The Hate Collective by James Powell (rom com books to read txt) 📕

that he was a graduate from the University of Life, while at the same time regretting the fact that he had never dared to venture into the world of higher education, which was a shame really as he was more than capable. Instead, he decided that university was a massive waste of time when he could be out in the real world making real money. Besides, having a degree doesn’t guarantee the job of your dreams, so why take the risk? Why not just start working straight away and reach the top gradually? And in a sense, that’s what he had done.
After leaving school, Tony didn’t really have any idea what he wanted to do in life, a characteristic common amongst most eighteen year olds, so he simply took the first job that came along, which was office cleaning. It was hard work for very little money but at least it paid the bills and gave him independence, as well as providing a unique insight into the tragedy of human life, as he witnessed first hand the misery most people feel when it comes to the world of work. One of the offices he cleaned was full of well paid advertising executives- people on high salaries with BMWs and big fat expense accounts, living the corporate dream, the envy of all. However, this came at a price as Tony soon realised that most of them worked much longer hours than he did and were desperately unhappy as a result. He occasionally managed to have a quick chat with some of the workers and discovered that they were a pretty decent bunch of people who were ambitious, but a little naïve as they hadn’t realised how brutal the office culture would be. Speaking to Tony was their chance to have a conversation with someone at work who wasn’t pushing them to meet the next deadline, or trying to stab them in the back to improve their chances of promotion. It was a kind of release.
These working conditions had almost certainly been responsible for the nervous breakdown of one employee, but that had happened before Tony started working there so he hadn’t been able to witness this decline first hand, much to his disappointment as he was curious to see what office life could do to a man. It was easy to imagine though. Very few employees had families and the ones that did rarely ventured home to see them. The company came first. The job came first. It was tragic really, thought Tony, when he realised that as a low paid office cleaner, he was by far the happiest person there.
He also discovered that the cleaning company he worked for was hopelessly inefficient, with a revolving door of staff, high absenteeism and just a general apathy when it came to the job itself. Despite this, the boss seemed to be pretty well off which gave Tony an idea. He did a some research and found out that a lot of offices were unhappy with their cleaners and would be prepared to pay a little extra for a decent service. So, after much careful thought, Tony approached the bank with quite a comprehensive business plan, and was duly given a loan to set up his own company, and since then he had gone from strength to strength, possessing an entrepreneurial streak he never knew existed.
Looking back, it was all so simple really. Hire full time staff instead of bored temps, pay them a little bit more than the other companies and provide a reliable quality service, where everyone turned up on time and did a thorough job. It was hardly rocket science, but it worked and several years later, he had paid off the business loan, expanded the company and was finally starting to make a half decent living. Things were looking good, and so it felt like the right time to ask Emily to move in with him. Now that his life seemed to be stabilising, he felt comfortable taking such a big step, even looking forward to getting their first house together, knowing that he could succeed as a provider. A year later they were married and Emily was pregnant leading Tony to believe that things were finally starting to fall into place.
He met Emily in the early days when he was busy formulating his plans for world domination in the office cleaning sector and she was one of those high powered executives Tony had so much sympathy for. The difference between her and the other suits was that she had the self awareness to realise the absurdity of the situation and the futility of it all. The daily routine was slowly breaking her down, and when she cast her mind back and remembered how happy and ambitious her younger self was, it became clear that she had to leave before it was too late and she became institutionalised. Spending an entire career there just wasn’t an option.
Every day she would be up at six in the morning, ready to endure a nightmare commute on an overcrowded train with similarly hopeless wage slaves, and even though she was supposed to finish at six, the pressure to commit to the company and meet the ridiculous deadlines no matter what the cost, meant that some nights she didn’t get home until nine thirty, which gave her just enough time to stick something in the microwave before crawling, tired and dejected into bed, hoping to get a few precious moments to herself before the cycle started again. And sometimes she had to work on Saturdays.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, some of the people she had to work with would have driven lesser mortals to despair. The office was a male dominated environment with more than its fair share of high fiving, back slapping jokers who had no idea how ridiculous they were and no interests other than work. If they weren’t working, they were either talking about work or feeling guilty about not being at work, not exactly the kind of characteristics Emily was looking for in her colleagues. Spending five days a week in that atmosphere eventually prompted her to question her sanity, and seriously consider a career change.
