A Waste of Time

I looked through clouded glass and onto a small room with maybe a dozen well-dressed individuals. A man was in front, pointing towards the projection of a graph with a downward sloping line. It was Friday, about 3:00. Somehow, I always made it in time for their weekly meeting.

At some point earlier in my career, I felt slightly embarrassed looking into any such space, but even though I was invading their privacy, it honestly didn't matter. I was completely invisible to them. I dipped a brush into a soapy bucket of water before swiping horizontally and cleaning the window between us.

While looking in, I saw a young man stand and slam his hand against the table, pointing a finger towards the one presenting, who waved his hands apologetically. After a brief moment of anger, a young woman between them ran her hand through her hair and lowered her head, causing both gentlemen to freeze and seemingly end their fued. I couldn't quite hear the conversation over the hustle and bustle of the city below, but I could not imagine anyone was happy in that room.

The next window was the office, half emptied by the meeting. Those who were left were analyzing spreadsheets while wistfully glancing at the clock every few minutes. It felt so empty. Soulless.

While cleaning that window, a crow landed on my cleaning platform. I chuckled a bit and shooed it away, saying, "I don't know how ye got up here, but I ain't got no food fer ya." For some reason, it flew around for only a brief moment before cycling back and perching itself on my platform again. "Well, I don't mind some company, I guess..."

The crow and I continued washing window by window, floor by floor until the job was done. In every room, we saw another division doing everything it could to remain vigilant and force itself through the workday. I found myself rambling a bit to my new crow friend and at some point said, "At least I get fresh air, ya know? These lot act as if nothing outside of their cubicles exist. Whether it's pourin' rain or a bright and sunny day, I've never seen a single one of them look out any of these windows."

Though I couldn't hear any of their conversations, I knew exactly what every employee was thinking.

No matter how loud the managers yelled or underlings cried...
No matter how many lines of code broke or projects failed...
No matter how beautiful or chaotic the outside world was...
There was one thing louder than all of these distractions combined: the constant ticking of the clock, counting down until the nearest deadline looming over their heads.

And every second was a waste of time.