Saturday, 27 September 2014

ON TWO WHEELS

Today, I have woken up particulary early. I wanted to take an inventory of the office material. It was a drastic but also very effective way of getting in touch with my job. I arrived on my two-wheeled companion, equipped with LED lights in the front and rear parts. It has recently started to make that acute noise which indicates that the brake shoes are crystallized. The advantage is that I do not need a bell anymore: the creak warns everyone.

I parked it on the sidewalk, tied to a traffic sign, right in front of the office. Reme, the charwoman, was inside and seemed to be very concerned with the fate of the last window cleaner.

- He leant the ladder against the staircase.

Pepe, the window cleaner, had done it with a very good intention. In fact, he just wanted to leave the show windows perfectly cleaned. But instead of getting shining windows, he just got a nosedive and a first class pass to the hospital. While Reme was spoking, I counted magazines and folio packages.

Actually, taking an inventory was not an obligation, but a way of redoubling efforts. I am sure you know what I am talking about, dear friend in his fourties. I am referring to that situation in which the person that the company has chosen to train you pretends to be explaining, but he is actually giving you ackward explanations and quickly passing screens which have nothing to do with the explanations given. Your “trainer” speaks in a haughty voice, so as everybody can hear that you are being explained something, while he makes adverse judgements against his last coworkerks, your future ones.

As far as I am concerned, when something similar happens, I simply double the effort... and buy a huge tooth-paste tube.

Sat in the front-desk I could see my two-wheeled friend, waiting for me on the pavement. I was lucky to have her there when I came out from the crystal jungle. I am sure Mr. Karl Drais thought of the velocipede while he was feeling alone at the forest inspection.

At lunch time, Miss two wheels accompanied me on a quick tour through the city center. On the way back, I thought of preparing a cash count. After, I started going through the information forms filled in by customers in the last days. I wanted to know what the average time to answer them had been.

In the afternoon, my friend was waiting for me. I sat in the saddle, while Mrs. Two-wheels creaked like an old truck, distracting me for a moment of my labor concerns. We went home together, over the bike lane, and I tried to repair the brake shoes. By the time I finished, my concerns had vanished.

Thank you Mrs. Two-wheels. And thank you very much indeed, Mr. Drais. You must have been a really great guy.

 ...And thanks a lot to your awful colleagues of the forest inspection. Please, bring my greetings to them, if you once happen to meet them, wherever you are.





Copyright Luisa Fernández Baladrón
 
 
 

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