Jake had returned to the 21st century on December 14, 2013. It had taken him several days to get back into the swing of things. He took a couple of sick days and it was convenient that his absence didn't stick out in the midst of all of the days people were taking off for the holidays.
By the time real work resumed in January after New Year’s Day, Jake was pretty well getting back in to his old routine. The building that Jake worked in was as large and drab as one would imagine a government office would be. It certainly wasn't a glamorous place for an Information Technology worker to be employed. Unlike the Google campus where food was free, the food in Jake's building cost an arm and a leg. In fact, if a person wanted bottled water, they had to pay for it. Not even filtered water was offered to the employees for free.
Jake worked on the 13th floor of his building and had always taken the elevator to the top. On January 2nd, when Jake got back to work he was feeling exuberant and enthusiastic about his New Year’s resolution, he decided to take the stairs. By the time he got to the top of the building, he was completely out of breath. He practically fell into his chair. What's more, he discovered that the time taken had made him 10 minutes late. He would have to ask his boss, Mr. Ramm, if he could stay late to make up the lost time. Though his pay should have been docked, Mr. Ramm was very understanding and let it slide.
His cubicle, like most of the others in the building looked new and modern, as long as it was observed from the perspective of someone from 1979. Jake was fastidious and his cubicle was neat and tidy. He didn't clutter it with personal decorations and all his papers were carefully organized.
The day started out with Semaj Dwayne coming to his cubicle to do a code review on the mobile phone billing system Jake had finished building a couple of months before. Semaj was a tall, lanky man who had been working in the office for more than a decade. His criticisms were normally rather harsh but he was smart enough to make his recommendations difficult to argue against. Jake found code reviews with him to be quite miserable. He was picky about the code and Jake was more than a little offended when Semaj told him to replace the Javascript he had spent a day writing with an off-the-shelf library. He knew that Semaj was right but it was still a bitter pill to swallow.
Jake's normally imperturbable demeanor was pushed to the breaking point when he got three different calls from a particular user who just couldn't seem to figure out how to use basic functions of the system. As soon as he put the phone down, it rang again. This time, it was Mr. Ramm. Jake was summoned into his office and asked to close the door behind him.
"Jake, we've worked together since you started with us two and half years ago. I really like you but with the new financial system coming online in a couple more months, Mr. Popple's team is really hurting. Management has decided to move you under him starting in two weeks. You'll need to train Sanjay and Tuan to take over your projects. The really good news for you though, is that a promotion to Senior Application Developer is going to open up and Management hopes you’ll apply.”
Mr. Ramm talked a bit more but Jake wasn’t really listening. He was thrilled. Mr. Ramm’s mention of the position opening up was not too carefully veiled code-speak for “We’re going to give you a promotion with the transfer.” Jake had been desiring the promotion for a long time. Mei Lan was a woman who had worked there for over two decades, she was a Senior Application Developer but Jake was constantly having to help her with even the most basic assignments. She was a very sweet lady and he liked her, but working with her required a lot of patience. It felt like a tremendous injustice that she was getting a Senior Application Developer salary when she didn’t come close to producing half the value that Jake did.
The rest of the day went quickly by; the next thing Jake knew the weekend had come.
