And like that…

My dad has told me this story about non-persons. A nonperson is someone who you work with for years. Late nights, long and difficult projects, tight deadlines. All these bring you closer, but go towards breeding the nonperson. One day someone shows up at their door with nonperson-creating-paperwork. Suddenly your coworker, who’s worked so stupidly hard trying to prove their worth ceases to exist. They disappear into the ether of the layoff, never to be seen again, their existence erased more credibly the the witness protection program could ever begin to contemplate. Pooof. Gone.

Why do we tolerate this? Mortgages, car payments, gas bills and the like. At least that’s my theory for the short term. Why have we tolerated this for the long term ? For the past 300 years or so ? Who knows.