An ode to the welfare state slaves

Dear literate welfare state slave,

Today, I met a welfare state king. He popped up in my office around lunch time, keeping in his hands a fat workbook with the logo of the local trade union on the cover.

Without presenting himself, he asked whether we were hiring. I said that, AFAIK, we were not hiring. He then asked me whether I could write in his workbook that we can not consider him for a position at our company. I said that I can not do so and the managing director was out on lunch. The man excused and left promptly.

While speaking to me, the man showed me a few pages in his workbook. It had an special layout inside, every page was split into two columns, every column had four cases where one could put a date, a few words, and a signature. The whole workbook, even its internal layout, was produced typographically and some of the cases were already filled by other people's text.