Let’s take it slow
This Is Uncomfortable
Marketplace
4.6 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Adam had worked his way up to manager at a branch of a global bank, only to see his responsibilities double during the pandemic. After trying to make it work, the extra duties without extra pay began to compromise his well-being. Adam decided to slow down — to do only what he physically and mentally could without overworking himself. In this episode, we’ll look at what happens when workers slow down and explore the historical precedent for reclaiming your body and time at work.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey all, it's Rima. |
| 0:04.7 | So this week I'm handing off the show to our producer Phoebe Unterman. |
| 0:08.5 | She's got a story that gets into our relationship with work and she explores an idea that I'd |
| 0:13.6 | never heard before but found super fascinating and thank you all too. |
| 0:18.0 | Alright, here's Phoebe. |
| 0:20.9 | In 2021, Adam was working as a service manager at a bank in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and he was |
| 0:27.0 | having a rough morning. |
| 0:28.8 | So it's non-stop busy, it's just me working in the drive-through with all four lanes, full |
| 0:35.8 | cars wrapped up around the parking lot to the street. |
| 0:39.0 | He worked for a big corporate bank that had laid off a lot of its employees during the pandemic. |
| 0:44.0 | Adam's branch was severely understaffed, plus somebody had called out that day, which |
| 0:48.5 | is how Adam ended up manning four drive-through lanes by himself, toggling between customers. |
| 0:55.7 | By the time a customer would reach the front of the line, they'd be pissed. |
| 0:59.8 | People would say stuff about how ridiculous it was that they had to wait. |
| 1:03.4 | Or like, oh, so you guys sure are busy, huh? |
| 1:06.0 | And you have a headset on so they're like right in your ear. |
| 1:08.7 | So he's getting these snarky comments, one after another, and then somebody would be like |
| 1:14.0 | completely irate. |
| 1:15.8 | Like this is F and ridiculous, this is why I hate this place, you guys are just the absolute |
| 1:20.5 | worst and it's stuff that's out of your control but then they take it out on you. |
| 1:25.6 | And as each customer sent their paperwork or deposit slip in one of those plastic capsules |
| 1:30.4 | through the vacuum shoot, each time it slammed down right next to him with a loud thud that |
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