This was written fifteen years ago…
Jack shouldn’t have, but the bored customer service representative was reading about situation ethics at work. Jack felt he shouldn’t have been reading at work. It was night and the shop was quiet, but he still felt he should be doing something productive, even in the quiet times. However, he needed to learn about situation ethics from reading a book. Nervous, he anxiously looked around to see if the cameras were observing him doing something he shouldn’t be. But the cameras just stared back at him blankly.
This is not only the reader’s dilemma, of when one wants to read, but should be working. This may be some writer’s dilemma: when one should write, but doesn’t and feels one should be. What does one do? Give up the day job? Write during the day job? Or just be sensible about the whole thing and take things in their own time and place?
I think be sensible, really, and loyal to whatever is required in a certain situation. That’s best, although Jack felt the finger reaching for the pen and paper, when a customer walked in. He thought: I really got to get a handle on this job. It was night and not many customers were coming through…yet there was something he could be doing on the job.