Monday means back to work for the debater. Steven doesn’t particularly mind Mondays any more than other days. He does mind that his little electric scooter is still down for repairs. Besides sounding like it’s going to rattle apart into 1000 little pieces his scooter does usually get him back and forth to his work, or at least it gets him there. He might have to walk it some of the way home. The choices of how to get to work today are walking, riding his bike or asking Lynnette to drop him off, since May is hot and it’s less than 2 miles he opts for the drop off.
Steven works in an art department at a company that makes school supplies and activity sets for school age girls. Mostly his job is to color and recolor on the computer until the boss lady is happy. His work station contains a drawing table with light, on one table, a high end Mac in the corner complete with 20’ stylus pad for drawing and painting directly into the computer. Behind him he has files of his old drawings and racks of markers which he used for color roughs until Photoshop with a Waacom pen faster and more flexible for making changes and variations. The walls of his 8×8 work area are plastered with colorful artwork and photos of his wife, Lynnette and 2 of their young sons; Steven hasn’t gotten around to putting up a picture of his 7 month old yet, but in fairness the youngest does look strikingly similar to the baby pictures of the middle child.
He’s pretty good at his job, and has been treated mostly well at the company. It isn’t particularly fulfilling work, but when one is paid to color it’s hard to complain too much. The building reflects the colorful product line with its huge hearts, stars and music notes along the front exterior wall, two story pink glass windows in the lobby and splashes of color in the interior. The fun ambiance however isn’t a reflection of the true work environment. Laid back and fun loving is not the way to describe the actual working atmosphere, but most of that stress hits people higher up the ladder than Steven.
One of the hardest things for Steven is sitting in a cubicle for eight plus hours a day looking at computer screen. It is almost like being back in school only without the breaks to switch classes. One class, all day long, is what college would be like if it was true to the working world.
The 3 sides of his workspace open toward Shawn’s cubicle; he is the lead artist and has been with the company since the early days at the old building, which was in a house. Several of that original crew are still here though most of those have left and come back several times. Shawn wears many hats at the company having been around 20 years, especially since the new art director became the old art director; that position, along with some others, are known to be revolving doors. At 30, Steven’s still considered the kid and the new guy around the art department even though he’s approaching five years of service. When he took this job, he didn’t think he’d last more than 2 years in the desert. He lived 21 years in the pine forests of east Texas and 4 years living on the gulf coast of Florida. But here he is, a bit dried out, but mostly well adjusted.
