Three weeks was enough. I’d thought I could last it out for at least another week but sod it! – unemployment is preferable to fascist indoctrination.

Over the weekend, I went in as usual and started selling – doing quite well, at least in comparision to the fresh-faced colleagues I was sharing my Saturday with ( Friday nights doesn’t seem to affect young people in the same way as it does us ‘old-skoolies’ which wouldn’t have been so bad if like them I’d been out carousing all night long but all I’d done was stay in and watch the box) . During the Afternoon, one of the overseers supervisior’s was asked what had happened to Anwar (name changed for the usual reasons) – she replied he’d been sacked and then turned towards me with a knowing, conspiritorial look.

This chilled me to the bones. Anwar had played a practical joke on me a couple of days previously during one of the regular system crashes that the ‘predictive calling system’ underwent during each day. You need to know that we all sit at workstations with phone’s attached, each phone having it’s own extension. While I was waiting for the system to re-start the phone rang, sometimes the phones dial out before the potential victim’s customer’s details are displayed. I prided myself on being able to keep a pitch going until the system had caught up with the phone when I would have their name with which to intimidate them ingratiate myself with them. But this time the system just didn’t catch up and the ‘customer’ was sounding very eager … too eager in fact. I should have known that somebody had called from one of the other workstations but a combination of dumbness, pride and greed meant that I didn’t know until one of the supervisiors came over and asked sternly ‘ who are you talking to?’.

Well, it was Anwar and the supervisor realised that I’d been duped during the system downtime. When I finally realised what had happened, I turned around and saw Anwar laughing him self silly … as did everybody around me … as did I since in all honesty it was very funny (perhaps you had to be there). Anyway, the supervisor took Anwar off to a little ante-room where he got a bollocking and I thought nothing more of it particularly as he was back there the next day.

But on Saturday he wasn’t.

And today nor am I – So Anwar, wherever you are, this resignation’s for you pal.