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Jeff doesn’t need to be here, he already did college once 20 years ago but traditional oil paintings didn’t seem to bring in the big bucks. Freelancing some digital animation and graphic design was enough to keep him afloat for a few years until he started working at this current company. He doesn’t exactly love working for them but he’s thankful for it. The work is stable and after spending nearly 2 decades with them the pay has gotten pretty good. He never strived to get promoted; he just did his work, did it well, and did it consistently. Then of course they’d assign him more work because he could finish most of it within a few hours. He’s learnt that pretending to be busy like everyone else is the best move for him. It’s much easier for him given that he’s earned himself a small office with a door he can keep shut. He’s not a slacker, he does everything right, he just doesn't want to do more of it. His aging Branch Manager keeps joking about how efficient the office will run once Jeff takes over after he finally retires. His manager is 52, only a few years older than Jeff. It's not like his manager is getting unable to work his position and besides Jeff doesn't want it. Jeff knows he can get a lot done, he practically already runs half the office already but he enjoys some free time. If he’s able to get a full day of work or more done in approximately 4 hours it feels well deserved. Maybe some younger go-getter that's still somewhat filled with hopes and dreams can come around to fulfill the position instead.
Corporate made note of his “dedication” and “spectacular” work ethic by offering to pay for a higher education at his town's local community college. He’s heard of the company covering training before but never something like this. There has to be a catch, Instead of immediately crafting a polite email declining the offer he went to tell his manager about it first. Choosing his words very carefully Jeff stated how this offer would be better used on other co-works. That only made his manager wax about all that Jeffs done during his time at the company. He brought up
Carol, the single mom of 3 who's been with the branch for nearly 17 years, working here straight out of high school. Certainly it would give corporate a nice feel good hallmark story if they gave it to her instead.
“But Carol has a family to look after” was his manager's response. It stung, he wasn’t expecting him to say that. Jeff had a family, his parents were still around and until recently his grandma was around too. He just hadn't gone through the trouble of finding someone to settle down with, not that he wanted to anyway. Kids are fine, he doesn’t hate them, it’s not their fault they can be little demons sometimes. Having to sit through all of Carol's kid stories during smoke breaks was exhausting enough. Its not something he often thinks about even during his 20s or 30s when his friends and coworkers kept popping them out. The thought of looking into the eyes of a little mini-me that is born knowing nothing makes him cringe. He wouldn’t even know what to say to his kids-
“Look , Jeff, JEFF, it's a great opportunity and I think you should take it!” his manager started to go on about it, walking about the room, gesturing with his hands. Jeff continued to listen to what was intended to be a motivational speech for 15 minutes, looking up at the clock every once and a while to keep track of it. During the 15 minutes his manager playfully punched his arm twice, patted his back 3 times, unintentionally insulted him or his previous degree 4 times, potentially skittered around the idea of Jeff being gay or asexual, and repeated the same points about the benefits of a higher education 7 times. Ending it off with the request that he at least looks into the classes the community college offered.