Not a Comedy After All

Warning: May contain some heavy content. (It's just one of those days.)

Work. A word or topic that I've yet to touch on this blogosphere. Questions such as: Is it taboo? Is it appropriate? Is it bad? Is it good? Well you know what? After NOT writing anything even remotely close to a post on my job, I have decided to say "forget it!" I'm writing about work!
Let me explain: If you work at a job like I do, there are daily happenings that one cannot ignore. Impossible. It's comedic, it's tragic, it's entertaining all in the course of one day.
Comedic? you ask. I work for a company that has a warehouse. In the warehouse we have a gentleman by the name of, well? we'll just call him Gerry. Gerry is 65 and on his way to retirement. Gerry is tired. Gerry is the definition of tired. Ever day at exactly 9:30 am, one can find Gerry at his workbench, on his stool, sitting up, and sound asleep. ASLEEP! Our company also has a company van. At 11:00am everyday, Gerry can be found (are you ready for this?) IN the company van, in the passenger's seat, buckled in, again sound asleep. Now if this occasionally happened, maybe it would be a little more understandable. The hilarity of this situation increases - just wait. The president, boss, head honcho, "knows-all, sees-all" of the company, DOES KNOW about Gerry's daily snoozes. He knows about them because he sees Gerry sleeping. And every day, it continues like the day before. Boss knows, boss doesn't care, Gerry continues to sleep. After awhile, when walking passed the van, one can't help but chuckle, or chortle, or giggle at the sight of little Gerry snoring away in the van. Sleep away Gerry...sleep away.
Entertainment? We have another gentleman that works in the back for us. Let's call him Chuck. Chuck is from Thailand. Chuck knows about 10 words of English. Therefore, Chuck constantly has questions concerning the shipments he's sending out, or the packages he's supposed to be packaging. Here in the office, there are two lovely ladies: Pearl and Rosie. Pearl and Rosie have zero tolerance or patience for Chuck. Sorry Chuck! Daily, I get to hear renditions of "He shipped the wrong part again!" or "It's gone to Canada, instead of England!" Then little Chuck will rush into the office and try and explain for 10 minutes what happened. Exit Chuck: Pearl and Rosie burst into laughter/tears and sing the age old tune of: "I didn't understand a word that poor man just said!"
Tragedy: We have a wet-behind-the-ears sales rep. Let's call him Sam. Sam is a Caucasian who grew up in the suburbs of middle-America. Hi Sam. Sam talks only in what I like to call "fake" Ebonics. Period. Examples: "What up, Homes?" "S'up?" "It'll be a'ight." "Man, that's totally phat." Let me remind you again that Sam grew up in the suburbs of middle-America. So here's our new rep, calling current customers, speaking to them in this "accent" that is really and truly only doing himself a huge disservice. Oh Sam. Every time I hear him on the phone I cringe and try and plug my ears and wince and wish and wish that he would just stop.
So we've got comedy, entertainment, tragedy, and...plain reality. Where does the reality come in? Well, in all honesty, all joking and fake names aside: the company I work for is drowning. In this bad economy, our company is sinking. And I sit here day in and day out, counting the lack of money coming in, counting the lack of incoming calls and wondering how we can survive to make it through another day. (Is it okay to say this here?) I'm worried and concerned. And despite the painful comedy that goes on around here...I'm finding myself thinking: this isn't very funny at all.