Have you ever noticed that bosses specifically like to call meetings at a time that will ascertain whether you’ve truly been coming to work when you’re supposed to? Or a time when it can highlight just how fully he or she controls your life? The earlier, the better–it has more torture value. And, in this case, the power he or she holds as a metaphorical livestock owner and operator simply can’t be denied.
At the cattle call, sometimes known as riding the subway or sitting in a meeting to be visually checked off for your presence, you might feel a slight weight on your ear. It’s the same weight as the plastic tag that those of the bovine variety are forced to wear–a hole clipped through their ear so that they can be numbered and accounted for. But don’t feel too akin to them, to sharing the same pen they inhabit. You, at least, get to eat their kind. No one eats you. Not even your boyfriend.