In 1972, Carlos B, at 25 years old, was an engineer at COMA (Metropolitan Drinking Water Company of Buenos Aires). He had a good salary and almost complete job security. According to the career plan, he was a Senior Engineer, known internally as "gê-zero," the "top" of the company. In practice, this meant that at 50, he would retire with a full salary, health plan, and other privileges.
By the end of 1973, COMA, which was already large, merged with SANE, FESA, and SABA, resulting in AEBA, a company with over 5,000 direct employees and about 10,000 outsourced workers, as it’s said here, covering the entire province.
Very young and lacking the spirit to settle into a state-owned company, in 1977, at 30 years old, Carlos accepted a professional invitation that seemed intriguing. He resigned. They didn’t grant him the right to a leave of absence without pay, but it took about six months to finalize/accept his resignation.
Recently, for professional reasons, Carlos went to visit a Director of AEBA at the headquarters building. Upon entering, climbing the ramp he had ascended so many times long ago, he felt a bit emotional, but soon the Director's secretary came to guide him to his office.
On the way, he noticed that many people were coming to see him, as if he were a celebrity.... He found it strange, but kept going. While waiting to be attended to, he continued to feel as though he was being observed with curiosity by almost everyone, and even people from other floors appeared to take a look.
He went to the bathroom to check if everything was okay with his appearance, even checking his fly to make sure it was closed, but didn’t notice anything unusual.
As the meeting began, intrigued by the continued movement of people coming to look at him, he eventually asked the director:
_ Che, ¿todo bien?
_ Sí, ¿por qué?
_ Es que tengo la impresión de que todos me están mirando y hasta vienen a mirarme, a verme, como si fuera una persona pública, un artista conocido, un político famoso, un medallista olímpico, no sé...
_ No te preocupes, Carlos, creo que sé lo que pasa. No venís por acá hace muchos años, pero la empresa cumple 50 años este mes y han estado haciendo unos relevamientos para las celebraciones. Se descubrió que en estos 50 años pasaron más de 500 ingenieros titulares (G-0), pero solo cuatro pidieron renuncia, y vos sos uno de ellos. Los otros fueron un tal Pacheco, el Zing (que ya falleció), el Hernández y el Yada. El tema no va a ser divulgado, pero circuló que hoy venía uno de ellos: vos.
_ No te lo tomes a mall, mirá el lado positivo: ¡ahora sos una leyenda!
Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer and chronicler-narrator
Text with 2,642 characters, Ra, sep2024.
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