2.3a

He had always assumed that he knew what he was doing. You operate these machines for years, and you never have to read the manual. They don't malfunction. You hit a button: boom--it goes. You don't even need formal training. It's not like they give out degrees in button-mashing. There are no tests. No methodology. It's just PUSH and away go the parts, thump goes the machine, ding goes the cash register and you get to feed yourself for another week.

He always assumed that he knew what he was doing.

But now, as the antelope came down the production line, strapped to the belt, he wasn't so sure. For starters: how did an antelope come to be in Massachusetts in a car battery factory? More importantly, why did someone tie it to the belt? They would have to skip lunch, and that was just unthinkable. The union had worked long and hard to get them thirty three minute lunches, and there would be hell to pay if each worker didn't use all 1980 seconds of it. Somebody had decided to flaunt all that in the supervisor's face and instead tie an african herbivore to the machine.

The belt slowly churned towards him. A part went under the machine. He hit the button. WHUMP and out slid a shiny new part. The antelope shuddered. It was two parts away. Then he decided to think about his options here. A part went under the machine. He hit the button. WHUMP and out slid a shiny new part. He could hit the button when the antelope was under there, or he could halt the line. There was another button for that. It wasn't green: it was red. A part went under the machine. He hit the button. WHUMP and out slid a shiny new part. OR he could just let the antelope slide underneath without hitting any buttons. Let the next guy make the decision. What if it was against company protocol to halt the line for antelopes? He would lose his job, and the union wouldn't back him up. They wouldn't try to save the job of an idiot who halted the line for an antelope. What if it was just understood that you just don't halt the line for --

Oh, good. It was already gone. Someone else's problem, then. A part went under the machine. He hit the button. WHUMP and out slid a shiny new part.