My Life in Twelve Hours: The Chronicles Of John Doe

Introduction 

To some having a job is an indication of blessings from God, and to some, it is not a blessing at all. We are all different and to make us happy we need to be exposed to different experiences in life. Some see a corporate job as a stepping stone towards some much greater possibilities, meaning that one day when they have acquired the necessary knowledge, experience, skills, and capital they can and will later move on to establish their own companies.

Chapter One 

It is 14:30 (half-past two) in the afternoon and an alarm had just rung to wake up John Doe who must go to work. Even though he is tired from his previous shift John wakes up and proceeds to prepare himself a nice hot bath and while at it he also prepares a late lunch, he really must have it for he later will be working very hard and he will surely need the energy...

Deep in his thoughts, he finds himself, “No offense, but is this the place where I’d like to be for the rest of my life? Am I happy? Or am I strong or am I confident enough to even make my own decisions without anyone’s validation? Where do I start or is this even possible to achieve? But only God knows. While this was happening John was thinking a lot 25 minutes had already passed and John was now running late for work once again. As late John has become quite a latecomer, what could be the problem? his colleagues wondered. John who is still at home running late has not yet realized how late he really is because he is far too concerned about his future now more than anything else. It is very vital for one to be worried about their future if they do not want to live a life full of regrets. Truth be told that it will never be easy, but one always must be confident enough to push through.

Finally, John has come to really realize that time is no longer on his side, a little bit of panic kicks in he is already on his first written warning and cannot afford to be in the bad books of his supervisor once again. It takes John approximately 20 minutes to walk to the bus station where he catches a 16:00h bus to town, John being late for work tries to make a run for it but unfortunately, the scorching sun made it impossible for him to do so. The journey to town was hassle-free and a smooth ride with fewer stops along the way, but sometimes when there is something wrong something else comes along to worsen the situation, and sometimes one might feel as though they do not deserve to be alive. Due to service delivery protests, John was faced with the challenge of connecting to his destination which is his workplace and it proves to be a bit difficult now. Eventually, by the grace of God, he manages to catch the last connecting taxi of the day, a taxi that will take him to his destination which is his workplace. It was when he got to work that he realized that the journey to work had taken him 3 hours to complete, John usually travels for less than 2 hours a day.

Chapter Two 

Soon after reaching his destination John quickly rushes to the changing room to change from his home clothes to his work clothing. To his surprise there he finds that some of his colleagues are also late due to the service delivery protests taking place in town. After changing into his work clothes, he again quickly rushes to his workstation to report for duty where he finds his gruntled supervisor shouting as he does daily. Why are you late again John…? Asked his supervisor while shouting at two of John’s colleagues who were not performing well, I am sorry for coming late, I woke up late, and to add on that there are protests in town and that made it difficult for me to travel from one point to the other, said John in a doubtful tone of response. 

Luckily his supervisor is also running late for a meeting and so he ordered John to go and perform his duties. However most of John’s colleagues were already hard at work as he joined in, Lucky for them they stay much closer to work and some do not even have to use some form of public transport to get to work, and they are always early to report for duty. The thought of moving closer to work did cross John’s mind but unfortunately, since he is not a permanent employee of the company he decided to wait for a couple of months before taking the risk of moving.

Despite John’s unacceptable behavior of always being late, he is regarded as one of the best employees whose job is always up to date and extremely impressive. Promotions do not come easily because the competition amongst employees is very intense and since well most of the company’s employees are not hired on a permanent basis. However, John is not really bothered by this because he plans on leaving his job someday so that he can establish his own company. He has not decided yet, but one can rest assured that John is always ready to jump ship and be on his way to an entrepreneurial adventure, why not? For he surely will certainly be happy doing what he loves. While every employee is hard at work Mr. Smith John’s supervisor returns from his meeting only to start shouting once again, one of the employees had made a careless mistake of not wrapping the package he was working on and so everything fell to the groundbreaking some few expensive items.

Chapter Three 

It is ten o’clock (22:00) and the first group goes out for lunch, John is not part of that group because he prefers going out for lunch with the second or the third group. Most people go out and take the first lunch and in turn, this causes an increase in the workload for those who are left behind, but nonetheless, work must continue even when it seems impossible to do so... 

Thomas who is close friends with John and their colleague suddenly collapses while on duty, fatigue has taken its toll and the intense pressure in the warehouse is making it difficult for everyone to cope, even their supervisor has difficulties coping which is why he always shouting at everyone. Nonetheless, John pushes on very hard and finally, it's time for him to go out for lunch and at least get some fresh air, smoking is no longer part of his routine because after 6 years John finally decided to quit. Eventually, lunchtime passed and everyone is back performing their duties, teatime also came and passed. The pressure of the workload is so intense in the warehouse to a point that no one even realized that it is almost time to knock off from work, emotions are very high, and everyone is sweating profusely.

The End