4.75
Doing his best to try to use the building canopies to shield him from the rain for the next few blocks, it was no use as the downpour quickly soaked Ben from head to toe. Ben began to run, not really as fast as he could, but at a pace one would run thinking it would help from getting wet. Finally, arriving at his building, Ben pushed the revolving door. The rubber at the bottom of the door squeaked from the water on the ground, and Ben breathed a slight sigh of relief as he was in the safety of the lobby.
He stopped inside the door for a few seconds before someone entered behind him, forcing Ben to the side. On the wall was a giant clock that let Ben know he was late for his meeting.
“Shit.”, Ben said under his breath.
Stepping to a corner of the lobby, all Ben really wanted to do was go home, but he knew he had to get to his meeting. He tried to shake off the rain in a motion that was reminiscent of Bucky, the golden retriever that his family had when he was growing up. It didn’t work.
Just then Ben’s phone buzzed and a notice popped up, “Thank you for being a part of our ride share family! We hope your ride was wonderful! Press the button below to show your driver, Richard, some love!”
The entire ride from the train station to a few blocks from his office instantly flashed in his memory. Ben could feel his body lurching forward and back from the constant stopping and starting, he saw the shortcut, the almost running down of the protestors, and then he shuttered at the thought of Richard nearly killing the man trying to cross the street.
A look of consternation came to Ben’s face as all he could think about was, if he were to give Richard a bad rating, Richard would somehow know and give Ben a bad rating. A bad passenger rating meant a lot of drivers would never pick him up.
As the water was dripping from his sleeve, creating little puddles on the floor, Ben tapped the button, opening the driver rating screen. There, at the top, was a smiling picture of Richard, and Ben tried to reframe his thinking. “Maybe he is just struggling to get by. I shouldn’t be so hard on the guy. How would I like to be driving people around all day?”
Ben moved the slider on his screen from left to right, starting at a zero rating and landing on 4.75.
He took a breath and pressed the “Show Some Love” button on his screen.
Another notice popped up: “Is there anything you want to comment about your driver?”
The text box was there for Ben to comment, but he hit the dismiss button.
Ben gathered his things, still dripping from the sudden rainstorms he experienced both in the car when Richard opened the window and from the walk in the downpour when he was kicked out of the car. A look of dejection filled Ben’s face as he remembered he was also late to his meeting. He made his way to the elevator bank, swiping his key card to go through the security turnstiles, and then swiping his key card on the elevator screen, which directed him to car number 2.
Standing there, still dripping, but at least not like a running faucet, the elevator door opened. Ben entered the car with four other people whose only inclination that there was a rainstorm came from the water droplets sliding off of their umbrellas, leaving them completely dry.
“Forgot your umbrella this morning?” asked one of the other riders in the elevator.
Ben wanted to reply, “Duh,” but instead answered with, “Yea, and my ride-share driver was having a bad day and decided to drop me off a block away.”
Ben continued to try to justify Richard’s actions under the moniker of Richard having a bad day.
What Ben didn’t know was that Richard was just an asshole.
Suddenly, Ben’s phone buzzed with a notification.
“Thank you for being a part of our ride-share family! Your driver showed some love! Click to see what they had to say!”
Ben pressed the “See the love!” button, and the screen opened.
“Your driver, Richard, gave you a rating of 1.” The comment screen read, “This dude barely says a word the entire ride and then says I’m a bad driver after I safely got him to his office. Probably gave me a bad rating even though people love me. You might want to think twice before picking up this guy.”
The elevator stopped on Ben’s floor, and the doors opened.
Still stunned, and as none of the other riders made their way off the elevator, one of the riders said to Ben, “Is this your floor?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” said Ben, with a look of complete misery now on his face as he exited the elevator.
Ben walked down the hallway to the Tech Solutions’ office and made his way to the conference room. His boss, John, was giving a presentation, and Ben tried to silently find a chair in the corner of the room. John noticed Ben, stopped his presentation, and said in a mocking voice, “Welcome, Ben! Nice of you to show up. Looks like you forgot your umbrella?”
Ben sighed.
