HARD TIMES
“Is this a joke?”
“What are you referring to?”
“This decree here from the National Labour Commissariat on work discipline in the public service…”
“It’s no joke!”
“So I have to roll up to work at ten on the dot?”
“On the dot!”
“What if I sleep in?”
“What do you mean by ‘sleep in’?”
“What if my constitution is such that I happen to sleep in every day?”
“Don’t know…”
“The bastards! First purges, then layoffs, and now – start work at ten on the dot!”
“Well don’t come to work on time then.”
“But it says here they’ll fire anyone who breaks the rules.”
“Well, come on time then.”
“On time! It’s easy for you to say ‘come on time’… What’s this world coming to?”
The work day lengthened by half an hour…
No time for a proper lunch, no time for a decent stroll down the corrid
