I wish I had taken my camera with me.
There is a booth for the Rogers digital communications in the middle of the Square One mall.
I rush through that congested area to get to the exit at the other end so I can finally get home in one piece.
Well, I saw one of the promoters, a young Hispanic-looking woman, in tight dark pants and a black t-shirt with a logo. I guess the company allows ths getup. She was talking on a cell phone.
Somehow, this didn't look like a business call, nor one where she was helping connect (with) a customer. She was exuberantly talking and gesticulating, excitedly moving from one spot to another. She has no regard for her collegue, a young man, nor was she soliciting his advice (nor consulting other online or catalogue information).
She was laughing, walking back and front, talking then listening. The "mobile" (resolutely immobile) appendage never left her hand and her right ear.
I walked past sensing something odd (what I described above). I stopped a few steps behind the booth and observed the booth.
The young man was sitting slouched with his wrist under his chin and his elbow on the counter. He wasn't quite looking at the women, nor was he looking away. He looked bored. But above all, he looked resigned to the situation; to his fate.
He was not needed (nor wanted) and was glanced at only when problems occur - and they always do although not so often, thanks to the fastidious programs that Rogers and their engineers have devised. Some of these infrequent technical and digital problems are big, and only he can rectify them. Those are the problems which require creative intelligence, and not some charming fast talking by Maria. But then there are also those problems of compassion and sacrifice, when a spare body is needed to fill in for those endless cultural holidays, or when an angry customer threatens to walk away in the middle of a lucrative deal. And when he has to sit and "man" the post when his "colleague" is off on some personal ethnic call.
How he wishes he could be like that: confident, happy, "in the moment," and even a woman. Women always seem to have less care, and less pressure for responsibility than men feel. Look at his sisters. And look at Mary, who has surpassed him with promotions, and talks of moving to New York for a job with some new text/voice/ gadget that is just coming into the market.
How he wishes he didn't have to worry all the time about everything: Should he padlock the safe or just take it home with him? Is the mall food court hummus safe? How can he have passed so many weeks without visiting his parents? Mary, his girlfriend, is always talking about her parents. She lives with them. He thinks that is nice although he moved out a couple of years ago as soon as he finished his college computer programming technician's diploma. It is always easier and more acceptable for girls to stay on indefinitely with their parents, not matter what Gloria Steinem would say.
He went through the "usual" - so say his friends - McJobs before he landed this one. But why couldn't he have got it right away? He was top of his class. And all those Indians, whom everyone thought were so savvy, always came up to him during the take-home assignments. The Chinese were cleverer, but he still was always several points above them in the tests and grades. And look at them all now in head office jobs in Toronto, driving their latest car models. He still moves around in his mother's car (she "loaned" it to hm). But more often now he is using public transportation to avoid spending so much money on gas.
But these fast trackers aren't quite the honchos, and it is still youngish white guys (were they once like him?) who run the show. It's a little like what he's doing here. But he's too nice (or too scared?) to put his foot down and tell Maria that he's really the boss here. The "real" bosses have made it clear that Maria should front the stall, answer questions, small talk to clients to bring him to the deal when she thinks more than just talk is required. She's clever that way. But he could do it too. He used to run a lawn mowing business (snow plowing in the winter) throughout high school. He went to Newfoundland one summer and worked on a new digital store they were starting out there one summer. He had to be savvy and clever AND know his computer geek stuff.
He is just a business strategy here. With so many multicultural people coming through the mall, his bosses feel (they never said so but he knows) that he might intimidate some of them. So the "trapping" the clients goes to her.
But the funny thing is business is slow. There are all kinds of knock offs that people can buy for dirt cheap either online or when they travel to their home countries. Rogers' gadgets are really for people like him who would use all those apps and accessories. And not just for long distance phone calls (which he never makes anyway - who to??). Even the children of these mall shoppers, his former classmates, don't use technology to its fullest. They always seem to be a step behind, mastering the last version when the new one has hit the market. And he studies the new one BEFORE it is out. That is why he got this job!
But what if he left tomorrow? What if he got hold of all those quiet computer geeks, who like him are in a daze about their future prospects, and started a movement saying: no more McJobs manning booths. Let as be MEN and MAN our own stores. Let Maria do something else, or just sit at the cash register. He (and his friends) would be the bosses and decide all the important things, such as: no personal cell phones on the job. Period.
All those mocked millennials, those "Angry White Men" can start a revolution!
He'll have to think more about this. Wow! Sitting down staring into space pretending to work can produce some interesting ideas!
As I walked past, I looked back. I happened to glance at the glass window of another store, and saw the young man watching my reflection through the glass. He is of course as clever as I thought he was. He didn't have to turn his head all the way around (and risk me seeing his stretch back) to watch me as walked off. He must know that he had found an ally!