Until very recently Bartleby was employed by a well-known, well-entrenched company specialising in the energetic sale of trivialities. Actually no. It was a wonderful entry level oppurtunity for an enthusiastic young salesman to enter to the job market. It was a fantastic oppurtunity to provide a valuable service to our customers and facilitate their enquires in the most expedient manner. It was an oppurtunity to learn valuable life lessons in relationships and teamworking. It was a place in which a sentence was not valuable or oppurtunistic if it did not have the words “valuable” and “oppurtunity” in them at least once. Your attitude is most important. We are to “choose” our attitude. Because it is no good being unhappy, because life is too short! It’s about having fun, meeting your sales targets, and toeing the company line. And liking it, bitch.

I got into an argument with a customer over coupons. This customer had neglected to inform me that he had a coupon and was therefore horribly offended at the quote I’d just given him. Next he failed to find the code printed in plain sight on the coupon. He then told me our policies were awful, because he wanted to do X, and I told him we couldn’t do that. He wanted to argue, and I hung up on him because he was the fifth person in a row who wanted to tango with me, and I just didn’t feel dancing no more.

I walked outside for a few minutes and the breeze smelt of nighttime lavender. I couldn’t think of a clear reason as to why I should go back inside, but after a while I did so anyway. I was called into the managers office, asked if I was feeling well. I informed her of my numerous problems with the company and told her that I’d like to quit. And what she said to me was poetry:
“There is no reason to stress. You need to calm down. I realise we have a long call queue at this time of day, but that is the reality of our busy company. Everyone else has to deal with this too. Even I had to take some calls tonight. And look – the queue is gone now. This is the reality. This is what we do here.”

So I didn’t have much to say to that, except give her my key and leave.