This Way Out

Marie loved ringing the bell to make the bus stop near the Monolith Printing building in the industrial park on the outskirts of Halifax. Lit by powerful floodlights, the building dominated the night skyline. She felt proud and important as she strode towards the building, lanyard with plastic identity card around her neck.

She walked through the empty parking lot to a black metal door along the main wall and slid her card into the reader. Once inside she used card to open the door to the small utility room where her cleaning cart and materials were stored. She looked for the clipboard, left by the maintenance worker on the previous shift, someone she had never met.

There was only one work order on the duty clipboard.

MAINTENANCE REQUEST
Location: Women's washroom, 2nd floor
Category: Electrical
, Production, Safety, Admin, Other: Safety
Priority [1-5]: 3
Skills/Training needed: none
Detail: Please fix flickering overhead light.

Marie would plan her maintenance route by the tasks the clipboard outlined. The light could wait while she cleaned the counters and work surfaces in the foyer where the receptionists worked. It was a busy area. By the end of the working day the floors would be littered with scribbled notes, the crevices with paper clips and broad worktop covered with a tangle of telephone cords. Marie would clean every phone with her special blue cleaning solution which she mixed herself and kept in a spray bottle. She'd wipe the counter with her all-purpose cleanser from company supplies. But first she'd untangle the cords and place each phone neatly on the right side of each work station. Except Harriet's. That went on the left. Marie had loved Harriet, ever since she had received a hand-written note from her complete with a smiley face.

Cleaning staff: Hope you had a good day! Please try to leave my phone on the LEFT side of my work station as I'm left-handed and the cords already get tangled up enough!
Thanks a lot!
Harriet

Marie kept the note in her apron. It was a memento from the old days. Cleaning the foyer was easy now. Nobody entered it these days except the security guard on his regular patrol.

EMPLOYEE ASSESSMENT
Name: Marie Dawn Legere
Date of Hire: April 10 1985
Position: 1985-present; Assistant office cleaner
Observations: Employee is never late and has rarely taken sick leave. No complaints have been entered in her file. Colleagues say she is cooperative and capable. She has no allergies and is capable of lifting a 15 kg weight to counter height. Her attendance record and ability to work independently make her an ideal night shift employee.
Signed: Joe Frosst
Personnel Associate
10/12/2010

Marie's job was limited to the business facilities, the cluster of offices and work areas along one side of the Monolith building. She had never seen the giant press which occupied most of the building and printed newspapers for the region. Soon, she knew, it would emit an ominous moan as it came up to speed for another printing run. Then it would churn and clank like a monster lizard chained to the ground. The walls and floors would vibrate. Sometimes dishes would fall off tables in the employee lunchroom and Marie would be needed with her cleaning cart. The constant moan was a background to her work. Marie was afraid of the pressroom.

She was not an important employee like the men who ran the press. She had found their funny hats in the lunchroom. They were made from newspaper pages, folded into box shapes. Marie loved the pressmen because they were creative and brave.

They weren't afraid of the press. According to a company video which had been shown to staff by by the personnel department, the pressmen sometimes ventured right inside the clanking monster as it ran, worming their way among the whirring pullies, gears and the trail of newsprint, speeding between the ink-covered drums like an endless highway. Sometimes they would hold one finger against a madly spinning drum, just skimming its inky surface to remove a tiny speck of dust. A dust speck, said the video, produced something called a hickey, a tiny white spot on a page where ink could not print.