She found comfort in the occasional conversation with Tony, when she was alone in the office putting in the extra hours the bosses expected. She discovered that they had a similar attitude to job satisfaction when he pointed out something quite obvious to most people. If you’re going to devote half your life to a job, at the very least you shouldn’t hate it. No amount of money could make you happier than having a job you love. And if you ever find yourself lying awake at night, sick with dread because the idea of another working day is just so unbearable, then it’s time to get out. Emily knew all this already, but it was nice to hear these pearls of wisdom from somebody else, as it helped her come to a conclusive decision. It was time to leave.
They started going out together and soon fell in love. She admired his ambition and decisiveness, as well as his good advice, and he loved her because even though she had developed the strong, ruthless streak necessary to reach the top, she never lost her sensitive side or her humanity, which manifested itself in the decision to leave the company. She had the brains and determination to make money, but the heart to realise how trivial it all was, and that made her special. That was what Tony fell in love with.
With corporate life a thing of the past, Emily embarked on a career as a proof reader, which couldn’t guarantee a regular income, but meant that she could spend her days at home surrounded by books, which was infinitely preferable to the uncompromising grind that was her previous career. The job itself required quite a lot of concentration, but she was effectively her own boss, which meant freedom at last, and although the pay was significantly lower than what she was used to, it was enough to get by, and she had one eye on the future with regards to her relationship with Tony.
Eventually, they pooled their resources and moved in together, which quickly led to a proposal, brief engagement and then a beautiful but understated wedding, surrounded by a handful of close friends and family. She was pregnant almost straight away, and six months later the troubles began.
As first time buyers with a relatively modest income (Tony was doing well but he wasn’t earning serious money just yet) they had to start out on the bottom rung of the property ladder, which meant buying a house in a relatively poor area. Of course, they could have rented somewhere nice and saved up for a few years before buying a great house, but the British obsession with home ownership meant that they simply had to take out a mortgage, no matter what the consequences, financial or otherwise. Besides, they would make money on this house because as we all know, property is a great investment, guaranteed to increase in value, so the happy couple planned to sell it in a few years time, pocket the profit, then move somewhere much nicer. And all they had to do to achieve this dream was live somewhere a little downmarket for a while. No problem.
Or at least, it wasn’t a problem at first. In fact, they found the area quite charming, and even though unemployment was quite high, and crime was on the up, there was still quite a strong sense of community, thanks in part to the presence of a number of residents who had lived there for over twenty years.
In the evenings, they would go walking and talk about the future, wondering how much they would make when the decision to sell up and move on was inevitably made. Where would they go? What kind of neighbourhood would they choose? Where would be the best place to raise a child? Emily had started looking at nursery schools, already planning a future move, well aware that this was premature, but that was just her nature. She liked to look ahead.
The first signs of trouble appeared quite soon after they moved in, but the happy couple ignored them, not even giving the problem a moment’s thought. Occasionally at night they would be woken by the sounds of engines revving and cars racing through the streets, even though it was a residential area with a thirty mile an hour speed limit. The seriousness of these incidents didn’t seem to register with Tony, who instead preferred to see it as kids having fun, and therefore ultimately harmless. So they stuck their heads in the sand and hoped that it didn’t become a regular occurrence, knowing that if it did, their quality of life would be adversely affected. The two of them didn’t discuss this possibility, afraid of where the conversation might lead, already in denial, frightened that things would escalate from mindless joyriding into something much more serious, something which could make life unbearable.
Inevitably, things did get worse, as on their evening walks Tony and Emily started to notice a lot of empty cans and smashed bottles littering the streets, which was a sign of things to come, as not long before the baby was due, a group of boys spent the night hanging around outside their house drinking, shouting and swearing, and even though the couple tried to ignore it, telling themselves it was a one off, it was still an intimidating atmosphere which lasted well into the early hours and nobody was doing a thing to stop it.
They couldn’t understand why things had changed so quickly and why they suddenly felt like prisoners in their own home. The explanation was quite simple. It turned out that the