Title: diamonds in the dust
Existence: co-workers
City: Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Year: 2025
Work Team
What can I say about this experience? Where should I begin?
It was the first time I worked with such a large group of people from so many different cultures, to name a few countries: Argentina, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Filipino descent, Romania, and the United States. The ages were also diverse, ranging, I’d imagine, from 17/18 to 57? Papers too… from immigrants seeking work permits, to those struggling to obtain Social Security, residents, naturalized citizens, and those born in this northern country.
The fact that many of us spoke Spanish didn’t connect us much, because the dialects and idioms were very different. What might have been an insult to one person was a comment to another; I often felt offended and offended unintentionally.
Was there a team? We all functioned as a single body, each one a distinct organ with its own particular function and characteristics. As in any body, sometimes there were illnesses, removals, or just modifications, and that’s when there were layoffs and resignations from jobs…
The body continues to function.
We are part of a body that doesn’t belong to us, that is alien to us and “must” matter to us as our own. This is actually the body of a company, a corporation that only strives for profit (with the health of its clients and employees). I understand that this goes beyond the DD company and that this is actually how the market works. Just because I understand this doesn’t mean I accept it. It’s worth noting that there’s a pretense of warmth, starting with birthday reminders and gifts for each year of work… everyone is only interested in money; there’s no sentimentality on these dates.
There’s no room for subjectivity. On one occasion, the daughter of a coworker, who is also an employee, had a car accident while commuting to work at DD. The mother was reprimanded for talking on the phone with her daughter in front of an audience, and it was assumed, before even asking, that her daughter was not going to work due to “post-traumatic effects” (which are important…), but in reality she had broken her arm.
Likewise, this team is still made up of human beings who, even if they repress their feelings, have an important emotional side; the bonds of affection exist. I saw them. I even had deep conversations, where we got to know each other outside of our work uniforms. I went with the expectation of making friends, and I did, although at times I forgot and drowned in the sadness of having to go to work in the mornings. I learned extremely interesting and different life stories, and I received positive vibes, insults, and mistreatment—from superiors and peers.
Fast-food establishments are places of constant tension, where they bring out what you have “hidden because you’re not pretty”: irascibility, indifference, irritability, anger, frustration. Someone who is just passing through (like me) is not the same as someone who “has no choice but to work there” (as a colleague told me when she found out I was moving on).
These photos also capture playful moments, and I’ll take that with me, they exist. Some people are there for years, others for months, and others for just weeks, others who come and go; regardless of the duration, it’s a job, and they spend many hours there, so as “good humans,” we appeal to creativity to make these hours as pleasant as possible.
Among my companions, I found a Buddha, a future Mother, an Amazon, a biology lover, a singing Christian, a Mother Hen, a red-haired Punk, a Mafioso, a tired Queen, a happy Chinchilla, a brilliant Brain, a Hippie, a Mandrake, a Nightingale, and many unknowns. If I don’t understand my life, but create it as I experience it, it’s clearly impossible for me to understand the lives of others.
I celebrate what I share, I learn from what I feel, and I eliminate what I no longer understand.
Bye Bye.
P.S. As I’ve said in other narratives, this is a situated view; I’m writing from what I perceive now. Perhaps tomorrow it will change; perhaps you’ll be able to record it differently.