“Ughhh, YES Dee… I will get that for you Dee… motherfucker.”
“You know I can hear you right Chaz.” I said this while rolling my eyes.
“Shit, umm… Yes, sorry, really sorry.” Chaz said quickly, then just silence that was broken once in a while by the clicking of a mouse or a keyboard, or something else, not really sure.
I guess I’ll do a quick intro. My name is Elijah, I go by E. I’m in my late 30s. I currently work for this Automotive Finance Company. It isn’t bad, since I’m a manager, I can basically work anywhere I want, a perk of this job I guess. Take full advantage of it. I even get a deal on their leases, a full TEN percent off… I just got one of their newer models. Full autonomos electric sleep/work pad. I have a wonderful view while working, watching the road go by and the sky just right above me from the dome.
I’m staring at my phone watching my four workers hating their lives. I always wanted this phone since I was a kid. It was in this thin collection of bound paper called popular science. I think the term for it was a magazine. It is just like a scroll page, but on actual paper. My dad had a ton, and I would just go through them as a kid. I think I had an issue that was as old as I am now, the issue was around like 2004. It was talking about the future of cell phones. And it had one that could fold out into a larger screen, but then can go back to this small hand held device. I took it to my dad asking if that has been made yet. He told me there were foldable screen phones, at that time, but there soon would be a phone that would roll their screen up into itself.
Well within a year when my dad told me that, one came out. It was an instant hit… Actually there was another one like it that was actually out, but it was from some Chinese maker and the US at the time was having issues with them. This one though was from Apple. It blew up because it replaced an iphone, tablet, and macbook all in one. It looked awesome… My dad wouldn’t get it for me. I pleaded, saying it would help me with school, and I could keep up with my friends that I don’t actually see at school. School for the most part then was virtual.
I thought so much about that phone, and was so angry at my dad for not getting me one. The future was now! He read about this when he was a kid or something. I just couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t be jumping up and down for it too. I knew other friends were getting one, their parents would just get it for them. I think it leased just for $300 a month, far less than what we had spent for food each month, I thought. I was clueless, I know.
I should have stopped and listened to what my father was trying to teach me then, and I should listen probably now to that message back then too. It is a struggle. He passed away a couple of years after that when he went down to South America. They had and still have seasonal outbreaks of Covid. I guess he got a strain that his vaccine didn’t work against. In a matter of like five days, he was gone. I stayed with my Uncle James, who was the opposite of my dad, after that.
Damn, calls increased… Let’s see how this goes.
“Hey y'all, I’m going to get some gig people in to help you all until the volume goes down.”
Heard Kristy first, “THANK FUCKING GOD!”
Next was DC, “You are the best boss ever!”
The other two made sounds of appreciation.
I think this is the only joy I get, making these guys happy. They do work their asses off, even though I think three of them hate it as much as I do. One person, not sure about.
I don’t like working with gig people. They can see the names of the systems they have to select for Fall and Joseph (Or it goes by Dee sometimes), Digital CS Providers or DCSP, but that is it. No NPPI data to protect our customers from these randos. But I only will have to deal with these people typically on a Monday for like three hours, and two hours, maybe, for the rest of the week. My peeps don’t like the gig people either that much, because if the DCSP gets confused with what it is reading, typically due to an update to one of the systems, the gig person can’t help it like my people can. Which means, my peeps have to switch over real quick to help the DCSP for the gig worker.
DCSP is really smart, and such a smoother talker, but because of over processing or something like that, it can’t navigate between systems the company has, at least as of yet. So we still have jobs. My boss told me the department used to be like forty people when she was in my position. Now we have four…
Wonder what I am going to do tonight. Maybe get an Airbnb Kitch, so I can actually cook up a week's worth of food. This car is awesome. I tell it where to go, and it will go. It will find stations to do a battery change on it’s on, or when I tell it I need to go to a station to get a pop. Has basically a nice ass futon. and a desk area. It isn’t like the cars I would ride in with my dad, then later with Uncle Jimmy. He hated being called Jimmy, but I thought it was funny. Those cars, people actually drove them. I had something similar when I was learning to drive, but thinking about it… I don’t think I’ve manually driven a car in like eight or nine years. Crazy! There are cars still that can, but those are for the hobbiest.
“Hey guys, 5 more minutes!”
Giggles coming through the speakers.
“Have you all seen that new wireless technology?” I said happily. I typically will talk about random stuff at the end of the day, to get their minds off work and ready for the evening. I think I’m helping them to disconnect, so they can come recharged tomorrow. Also, to be honest… I do it for myself.
“Ya I say it. Is it like using some sort of like teleporting thing?” DC is like my main person to help the conversation going.
“I read that they are using quantum entanglement. So, not really teleporting, I think. I can’t even begin to think what the future will be like.”
“I can E, it is going to go to hell!” Kristy said.
“Well on that note, it is time to go!!! Bye you all!”
All my agents said their byes and see you tomorrow. I am going to lay down and take a nap now.
Afterword
I wanted to tell a story about the future, but through a lens of a person very much like myself. I constantly think about the world around me, but while I was working, had to take care of things. Last couple of years when I worked at Mercedes, I wasn’t too happy, but really did like my agents. That was my favorite part of the job. I still remember when I learned about Google Assistant being able to call restaurants to book a reservation for you, I told my agents then that one day they will be training their replacement. I can just see it being beneficial for a company having a computer to do all the talking, to build rapport with the customers. Customers always like to keep talking to the same person that they think did them well.
The other part of the story about the car, I am driving around myself. I think it will be more a thing, and leaving in a car is a really cheap option. I actually would love this car in this story, and cannot wait until I get it. But the thing is, I do meet a lot of new people, but it can be lonely on the road. Not seeing familiar faces all the time, does take a toll somewhere. Not sure where yet.
I hope that I also showed that E had his struggles. His life is something I would love, but I can see how the same shit a different day is still very much real now, and will be real then.
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