From “Dear Employee,” which was published in Issue 80 of Conjunctions.

The announcement came in the mail: effective immediately, everyone was assigned a new job. Pay was $0 a week. Hours negotiable.

“What?” said Redd, as he sat at his kitchen table and read his letter over again. “But what will happen to my construction contracting company?”

There would be no more construction. No more contractors either. There would be no more bankers. No more geometry teachers. No more pet emporium owners. No more hydrotherapy specialists. No more pawnshop cashiers. The reassigned jobs were different and they were new.…