I’d like to lodge a complaint … that skimpy little stringy thing around my hips hardly qualifies as “Half-naked”! And furthermore, the food is awful, and how about a rest break. And while I’m at it …. Owwwww! … what was that for???
As the filthy galley slave wrote her complaint on a shred piece of cloth, using her own blood as ink, she knew the odds were not in her favor. But she had to give it a try.
After one more week of rowing on the dark and somber galley, she received a scroll from her overseer. It read:
"Thank you for contacting human resources. Your request is very important to us. Your answer is only 300 to 350 whiplashes away."
This was looking very grim indeed, but a glimmer of hope started to shine upon her... well, it was that, or the rodents carved a large enough hole in the upper deck to allow sunlight to peek through.
Another week passed by, and she received another scroll from the overseer. This was it. The response from HR. It read:
"Thank you for bringing this situation to our attention. However, after careful consideration of the presented data, we decided to reject your requests.
First, according to work regulations and workers' safety, your current uniform does indeed qualify as half-naked. The designer was strongly inspired by the garments commonly worn by free women, known as 'thongs'.
Second, the gruel ration received everyday is just enough to offer you the required daily calories intake. Furthermore, the maggots inside the gruel should actually give you an extra ammount of calories. We pride ourselves with owning the most well-fed slaves in the region.
Third, you are already allocated one hour of rest after the first eight hours of rowing, and then receive another seven hours of rest after the second shift of eight hours of rowing. The current schedule is already in line with workers' safety and rights aboard the galley.
Finally, we evaluated your current progress and decided that it would be best to assign you your personal overseer, in order to motivate you to work with more efficiency. Furthermore, we believe that some mentoring sessions inside the overseer's private quarter during the following month, every other night, will be a good opportunity to improve your other skills required for this job."
And thus, the poor corporate worker, PARDON ME, the poor galley slave girl kept rowing, no longer knowing where she was headed...
