Lazy

Ashlyn Melcher

Joyce walked into work dressed in all black from head to toe; her hair tied up

into a tight bun. As she turned the corner to set her purse down she sees Eli on his

phone and her mood immediately plummets. Joyce only works one shift a week with

him, but that one shift alone is miserable. As Joyce walked down the hallway she

spotted the managers talking very quietly around the corner. She doesn’t hear much,

but she does hear Eli’s name being mentioned. All she hopes for is that Eli gets fired.

As the night goes on, the chatter and volume of the guests rise as all Joyce does is

run around aimlessly. She’s so scattered with her thoughts, her mind is moving a

million miles an hour with all of the tasks she has to do. Of course, Eli is no help. He

disappears for twenty, maybe thirty minutes every other hour. When it’s the busiest, it’s

when he feels it's his cue to disappear. Joyce turns around, and just like that, he’s gone.

She rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath, realizing she’s all on her own for a bit. She

runs back and forth between the back and the front, taking every single task handed to

her.

Joyce walks quickly down the thin hallway to the back where the dirty dishes are

stacked, food is thrown out, and glasses are put into the rack. She turns around and

quickly walks back out to the front where it's loud and chaotic. Demands, on top of

demands, on top of demands; Joyce is doing everything, thanks to Eli. He walks in from

the back looking high and disheveled. He takes back his section slowly and begins to
pick fights with the other workers as he “does his job.” Joyce is still picking up his slack

due to how slow he is.

As Eli walks into the back to stack up the dirty plates for the dishwashers, Adam,

who is rolling silverware, gets in a verbal fight with Eli and starts annoying Adam and

telling him off. Joyce then again, has to take care of his section and all of his tasks as he

disappears again. Eli reappears moments after and sits in the middle of the thin hallway

sorting out the cans and bottles. Joyce goes to the back with a tray full of glasses asking

Eli to move. He doesn’t move and starts to tell her off. Joyce is already annoyed and fed

up with his crap so she lightly shoves him out of the way.

The night only gets busier and Eli only gets lazier. He does his tasks slowly and

continues to pick a fight with almost every other worker. He once again disappears, and

this time everyone is relieved so they could get their jobs done, and not have to deal

with his nonsense. By the end of the night, Eli gets more and more aggressive so the

manager takes him to the side. It was time for Joyce to clock out and be rid of him for a

week.

During the week, Joyce hears from Adam. He reaches out to her to see if Eli had

been any worse the next week and to tell the manager about what has been going

down. Joyce wanted to tell the manager, but Eli could lose his job, is what she was

thinking. She wanted him fired but didn’t want to be the reason.

After a couple of weeks of annoyance from Eli, Joyce slightly mentions to the

manager about his behavior and a handful of the things he’s done. A few weeks go by

and she hears he’s getting fired. She’s happy to hear that she’ll never have to work with
him again, but that means working with him for another couple of weeks until they

could find a replacement.

The next couple of shifts with Eli were tolerable since he got talked to about his

behavior. Joyce shows up to work a week before leaving town for a trip and gets news

that Eli was putting in his two weeks. She found it funny he had decided to put in his

two weeks to avoid getting officially fired. All of the other employees found it comedic

as well. When Joyce returned from her trip Eli was gone. She smiled when she saw his

name off of the schedule.