So, I went off to a local government office during my lunch hour. When I got there they had a big sign saying "Take a Number", under a display indicating that they were now serving number
978. I grabbed the next number -
035. I sat down to wait and noticed, on the chair to the left of me, number
004. The bloke to the right of me had his number,
032, and when his wife came along I moved left to allow her to sit down, picking up
004 and asking the woman in the next chair to the left if it was hers. It was not.
979,
980,
981 went by in about 15 minutes. I was hungry. I still had
035, I decided to put it in my pocket next to
004 and go to
Whataburger for some lunch. I had a delicious double bacon cheeseburger, they didn't make until I ordered it and I ate it fairly slowly, then I went back to the government office, which was even more crowded, and where they were now serving
997. I was now 90 minutes into my lunch hour on a day when there was no other server support in the office.
998 was served, quickly followed by
999.
000 was called, no-one moved.
000 was called again, no-one moved. They moved on to
001, which was the guy sitting next to the woman who said
004 was not hers.
002 was called, no-one moved,
002 was called again. No response.
003 was called, then 5 seconds later,
004. I waited, no-one moved,
004 was called again...
So, what should I have done? What are my obligations to the next 30 people in line who had got there before me and do they outweigh my obligations to the company that pays my salary?
Would it win back any Karma points if I handed
035 off to someone else? Does that make someone else randomly lucky or is it just cheating even more people?
Jen has Paper. Did you have Scissors? Don't lie, you're only delaying the inevitable anyway. Okay, let's go again.
Stage 1 - The discussion - 'Hmm, yes, that is a valid point she is making.'
