text: This story is about a man from the future going back in time and trying to get a job. **A Man From The Future** A man is sent back in time, and is set to work a job as a receptionist. His job is to accept calls, and book appointments for the business owner to work. She, the business owner, says she will pay him $12.50 an hour. For 8 hours of work, that’s $100. The man, having been well educated in the future, is curious about how the business works, and whether he is being paid fairly. He asks, "how many appointments will I be setting a day?" The business owner replies, "about one an hour, on average. And it will take you about 15 minutes to book each one." "And, what will I do with the other 45 minutes?" He asks, wanting to make the most of his time. "You will wait at your desk, and make sure you do not miss any calls," she responds. "Why don’t I make calls to others, and try to book them when I’m not on the phone?" The man asks. "Because you might miss an incoming call while you are on the phone with someone else." She responds. "What if someone calls in while I am already talking to someone else who has called in?" The man then asks. "You will call them back, but hopefully that does not happen too often. If it does, we will hire another person to answer the phones alongside you." The business owner responds. The man can tell she is frustrated by his line of questioning. Her tone suggests that his questions are so simple that he should already know the answers. He decides to change to a different line of questioning. He is still curious about whether his pay is fair, but he has concluded that the $12.50 must cover the opportunity cost of waiting for most of the day at his desk. The man asks, "do appointments always turn up?" "Almost always, yes," the business owner replies. "And, how much money does the company make from each booked appointment?" The owner smiles, "we make $125 for every appointment, and I always do 8 appointments, that’s $1000 a day," she says, sounding very proud. The man frowns, then asks, "and you are busy all day taking those appointments?" The owner nods. "Yes. While I’m in appointments, I cannot take calls." The man nods at this, "that makes sense," he says, and the owner smiles again. The man then asks another question. "Before you hired me, did you have another person setting appointments?" The owner nods. "Yes. She is the salesperson now at a different company. She worked as a receptionist for 2 years, and now she makes $10 an hour, plus $20 for every appointment that she sets for them. She left in order to make more money." The man frowns again. "And, before you had any employees, how many appointments could you do in a day?" The owner cocks her head and thinks, "Well, I was only doing about half the appointments. I missed most of the calls coming in, and then I had to call people back and leave a voicemail. Sometimes they never called back, or I had to call them a few times to get them to set an appointment and come in to see me." The man nodded. "So, if you are charging $125 per appointment, and are able to do twice as many appointments because of me answering the phone... Why are you only paying me one tenth of the value of the appointments I set?" The woman is shocked. "Well, I am the one actually doing the procedure, that’s why," she says indignantly. The man from the future is confused. "But, you would not be able to do half of the procedures if I wasn’t answering the phone. The company would make $500 less dollars a day if I wasn’t doing this job. So why am I only being paid $100 a day, when you make $1000?" The business owner is angry now. "If I wasn’t doing the procedures, the company would make $0 dollars, that’s why!" She says, her voice is raised now. The man scratches his head, trying to understand. Then he says, "if you were working alone you’d be making $500 a day. With us working together we’d be making $500 more. Why don’t I get half of that? It wouldn’t happen without me." The business owner is shaking her head. "You aren’t using any skills. You are just answering phone calls and setting appointments. I went to school for years to do these procedures." The man nods. "Yes, that is why you are making the $500 for the appointments you can work on your own. You're hiring me because you wanted to make more money right?" The owner nods, "yes of course I'm hiring you to make more money. But I'd be working twice as hard for that extra $500 if I had to give you half of it." The mans brow is furrowed in concentration, "You said, it takes you half the day and a lot of calling to get even half the customers you get when I’m answering the phone." "Yeah, but that work is easy to do." The owner says, becoming increasingly irate. The man from the future does not think he will get the job anymore, but he continues, curious to understand the past. He says, "Yes, answering phones is less work than doing the procedure, but our time is very valuable, it is the only thing we can’t get back. You aren’t just paying me to answer the phones, you are paying me* not* to do anything else with my time *except* for answering the phones. I could do a lot with that time, so I should be compensated accordingly. You have said the company makes an additional $500 a day due to my time." The business owner stands up. "It is not going to happen *due* to you at all. I am not hiring you! You think you should be paid..." she pauses a moment, dividing $125 by 2... then she continues, "$62.5 an hour to answer phones!" The man shakes his head. "Well, without me, you will have to go back to only making $500 a day, and still working 8 hours a day. You’d be working twice as hard for that $250, but you’d be making less money too. Without me you make $62.50." "No, I’ll just hire someone who will work for $12.50. I have lots of applications from people. Now get out!" And the man from the future left. He realized that there must be many people from the past who do not value their time. He wonders how that happened.