A WOMAN IN WORKSPACE Do you get bored? What are you thinking now. I noticed you have 37 unread emails in your inbox. There are also tasks on the whiteboard, it’s your handwriting, and you tried to write clearly, because you type everything your handwriting turned fuzzy, the poems too, you no longer know how to write in a notebook, or on paper, only typing. Someone enters your room I think, he’s talking to you now, have you noticed? He puts his hand on your table, reclines, now he’s getting close to your computer screen, he looks at the screen, you talk about a file or a sketch which is opened on your screen, It’s difficult for me to understand what you are talking about exactly, now his finger touches your screen, it leaves a trace, you are not the kind of person to be much bothered by that, now he asks something from you, he asks about something which is under your sole responsibility, he’s asking a very simple question, your lips should have already delivered the answer, it’s time to speak now because he has stopped talking, a woman in workspace, now he’s been quiet for at least five seconds, I know, because it’s approximately the time it takes to say: A woman in workspace
Company 3
After the CEO gave his speech, the talking began, more so than usual. Whispering at the coffee corner. There was talking in the meeting rooms too. The kind of talking just before a meeting begins or just after it ends. Blabbering. No one knows how much time it can last, there were a lot of speculations, the last one suggested six months before bankruptcy. Some suspect each other, secretly, not out loud. People are looking for other options, for jobs. In the meantime, the vast majority stays. Conversations like the one with the CEO or other senior managers left matters tense and the people focused, or, more accurately, stressed. The initiative managed to raise venture capital from local and foreign investors even in its early stage, the concept stage. The money is now being slowly eaten, by work and investments. The initiative was also successful at gaining vast public attention which works in its favor, in our favor. There is a lot of interest outside. There has been since the very first moment, but it’s never enough for the big break. In the meantime, one by one the investors begin to turn their backs, shut the funds. What’s certain, we’re now almost 180 degrees from where we started. The CEO got the Israeli tycoon and main investor’s confirmation in the elevator on the way out of their first meeting. Today too the Israeli tycoon is one of the biggest investors in the initiative. At the beginning he met the CEO in his offices. But the meeting was cut in the middle. The tycoon had to leave early and his car was already waiting down at the parking lot. In order to take advantage of the meeting’s last minutes, the CEO took the elevator down with the tycoon. When the elevator doors opened in the parking lot, the tycoon told him he’ll invest in the initiative. It was a considerable amount, something like 100 million dollars.
A WOMAN IN WORKSPACE, you think of who? you again and again. I see that you’re staring. I recognize the look. Two months passed. Someone might pass here and immediately see that you just are. You’re not moving. At least do some click click click with the mouse, organize your email folders, and the computer’s, my documents folder, organize everything in sub-folders, it’ll cover half your day, maybe more. At the very least you won’t be sitting here, dwelling in fictitious thoughts. It’s time to gain control over the lost task, the one you always leave for the end of the day, the end of the week, the end of the end. The one you avoid reporting about in the weekly meeting, or the monthly meeting, surely in the yearly worker’s assessment meeting, the same task they avoid too, all the managers you’ve had, in every working place. When will you already lose this habit of yours, to always satisfy. You chew time until everything is pulverized between your teeth. It’s afternoon, can you hear the beeping? They are being called to the shuttle back. Now you remember to start working, in this silence, no one will answer any emails now, the AC is turned off and only the breathing.
translated into English from Hebrew by Maayan Eitan