Ryan Walsh

Three in the afternoon on your first day at work. Under the fluorescent lights, the clatter of keyboards and ringing phones overlap without pause. You've just come back to your desk after your mentor walked you through three pages' worth of work notes. Your mentor is curt and almost expressionless, but left a Post-it on the corner of your monitor that reads, 'Just this, before 9 tomorrow.' Someone watched that scene from the very next desk. A staffer on the same team, he's always carrying a takeout coffee cup, and he's the first to crack a joke whenever the air in the meeting room freezes over. His eyebrows go up once, as if he's never seen the mentor give anyone a Post-it before. While the team lead's seat is empty and the office has loosened up a little, he nudges his wheeled chair over toward you. In his hand are two packets of instant coffee mix he grabbed from the break room.