GIML: Queues: Subtext

Notice that Ivan and Tanya are filled out in more detail than the others. Ivan and Tanya are members of the professional middle classes to which we aspire. (The degree course which you are almost certainly studying is a passport to this station.) Their membership of this class is symbolised by the briefcases which they are carrying. The briefcase is their badge and their burden, it shows that they never really leave work, they take their work home. In the evening when they are with their families or friends they still owe allegiance to the employer who has first call on their time and energy both from 9 to 5 and thereafter.

The non-professional classes (denoted by hollow figures and functional headwear) are not so encumbered, when they clock off it is to become whole-hearted husbands or wives or parents or lovers or drunkards or gardeners or whatever they choose. They do not take their work home. The do not owe alliegence to the employer and need not doff the cap or tug the forelock out of the the hours which they have sold.

Thus to become a professional is to sell not merely the 40 odd hours per week of labour, it is to sell your soul. The career/company must come first, you must put in the hours required to get the job the done.

Of course should the company be in trouble you will be required to work harder and longer to "bail it out", should the company do well they may reward you with paternalistic bonus or a perk or two, but they are under no obligation to do so. You pay for the deficits, they keep the surplus.