03-14-2014, 06:42 AM
It is an excellent picture or cameo of one of those little awkwardnesses which beset managers. S/he would probably prefer it to be one of the more usual irritations ''I'm pregnant'/ ''I have to go to the dentist/doctor/hospital''/ ''I am off on holiday on Monday -you remember, I booked it in January''/ ''I have got a job elsewhere''. Out of the blue, it is not easy to react, but it naturally does bring back a chain of such memories, of one's own.
I see Milo's point about the 'Foreigner with a familiar face' line (although it is a phrase, not a clause, subjugated or not). I took it as seeing someone who still looks the same, yet is somehow different, suffused with these sad feelings, ,but you may have intended it to mean a real foreigner, or, to describe the bereavement bit, which would be logical. I don't like deliberate obscurantism, or self-consciously laid down layers, but perhaps there is no harm in letting this telling phrase linger over the man, and the emotion.
I had the feeling that this was far from a 'paperless office'. When he reaches for the Manual which will liberate him from his fix, you have the impression that on its cover would be ''Personnel Manual'' but with the ''Personnel'' covered up with a sticker with ''H.R'' written on it.
I see Milo's point about the 'Foreigner with a familiar face' line (although it is a phrase, not a clause, subjugated or not). I took it as seeing someone who still looks the same, yet is somehow different, suffused with these sad feelings, ,but you may have intended it to mean a real foreigner, or, to describe the bereavement bit, which would be logical. I don't like deliberate obscurantism, or self-consciously laid down layers, but perhaps there is no harm in letting this telling phrase linger over the man, and the emotion.
I had the feeling that this was far from a 'paperless office'. When he reaches for the Manual which will liberate him from his fix, you have the impression that on its cover would be ''Personnel Manual'' but with the ''Personnel'' covered up with a sticker with ''H.R'' written on it.