looked at his watch, it was already past six in the evening and he had just finished the paperwork which his supervisor have asked him to do. He took a sip from his now lukewarm cup of coffee and pressed the send button in his e-mail software."That should do it," he said to himself as he started filing the papers he had in his desk. He looked all around him, there were just a few people now in his office. Mostly, the supervisors, managers and other top ranking officers in the company.
"Fuckin’ jerks," he said to himself, "I shouldn’t be staying this long in the office. I’m not being paid enough unlike my supervisors and the top officers of this company."
He stood from his office chair, slung his backpack on his back, and made his way towards the main door of the office, as he did, he saw his supervisor wave at him. He wanted to ignore his supervisor because of his contempt of him, but decided against it. He waved at him in return.
The ride home also irritated him. The train was delayed which made it very full when it finally came and admitted its passengers. Lucky for Marlin, he was well positioned in the train platform which enabled him to be in the front line when the doors of the train opened.
There was a mad rush as Marlin and the other passengers scrambled to sit themselves on the available seats of the train. Marlin seated himself on the first seat which was available for him and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the comfort of the backrest of the train seat.
Soon, it was standing room only inside the carriage of the train. But Marlin didn’t care because he was seating comfortably in his train seat. He decided to relax by reading the latest issue of his favorite finance newspaper: the Wall Street Journal.
"I used to be in finance and I didn’t like it," said a loud and angry woman’s voice behind him, "most of my coworkers are pretentious assholes."
Marlin didn’t mind the woman behind him, but she made sure that he knows that she was talking about him, "They dress in fancy clothes and work till late evenings. They always like to boast that they’re better than all the rest of us by reading finance newspapers."
Marlin’s face became red, he knows that the woman behind her whose face he still hasn’t seen was jeering him. He wanted to look behind him just to see the face of the woman but heard another voice, a man’s voice: "Stop it. He might hear you. He’s done nothing to you."
Marlin decided to calm down and pretended like he wasn’t hearing anything. The woman didn’t stop, "He’s an immigrant, he’s stealing jobs that should be ours". Which was followed by the man trying to prevent her from causing a scene: "Stop it I say, leave the man alone."
After a few train stops, Marlin felt the woman and the man behind him standing and making their way towards the front of the carriage. As they passed him, the woman looked at Marlin like she wanted to hurt him. Soon, the pair was out of Marlin’s sight.
The rest of Marlin’s train ride was uneventful. Marlin guessed that his sporty formal office attire and his reading of the Wall Street Journal might have been the reason why the woman behind him was triggered into what he believes was a fit of envy.
Months have passed and Marlin had already forgotten the incident in the train. Besides, his main concern nowadays was his situation in his company. He felt overworked and underpaid and was always on the lookout for another job.
Today, his working day was no different. He was again being pushed by his supervisor to do another report which would likely result in him doing another unpaid overtime. He was so busy that day that he was having a late lunch.
He went outside his company’s office, and went to where the meal vendors and fast food restaurants were congregated. He went to a McDonalds restaurant with the intent of having a very filling meal.
He went to the busy counter where customers queued to be served. As he did, he recognized the female McDonalds employee at the counter he queued in. It was the woman who berated him months ago in the train.
He realized that it was his time to take revenge on her. He savored the moment when it was time for him to be served by the woman. He wasn’t planning on doing something nasty like berating the woman.
He just wanted her to know that he, being a customer of the restaurant she works in, must be served by her in spite of the fact that she might hate him. There was only one more customer in front of him being served by her when she recognized Marlin.
Turning pale faced, she excused herself from serving at the counter which was noticed by her other coworkers. A male worker volunteered to take his place whom Marlin recognized: it was her male companion the night she berated Marlin.
As Marlin was being served in the counter, he saw that the manager was scolding her: "Why, think you’re too special now that you don’t want to serve customers anymore?", said the manager. "I just don’t want to serve the counter now," she said, "I’ll do anything but serve in the counter for now." "Are you the boss in this restaurant and is now giving orders?", said her angry boss, "Okay mop the floors if you don’t want to serve in the counter." "Not that, please," she pleaded. "If you don’t mop the floors, I’ll fire you. You’ve been my least performing employee so far."
Marlin’s order was finally served. He selected a table and started eating. But he has been observing her for quite sometime now, from the moment she stopped serving in the counter, up to the time she was mopping the floors.
He doesn’t know what to think of her. While he still hates her for berating him in the train several months ago, he also pities her now, knowing that she wasn’t coping well with her job. To make matters worse for her, a child in another table spilled his soda playfully.
As if the child was deliberately taunting her. Marlin paid very particular attention to her this time. He was keen to see how she would react regarding the spilled soda in the floor. To his surprise, the woman looked at him and he swore he saw tears in her eyes.
She dropped the mop in the floor and just walked out of the restaurant. Her manager shouted at her to come back while her male companion followed her out of the restaurant, also calling out to her to come back.
Marlin finished his meal and felt very much filled. He was quite concerned of her but realized that he cannot do anything about her. He even thinks that she’s bound to quit her job at some point, he just made her make her mind now.
Before returning to the office, he stopped by the small alley where most of the smokers in the area generally hangout to smoke. He begins to realize that his job wasn’t that bad. His company never questioned him when he does many of his smoking breaks.
Besides, in his job, he never gets to face customers who are mean or makes fun of people serving them. He also believes that he is better paid as compared to the woman who just quit when it comes to the job they do.
When he has finished smoking, he went back the company’s office and to his office desk and started working again. As he looked at the piles of paperwork in his desk and in his computer, he realized that at least, his job never sucked that much.
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One Day In The Life Of A Frustrated Man
ason was riding the train on his way to work this morning. As usual it was crowded. The bigger people crowded out the smaller people like him. The passengers who were standing in the train were all uncomfortable. He was used to this discomfort but this always makes him angry.
He would usually content himself with reading a book, but not this day. The train was so crowded that there wasn’t even space to stretch your arms a bit while you hold the overhead hand rail of the train.
On top of it all, the students onboard the train were playing music using their mobile phones and iPads. They did not care if they were disturbing the other passengers of the train with their loud music.
But no one dared to do anything about it. Everyone was scared of being ganged upon by the students or of being accused of berating a child. Everyone just bore the discomfort of having to ride with unruly and bad mouthed students.
When he arrived at the office, there were more frustrations. Even before he can sit on his desk, there are already plenty of calls from the clients of the company asking for his assistance. Some were nice while most were downright rude....