During a needlessly long two-hour Zoom meeting, 45-year-old Joseph Smith found himself daydreaming and struggling to engage with his boss's rambling about quotas.
Sleepless from the night before trying to re-learn fifth grade Common Core math to teach his children, Smith was frustrated with this new, unfamiliar way of doing long division that made him feel stupid. He also lamented the newfound time spent with his wife, deeming her too controlling but never realizing it in their 20 years of marriage due to not spending more than five hours of the day together in the house.
Now, during quarantine, he hated work, and he hated life.
During the work Zoom meeting, Smith dozed off, dreaming about a time in his life when he could go to work, not have to teach his children, and not have to deal with his wife. All he wanted to do was go to sleep, and yet his boss would not stop talking.
As an employee in a middle management position, he had no real power at work. He couldn't tell his boss off whenever his boss took all the credit and pushed all work responsibilities onto Smith, and Smith had no real authority over his underlings.
"Mr. Smith, can you go over the report?" The boss asked repeatedly for over a minute. Everyone quickly became uncomfortable, and a call from a co-worker awoke Smith.
"Sorry," Smith finally said. "I couldn't figure out how to un-mute my mic."