Resource on vacation

Gabe just returned from his holiday. Being a poor resource he didn't had the money to travel abroad together with his wife and kid and not even go to a domestic high level tourist resort. Instead he spent a week in an old country side village where the top attraction was an abandoned salt mine.

- I got so sick of that frickin' salt mine were his first words when he returned. I was bored like hell, nothing to do there. Every day was the same, go down in the mine, get bored for a few hours, get up, get bored on the surface, nothing to do all day.
- Welcome back I said, there are a few hundred emails just waiting for you. Glad to see you missed them..
- Oh well said Gabe, while I was spending my holiday upset in the salt mine I had enough time to think. What are we doing here Seb? Why are we spending the best years of our life working for the Corporation and even if we take one week holiday for the summer we still don't have the money to go somewhere nice.Why?

I said nothing, thinking Dale had just started his vacation the other day. When I asked him where he is going to go he raised his shoulders and said: Nowhere, I'm gonna stay home. Maybe a couple of days at the sea in a small village. I knew the village, Dale was going there for the past several years, he couldn't afford anything else.

- I have heard you got a new girlfriend! Gabe said. You lucky bastard, I'm married with children and you're playing around like you're in your twenties again.

I said nothing, Sexy Redhead just walked out in the courtyard and I was too busy staring at her. Yes, a new girlfriend, just not her sadly....
- Go to her already mumbled Gabe annoyed, I can't stand you already when she's around...

Sexy redhead resource

- Will you frickin' stop dreaming about her already? said Gabe annoyed while we were in the Corporation courtyard in a coffee break.

Gabe was constantly looking for all the women, all types, all ages, all sizes. You couldn't spend two minutes with him without pointing out a women he likes with a sigh. He once said he likes about 80% of the women he saw in the subway while going to work. And now he was annoyed with me because I couldn't take my eyes off Sexy Redhead.

She was a resource like us, working on the same floor but in a different team, thin, average sized, with a beautiful red hair and a face resembling Angelina Jolie. Or so it looked to me, I was hypnotized staring at her every time she was out with her friends a few meters apart from me.

- Well she is ugly! Gabe continued but she kind of looks like you so I see why you have the hots for her. You'd make a good couple you know, you're suitable you two.
- Shut up and let me dream, you know I ain't got no chance. She's got her desk full of her boyfriend's pictures and also her facebook wall. Like life is going to be good to a resource...
- So what, you should try hitting on to her. Just go to her and say you like her and invite her out! Don't just stay here staring. You're not fun to get out to a coffee with when she's around.
- Yeah, I'm a sad resource. No, actually I'm a sadder resource than usual I said absent looking as Sexy Redhead was lighting up a cigarette. Damn I wish I was there with her. It ain't bad enough I'm a resource at the Corporation, I have to live up with her so close and yet so far every day.

Gabe said nothing, he was busy checking out a tall blonde coming out of the building. After a few moments he said:
- If the Corporation would only knew you've got a crush on the Sexy Redhead they would move you next to her desk if you accepted to work harder, such an easy way to motivate a resource.

The resource cafeteria

Each day lunch was the same story at the Corporation. A large restaurant was opened at the ground level where resources could eat quickly before resuming their tasks. We called this place the Resource Cafeteria. Despite all research no solution was found for substituting food so lunch was still allowed.

Me and Dale would go through the same story over and over again. Opening the door you stumble into a large line of resources aligned and patiently waiting to get to the food trays. I would go sit at the end if the queue while Dale went to check the meals for the day. Each day he would come back to me in the line saying he doesn't know what to choose and all food is crap.

- I don't get it I said to him, we have been eating in this frickin' place for years and you still go every day to check the food trays, eyes full of hope only to return with the same long face and bitter disappointment. I only take a look at the menu once I get to the trays, I already know each meal.
- Yeah, hope dies last...

The soups were garbage, a salty water with a couple of boiled vegetables with no taste. From time to time Alex gave the soup a try but he almost always regretted it. Second course was a risk as well, anything with souse you avoid. The other meals tasted awful too but the resources learnt to eat them anyway. No one was complaining outside of me doing the same old jokes about the food. Prices were pretty high compared to the horrible food but how other could the resource cafeteria owner afford two luxury cars whom he proudly parked outside.

There was always constant noise the Resource Cafeteria, you couldn't even enjoy the garbage food in quiet. But it paid off, the resources were quick to eat and return to work hoping for that 6PM to come already.

I don't wanna hear no sorry!

The Dragon was furious today which was not something new, she was always furious when she saw the regular KPIs for the team. Although we faked them as much as possible there was no way to reach her absurd expectations to be at 99% of the targets she set.

- Don't want to hear no sorry she yelled in the phone conference, why you not meet targets? You tell me!

Even Raul her pet and perfect ass kisser was quiet, he knew better than to say anything when the Dragon was mad unless he could blame someone, point to a scape goat. The KPIs were nuts and if you wanted to have at least a chance to meet them not only you had to work the entire day with no pauses but excharge the customer with every minute of your work.

After the meeting I went out with Dale and Sandra. Together with Raul they were the Dragon's team leads and the ones who took bad it most often. Dale and Sandra were constantly arguing if the Dragon was nicer or worse than our former manager nicknamed the Devil. She was also a mid-aged single woman with a desire to raise high in the sky in the company. Until one day when she was brutally fired by email. A fate everyone hoped will be shared by the Dragon.

