Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole
“Ugh. Janky computer!”
Naomi was ready to throw her laptop out the window. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. Alternatively, she considered kicking the cube wall, but that seemed ill-advised too. Instead, she rubbed her temple and groaned.
For days, the company had been struggling with a strange new computer virus that caused virtual sloths to pop up on people’s screens. For the most part, the sloths would just hang down from task bars, but occasionally, they would also meander their way across people’s computer screens. And in many cases, people could not resume work until the dawdling creatures moved out of the way.
If you could ignore its devastating impact on productivity, the virus was actually kind of cute. But of course, Naomi could not ignore the impact to productivity. Nobody could.
If you could ignore its devastating impact on productivity, the virus was actually kind of cute.
The pace of work for just about everyone was getting faster and faster. They continued to absorb the workloads of their laid off colleagues. AI agents helped, but not enough. Any sort of slowdown inevitably caused them to fall behind.
The pace of work for just about everyone was getting faster and faster. They continued to absorb the workloads of their laid off colleagues. AI agents helped, but not enough. Any sort of slowdown inevitably caused them to fall behind.
Which is why her coworkers were lined up at Naomi’s desk, demanding to know when she would eradicate this virus. As an IT technician, she should have prevented this from happening in the first place. Barring that, she should at least fix the problem quickly. They deserved answers, and she was the one to give them.
Naomi did her best to figure it out while people hovered and sloths roamed across her screen. First, she found a little patch of space on her computer screen that was free of wandering beasts and opened an AI chatbot. She prompted it for an answer to her problem but only got a lazy line of z’s down the page in response.
Next, she searched vendor sites for security patches. When that returned nothing, she cast her net wider, googling “sloth computer virus” and other similar terms. But the results were always the same. A single link appeared that said, “Shh. It’s nap time.”
After hours of this, she desperately wanted to click the unhinged link to see exactly what would happen. But of course, everyone knows you shouldn’t click sus links. So, she quelled her curiosity and moved onto something different.
She did her best to chill out the mob of users who were still hanging around her desk while simultaneously thinking of a new strategy. Shifting, she let people know that she would wipe their infected computers clean. She figured if she reinstalled the operating system, the applications, and the files using backups from a couple of weeks before the virus hit, she could solve the problem.
But when she tried this, she realized either the backups were corrupted too, or people contracted the virus immediately after getting their clean computers back. Either way, the entire process was a long, fruitless journey back to Square One.
Which left Naomi’s company with two choices. They could live with the extra “company” on their computers or shut down the business completely while Naomi and her boss, Rosa, tried to figure things out.
They chose the latter.
Now Naomi and Rosa were the only ones left in the building, trying to heal the situation. The rest of the company was due to return tomorrow, when (with any luck), Naomi and Rosa would have resolved things. If not, everyone would be sent packing again for another day.
Naomi and Rosa couldn’t even tell people to wait for their call. The sloths had bricked people’s phones along with their computers. Hence, the plan for daily, in-person check-ins.
Normally, this would be great news for Naomi. She was finally getting the break from people that she needed to think. But after days of people constantly breathing down her neck and demanding answers, her nerves were cooked.
“Hey!”
Naomi’s heart jumped into her throat as she whirled around in her chair. Rosa stood behind her, smiling and unbothered, as usual.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that."
"No worries." Naomi took a few breaths to calm down. "I’ve probably just had too much coffee."
"I wanted to see how you're doing, but I think I'm getting the picture."
“Ugh. This virus is kicking my butt. How can something so slow always be two steps ahead?”
Rosa laughed.
Rosa stood behind her, smiling and unbothered, as usual.
Naomi rolled her eyes. “I bet this never would have happened without the layoffs. This stupid company thinks they can replace everyone with AI. Anyone could have told them it wouldn’t work out well.”
Rosa nodded patiently.
“How long have I been saying that this situation is unsustainable? Now here we are! We’re down to just two IT people. They’ve taken everything away from us, the whole thing has come crashing down, and they just left us to clean up their mess. It’s all so tragically predictable.”
Rosa sighed. This wasn’t the first time she had heard this rant. Naomi had been a quiet, productive worker for years. Even as the department shrank and the workload grew, she kept up without complaint. It wasn’t until they moved to the 5th floor with everyone else that she started falling apart.
Obviously, the close quarters had something to do with Naomi’s recent unhappiness and decreased performance. The poor girl was frazzled. Rosa had tried to help. She bought Naomi noise-cancelling headphones, but Naomi rarely had a chance to use them; people were constantly lined up at her desk to ask questions. Rosa instituted office hours so Naomi would have quiet time, but nobody respected the quiet hours. Rosa even went to the office manager to request a move to a quieter part of the floor but was told everyone except the executives were required to work in the open-plan cubicles. As the months went by, Rosa watched Naomi get increasingly drained.
Rosa reflected on all of this as she listened to the familiar tirade. Finally, she responded, “You’re right.”
“What?”
“I said, you’re right. You and I have hit a dead end.”
“Oh.” That wasn’t what Naomi expected to hear. Rosa didn’t usually admit defeat. After a pause, Naomi switched gears, “Um, so what should we do?”
“Let’s call it a day.”
“What?”
“Call it a day. Go home. Get some rest.”
Now Naomi was concerned. “What do you mean, go home? You’re not going to give up, are you? I’m sorry. I was venting too much wasn’t I?”
Rosa replied with her usual patience, “You’re tired. I understand why you need to vent. It’s a frustrating situation.”
“OK, but now you’re giving up? Please don’t give up.” Naomi started getting worked up, “This job is impossible, but I need it. If you quit, there’s no way they keep me around.”
Rosa smiled, “I’m not giving up and I’m not quitting. But we have been working very long hours. The best thing we can do now is get some rest, I think.”
“OK,” replied Naomi. She didn’t sound convinced.
“I’ll meet you back here tomorrow at 9:00,” said Rosa. “If we’re lucky, we’ll have some better ideas after a good night’s rest.”
“Are you sure?” asked Naomi.
“Positive,” replied Rosa. “What do young people say these days? Go touch grass.”
Rosa was probably right. She went to shut down her computer, but not before she quietly said, “Good night, sloths.”
She went to shut down her computer, but not before she quietly said, “Good night, sloths.”
She almost expected them to reply.
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