Casual Friday

I never claimed to be a psychic, observant maybe, but certainly not psychic. I just happen to see things the way they are, the way they’re going, right now. No otherworldly second-sight mumbo-jumbo was necessary to see the state we were in. I mean, all I need to do is look around me. People were ecstatic; they were smiling instead of sneering, and one morning-at the start of it all-I swear I saw someone give up their parking space to a pregnant woman who works in accounting. The earth must have turned sideways on its axis, causing everyone to become delirious as a result of such a cataclysmic shift in space.

That, or Casual Friday had been extended to include upper management, which in turn made them feel more at ease and more like “one of the grunts”. Everyone in middle management and below was involved in what was fated to be a major coup. I’m talking reversal of ranks and salaries wildly disproportionate to education and experience. Sheer bedlam. An all-inclusive Casual Friday was just the first step.

I’d love to take credit for the inception of what became not so much a plan of attack as an undercurrent of energy about the place, murmurs, knowing glances and bit of over-the-top outward displays of false affection for management. I don’t know if I was truly the only one to notice the building of the tsunami that would eventually break above our heads and wash away all traces of the infrastructure we’d grown to know and loathe. Maybe I was just the only one who admitted to what was going on, rather than living in fear of what the change might bring, yet at the same time taking in every delicious moment of it.

I’m credited with “foreseeing the end” like I’m some sort of prophet because, in an effort to encourage a colleague, I told him that “one day [he'd] be making the big bucks.” The guy was worthy of promotion and I figured one day he’d be lucky enough to land one. At best I was predicting a logical course of events; at worst I was trying to reassure a colleague. I didn’t need a crystal ball to do any of that. All I did was keep my eyes open, take note, and try not to get in the way. I didn’t want to be a casualty of the process.