I suppose not everyone loves their job. I mean, those people at drive-through windows always look completely miserable, and I can't say I blame them since they're working for almost no money and probably get very little appreciation.

Then again, the poor girl at Wendy's didn't go through extensive schooling and training to be underappreciated and overworked. I was an honors graduate, for God's sake! Top of my class, and it was supposedly some great honor to be selected to work at CTU. Only the best of the best get jobs there, I was told. I was excited!

Boy, what false advertising that was. I mean, okay, there are some qualified, hardworking people at CTU, don't get me wrong. But there's a lot lacking in the professionalism department. Tony and Michelle are both great at their jobs, yes, but they're also married. Is that really appropriate? This is sensitive work, I'm not sure it's really a good idea to be working with your husband or wife.

Of course, working with family or romantic interests is like the CTU policy these days. Jack Bauer somehow got his daughter a job (and I couldn't even begin to figure out how he got that authorized-- the girl dropped out of high school!) and she took it upon herself to carry on the grand tradition of CTU office romance by taking up with Chase. It's supposed to be this big secret, but come on. I think Jack is the only person in this office who hasn't noticed those two stealing away to corridors to make out. That's right, they sneak away in the middle of work to paw at each other. Your taxpayer dollars at work, my friends. I almost feel left out, really. Maybe I should see if Adam wants to-- Ha! No! If I want to be horribly unprofessional, I'll just bring my Buffy DVDs to work and curl up in one of the surveillance rooms with a bowl of popcorn so I can enjoy Buffy and Angel on a big plasma screen.

Not that I would actually do that, mind you. I don't think it's really appropriate to be doing that sort of thing at work. I'm just sayin'.

Honestly, though, if it ended with office romance and nepotism, I would have no problem. But it doesn't. These people have for some reason decided that a good way to blow off work-related stress is to yell and bitch at Chloe. Jack's the worst. I don't know what his trauma is, but I swear he's not only on edge, he's dangling from it. The guy is very good at his job, or so I'm told, so they give him a lot of leeway, but really, it's not necessary to bark and yell at me when I'm just trying to give him a message. He's always sweating, too. I don't get that. They keep this place pretty frigid, and there's Jack sweating like he's just run a marathon. That's pretty weird, if you ask me.

And then there's Gael. I swear, that guy gives me the creeps. Can't explain it, really, he's just weird.

The district director isn't any better. Ryan F'n Chappelle. I have never, in my entire life, met a man with a worse case of Napolean syndrome. He's way too in love with his own power, and also, so damn patronizing. At least he's not dating anyone and he's never yelled at me, I'll give him that. He is, however, ineffectual and intrusive, and that's just not cool.

To be fair, this is a very important job we're doing, and I can understand that people are stressed out. It's no excuse, however. This is our national security we're talking about! Life and death! If they can't learn to leave their personal issues at home, they really shouldn't be doing the job. Then again, I'm the one who seems like a weirdo of the bunch. So maybe there's some CTU training manual on "How To Get Laid and Get Your Work Done At The Same Time" that they forgot to give me when I was hired.

Now that I think about it, maybe the poor girl at the Wendy's drive-through is better off than me. I seriously doubt her manager is nearly as edgy-on-the-verge-of-insane as Jack, and I'm sure when she was hired, she didn't *expect* people to be the soul of professionalism.

It's not like the fate of the world is riding on that spicy chicken sandwich.

THE END

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