Quote:
Originally Posted by orjanb
Way back in the 80's, in English class, I read a short story that I have been unable to track down. I believe that it's of British origin, since Swedish schools at that time tended to lean towards teaching "proper" English.
Anyway, the story's about a man who visits the unemployment agency, to fill in the forms to make him eligible for unemployment. For some reason everyone is very busy and he is shown to an empty room. After sitting there for a while, a janitor comes and asks for his name. After telling him, he promptly begins to paint his name on the glass door. Later, a salary clerk comes by, noticing the new name on the door, and lets the man know that he's now on the salary list.
After that, the man comes to "his" office every day, bringing a briefcase with a book and his lunch, picking up his weekly pay checks.
Nobody knows who's hired him so everybody thinks he's working for some other department.
He has inadvertently became a part of the system.
As I said, I have no idea who wrote this, I don't have the English book anymore, and nobody I've tried to explain the story for has ever heard of it. It could be a Roald Dahl story. Except it is not.
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Sounds like a Kafka story to tell you the truth.
BOb