Just Another Human Being

Deceived by light

Chapter four

Melbourne the first time

Arriving back the realities kicked in. My shirt wasn’t ironed or washed for that matter, I still only had Vans to wear to work, I knew nothing about the company or media sales, would it be possible to be fired in this first week. Shit, I have to sort my life out. Turns out, nothing useful is open Sunday evenings and once again, the luring lights of the brothels and strip joints were no help. I smoked a cigarette on the roof, accepted that I was going to be fired for only being able to wash my shirt and not dry clean it and went to bed.

With Bill Withers and Nappy roots floating in my head, I started the day off with a sprint down to the closest shoe store, still managing to be picky at 8am on a Monday. I found some suede brown oxford shoes, justified the cost using a percentage of my allured pay-check and chuffed my way to work, in a cold, manky office. There were 5 others in the waiting room when I arrived, drop-outs, backpackers, mid-life crisis’s, re-entrants to the workforce, I was the only one wearing a tie. In fact, I was the only one that gave a fuck up their appearance. Its these red-flags that stand-out in retrospect, at some point I had become desperate enough to ignore them.

An hour later we were on the phones, one motivational speech down, being passed from one wanker who did a damn good act of pretending to love and be proud of what he was doing to another, both teaching us their unique key to success. These guys were salesman, and for a minute I was sold. I should have turned around to see the 30 other delinquents somehow deceiving themselves of the true reality they were in, accepting the filth that came from managements mouth, somehow justifying their lack of ‘conversions’ as a learning process, that was right behind me.

Day one went. No sales. People left.
Day two went. No sales. New people replaced the old.

Day three came, I went.

Outside, I spoke to a new guy from my station who had left minutes before me, he was shaking… I asked him if he was alright.
“I can’t take it man! This shit is just begging! I quit smoking a month ago, and I just had to go and buy a new pack, that’s what this job does to you. Do you have a light?”
I lit his cigarette then left.

Next job wasn’t too dissimilar, this time there was less illusions. No fat American telling me the money I could earn. No, this time he was Persian. Once again, flags ignored by my desperation. It promised a base rate, if you could get through the first week.
I couldn’t. I broke the iPad I was given and thought that was my cue. I left.

3 weeks ago

Books and beers.

1 month ago