Job
A story of an orphan at workplace.
It was the first day of her new job and Elle had no money to book a ride or use public transport so she walked for half an hour to reach the office. On this hot sunny day, the air was quite warm, making her body sweat when she reached the office. She wanted to look fresh and have a good first impression on her management and colleagues. But instead, she looked exhausted as well as tired. She immediately moved to the washroom, washing her face and combing her hair. Then she moved to her seat and began her office work.
After a few minutes, her manager came and said to her,
“Look, in this office, we want our employees to look neat and clean, fresh and active, especially on the time when they enter the office.”
“Sir, I understand what you are saying but actually I don’t have a personal vehicle and I cannot use public transport also for now because I am going through great financial difficulties. I came today by walking for half an hour, and you know the weather, too. But I will do my best to not give you a reason to complain again,” she said.
“I don’t want to hear any kind of excuses. You better follow our rules. I am giving you a warning.”
She felt bad for making a very bad impression on her manager. Then she got busy with her work and by the end of the day, she returned home by walking again for half an hour. And home was only a one-room apartment. And only four days were left to give its rent and she had no money.
Being an orphan, she was raised in an orphanage. And now she was living in this apartment. For her, there were two choices; move back to the homeless shelter and remain dependent on others or make a life of her own. She never wanted to move back to the shelter because according to her, living there makes a person feel unfortunate, someone people should have mercy on. She wanted to progress in life and become financially strong so she began this office job after learning some digital skills online.
Previously, she was working as a waitress in a local restaurant where she often faced harassment. In her free time after work hours, she used to spend time doing courses online that can make her capable enough to land an office job. So this job was quite important for her, a chance to progress ahead.
For dinner, she had only a few slices of bread to eat which she got from the nearby food bank. With tears in her eyes, she ate them while thinking about the difficulties of life.
The next day, when she woke up, there was only a glass of milk for breakfast. Thinking she would pick some time from the food bank on her way back from the office, she drank milk and left home.
She picked an umbrella with the thought that it would be beneficial to save herself from the effects of hot weather. She began walking and the umbrella was doing a fine job of protecting her from the effects of the sun.
When she reached the office and walked to the main door, she slipped and fell to the ground. There was some kind of liquid which she failed to see. When she fell, her left hand got a little hurt and her clothes got dirty because of that liquid. With a pain in her left hand, she stood up immediately. She didn’t want anyone to notice her, anyone, especially from her office. She thought she could go back home and change clothes but then she would be very late in reaching home. And this is not a good thing, especially on the second day. So she entered the office and walked toward the bathroom in a hurry, but her CEO and manager were coming from that way. When the manager saw her, he yelled at her,
“Instead of coming clean today, you are more shitty and a piece of dirt today than you were yesterday.”
“Sir, please allow me to explain this,” said she.
“Miss Elle, we don’t bear these things in office. We are not even interested in listening to your justification. Mr. Starmer is your manager and he warned you yesterday but perhaps you paid no attention. Today, I am clearly telling you that you would get fired the next time we saw your inappropriate dress or attitude. Don’t come here again like a piece of dirt,” said the CEO.
She said nothing to them and quickly moved to the bathroom. Her mind said,
“I don’t deserve it, what if I appeared bad two days at a new job? Does this mean they should call me a piece of dirt?”
She made herself look better and started her work. She felt quite angry the whole day but still did her job with sincere efforts.
On her way back home, she visited the food bank and picked a few available things for the next few days. After dinner, when she lay down on her bed, she thought, How bad it was that both her manager and CEO insulted her and called her a piece of dirt. Her heart cried.
The next day, she prepared herself and again took Umbrella to go to the office. Today she picked the umbrella not to save herself from the hot weather but because it was cloudy weather with a possibility of rain. As she began walking, slow rain began.
After a few minutes, the wind was very fast, to the point that the umbrella got dropped from her hand and then flew and fell into someone’s home garage. The clouds roared, she pressed the home’s bell to take her umbrella back but no one opened the door despite waiting for a few minutes. She decided to continue her journey toward the office to avoid late attendance.
When she was halfway there, heavy rain began and there was no shelter to save herself. As a result, she got completely wet. She thought it would definitely be her last day, and the management would fire her now because of repeated warnings. She felt so unfortunate because she never expected her new job experience to be like this. While she was grieving, she saw a puppy in the corner of the road, shivering in the rain. Her heart melted and she moved toward the puppy. As there was no shelter around, she wondered how to provide some warmth and save the puppy from the rain. She removed her leather jacket and covered the puppy inside it. She tried to remember if there was any shelter near her office road where she could leave the puppy. But she failed to think of any shelter. Still, she decided to move ahead with the puppy with the hope of finding any shelter ahead.
After some steps, she saw a small empty wooden box, placed in the corner of a house. On the box, it was written “Animal Shelter.” She placed the puppy inside it. The rain was still heavy. She checked the time on her wristwatch, it was 9:20 AM while she was supposed to reach the office at 9:00 AM. So today she was not only going to mark her attendance late but also she was completely wet. She knew these reasons were enough for her to get fired from the job. While she was in state of depression, a man came out of that house where she was standing after leaving puppy inside wooden box. The man said to her,
“Congratulations, we have selected you for the job.”
“Job?” she asked conusingly.
“Actually, it was our secret screening test. We are a puppy charity and wanted to hire an empath person to join our office team. So when this heavy rain began, we left the puppy in that corner to see who would care and how much. You came and the way you helped the puppy , that whole scene was getting viewed by our secret cameras. Now we want to hire you.”
“It’s so surprising, whatever you are telling me. But I am not sure if I am capable for the job you are choosing me.”
“Don’t worry, we will train you.”
Thinking how God helped her, thinking how it was all darkness and now a beam of light, a reason for hope was existing. She said,
“I am ready.”
She then called her old office to inform them she don’t want to work there anymore.
And then she turned to her new employer and said,
“In my old job, several times it happend that I reached office in exhausted state of mind and my apperance was not a hundred percent professional according to their standards. Because I am struggling. Just wanted to let you know this in advance.”
“We know you are a human,” he said with a smile.
Felt relief, she began her new job. Her salary was quite good while the behaviour of her managers was also really nice.
“Moments, moments that give us the opportunity to create ease for a soul are everything, they can change everything,” she said this to herself every day. This was her way to remind herself about the power of contributing positively to the world around.