Early retirement dream

I was sitting outside the office with Dale in a short coffee break telling him I don't want to spend my entire life working from 9 to 6 and spending another 2 hours on the road to and from the office.

- You know you can only retire at 65, that's the law! he said sipping his coffee. That's more than 30 years away and by the time you get there the life expectancy will raise so they will probably set the bar at 70 years. In other words we will work till we drop, resources for life. Unless we start a business, seize an opportunity...

Dale always had plans to hit it big time, one big business that would make him rich quickly.

- That's not how it works, well unless you are a genius like Gates or Zuckerberg or Jobs. For years you are constantly trying to find that big idea to make you rich in a moment. The way to go is slow, saving and investing, buying assets, generating passive income like Kyosaki says.
- Cut me some slack with your Kyosaki, I don't want to be rich when I'm old, I want to be rich now.
- So be rich, who's stopping you? It's better to do a plan and save and invest on the long run, I hope I will be free from this fricking rat race in about 15 years. While you dream of getting rich quickly for the last 5 years with no success, who tells you you're not gonna be in the same spot in 15 years?

Dale said nothing, he finished his coffee and rushed back.
-Come on he said, we got the meeting with the Dragon and you know she hates us to be late. We got enough kicks in the ass from her this week already.

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The resource road to he ... Corporation

Every day the same drill, wake up in the morning and travel with the subway train for about an hour to reach the Corporation headquarters, far in the outskirts of the city. The closest you are to the top rush-hour the worse. The resource ends up in the train station to see a large mass of resources waiting patiently and painfully for the train to arrive.

When the train finally comes it's a wonder to climb in the first one, you have to wait for the second, sometimes even third. When you manage to get on the train squeezed between other resources you have to travel about an hour in the crowd trying to reach a bar. A seat is a dream at the rush-hour, it's so crowded you can't even see the seats let alone get a free one.

And after an agonizing hour (during which you have to change the train and take another one) you finally reach the industrial platform where the Corporation building stands high in the sky. Totally grey with an ugly design is looks like a prison. Getting out of the train station you see hundreds of resources walking tired and hopeless to the premises. They are all sad, woke up in the morning, squeezed in the train like cattle for an hour and yet they need to start the day's work. Hurry up, there's lots of mails already waiting for you not to say that early meeting scheduled by your boss. What does the Dragon want this time you ask? Should you worry? You're too tired to even do that.

Let me inspire you how to think!!!

She was yelling, really yelling in the phone. Me and the rest of the resources in the team were listening to her surprised. She was a middle aged Chinese woman, the team manager, unamarried, no children, no hobbies, no love other than the Coporation. She was nicknamed the Dragon. Hard-working, fanatical belief, obsessed with metrics, KPIs and numbers (whom she affectionately called "lumbers"):

- You are doing it all wrong! Wrong I tell you! Don't want to hear no sorry yes? Efficiency is below targets, why you not log more work in the system? Do you not work more?

There was complete silence and then the Dragon continued to yell:

- It is not you fault completely, you haven't been learnt how to work. More than that you haven't been learnt how to think. Let me inspire you how to think!!! You will work and do your best for the corporation yes? This is the only concern for you. I don't want to see any red metrics ever. Is that understood?

Raul who was one of the team leaders and the Dragon's favourite pet quickly replied:
- Yes boss, I tell them all the time but they don't listen... We will do as you say, always.

Angry looks focused on Raul from the other desks but he continued to talk kissing the Dragon's ass until she calmed down. We closed the call waiting for her inspiration on how to think.

The lucky ones!

 

- You’re very frickin lucky to be working here said Gabe as a response to us complaining about our jobes. You are even very well paid for what you know to do, what do you know to do that should grant you more money? The workload is ok, you carry simple instructions, follow-up the process, that’s all!
We all knew Gabe went in a frenzy when people criticized the Corporation, not because he loved it (although he always said he loves working there) but following a more than unpleasant job in a local Romanian small company.
- You know how it was the boss there? he continued after a short break. He was yelling to anyone like crazy, always the guy who knows everything better than anyone, always displeased. You had to announce when you got to the office, when you go to lunch or on a break and when you leave. He had such irrational expectations, he wanted me to almost double their market share … Trust me, the Corporation gave you a good job you frickin lazybones!
- Yeah I said, that’s why I can only afford to get out of the city a weekend a month and I need to squeeze the wallet until the next salary. And you don’t even afford a weekend at the beach, do you?
Gabe said nothing, the other colleagues sipped from his coffee and sighed. Tough times he thought, jobs are scarce, everyone needs to endure. We were resources for close to ten years now.
- After all we’re all resources I said, and we’ll stay resources for the Corporation as long as we can’t do something to assure our financial freedom. I don’t want to be a frickin resource for ever.
- So what you gonna do? said Gabe with sarcasm. He never did anything but he liked to bash other people’s ideas being the negative voice of reason.
- I’m gonna start a blog I said. I’m gonna share my life as a Corporation resource, a resource’s blog and check how I can break free from this frickin rat race.
It was late, we finished drinking our coffees and headed inside, tasks and calls were beginning to pile up like crazy. Back to work!