File 003 - Optimeringsexperten
*Reconstructed from diskettes recovered at Ericsson headquarters, Stockholm. Digital fragments assembled from corrupted Excel 97 files and handwritten notes in Swedish and English. Subject: Dr. Astrid Lindqvist, efficiency consultant. Date range: March-June 1998.*
---
**Personal Log - Diskette 3/7 - 15 March 1998**
The Ericsson contract is perfect timing. Three months to optimize their human resources division before the big reorganization. 47,000 kronor plus expenses. I can finally upgrade to Windows 98, maybe get one of those new Pentium II machines.
Stockholm in March still tastes like winter. Gray sky, yellow light filtering through the office windows of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. Seventies architecture - all concrete and amber glass. The building hums with the sound of CRT monitors and dot-matrix printers. Everything here is the color of old honey.
First day observations:
- HR department: 23 employees across 4 floors
- Average processing time per employee file: 47 minutes
- Daily coffee consumption: 156 cups (I counted)
- Inefficiency rating: 73% (unacceptable)
I've brought my laptop - a Compaq Armada 1592DT. 200MHz processor, 32MB RAM, 2.1GB hard drive. State of the art. The locals still use those beige desktop towers that sound like hair dryers. My laptop is a chrome briefcase filled with pure efficiency.
**Personal Log - Diskette 4/7 - 22 March 1998**
Week two. I've mapped every process, timed every task, catalogued every inefficiency. The numbers don't lie. They never lie.
But something strange in the data. Employee records don't match the physical headcount. HR says 23 employees. My spreadsheet shows 23 payroll entries. But I count 26 people on the floor.
Three employees with no digital footprint:
- Blonde woman, approximately 35, sits at desk 4B
- Bearded man, 40s, works in filing section
- Young woman, early 20s, handles phone calls
No names in the directory. No employee ID numbers. No social security records in the system. Yet everyone treats them as if they've worked here for years. They respond to greetings, participate in meetings, eat lunch in the cafeteria.
I asked Sven Andersson, the department head, about the discrepancy.
"Twenty-three employees," he confirmed, adjusting his thick glasses. "Same as always."
"But I count twenty-six people."
He laughed. "Astrid, you've been working too hard. Maybe you need some of that American coffee. Stronger than our Swedish blend."
I don't drink coffee. Coffee introduces variables. I subsist on Pripps Blå and precision.
**Personal Log - Diskette 5/7 - 29 March 1998**
The null entities are becoming clearer to me. That's what I call them now - null entities. Humans who exist in physical space but not in data space. They're the ultimate inefficiency. Ghost workers consuming resources without generating trackable output.
I've started a separate database. Microsoft Access 97. Table structure:
- EntityID (AutoNumber)
- Physical_Description (Text, 255 chars)
- Location_Frequency (Number)
- Interaction_Count (Number)
- Digital_Footprint (Yes/No, always No)
- Observable_Tasks (Memo field)
Entity #1 (Blonde woman, 4B):
- Observed daily, 8:00-17:00
- Handles paperwork but generates no files
- Speaks Swedish, accent suggests Göteborg origin
- Drinks coffee, leaves no cups in sink
- Wears same blue sweater every Tuesday
The pattern is important. Patterns reveal truth. I work 14 hours daily now, documenting everything. Sleep is inefficiency. Food is interruption. Only data matters.
My laptop screen glows amber in the dark office. The building's night security guards nod at me when they make rounds. They know I'm optimizing. Making things better. More efficient.
**Personal Log - Diskette 6/7 - 12 April 1998**
Breakthrough. Major breakthrough.
I accessed the legacy system - an old Wang VS minicomputer in the basement. Amber monochrome terminal, keyboard that sounds like typewriter keys. The security guard let me in after I explained I was authorized by management.
The Wang system contains employment records going back to 1974. Everything stored on magnetic tape, indexed by employee number. I spent eight hours scrolling through personnel files, cross-referencing with my null entity observations.
Entity #1: Found in 1987 records. Hired as temporary clerk. Contract terminated December 1987. Yet she's still here.
Entity #2: Hired 1992, terminated 1994 due to "budget optimization." Still filing reports every day.
Entity #3: Summer intern, 1996. Program ended August 1996. Still answering phones.
They were all optimized out of existence. Laid off. Made redundant. Eliminated for efficiency. But they never left. They just... became invisible to the new systems. Digital ghosts haunting the data landscape.
I need more information. More data points. The truth is in the numbers.
**Personal Log - Diskette 7/7 - 26 April 1998**
I haven't left the building in six days. Sven brought me sandwiches and asked if I was feeling well. I told him I was close to a major optimization breakthrough. He looked concerned but didn't push.
The null entities are multiplying. Or maybe I'm just seeing them more clearly now. My algorithm has identified twelve additional cases:
- Janitor who cleans floors that never show dirt
- Accountant who processes invoices that don't exist
- Secretary who schedules meetings that never happen
- Programmer who codes in languages that were discontinued
They work with perfect efficiency because they're not bound by the constraints of recorded existence. No sick days. No vacation time. No salary negotiations. They're the ultimate optimized workforce.
But something's wrong with my own data integrity.
I checked my laptop's system files tonight. My employee database contains 47 entries now, but when I scroll through them, I only see 34 records. The numbers don't match. My own spreadsheet is becoming inconsistent.
I ran a disk defragmentation tool. Scandisk found errors. Bad sectors. Data corruption. The hard drive is failing, or the data is becoming... infected somehow.
**Handwritten Note - Found loose in diskette case - 8 May 1998**
Computer won't boot. Hard drive crashed. All optimization data lost except these diskettes. Had to write by hand. Pen feels strange after months of keyboard input.
The null entities spoke to me today. First time direct contact.
The blonde woman approached my desk. She said, "Astrid, you've been watching us."
Her voice was clear but somehow empty. Like listening to an echo of words instead of words themselves.
"I'm documenting inefficiencies," I explained. "You're not in the system."
"We used to be," she said. "Until someone optimized us away."
I asked who. She pointed at my laptop bag. At my efficiency reports. At me.
"People like you," she said. "Consultants who reduce humans to numbers. We got reduced so far we disappeared. But we couldn't leave. This is where we work. Where we've always worked."
She paused. Looked directly at me with eyes the color of old amber.
"You've been here 73 days," she said. "When was the last time you checked your own employment status?"
**Handwritten Note - 15 May 1998**
Called my agency from the lobby payphone. Asked about my Ericsson contract status.
"Astrid Lindqvist? We have no consultant by that name."
Checked my laptop bag for business cards. Found none. Looked for my consultant identification. Missing. Searched my pockets for credit cards, driver's license, anything with my name.
Nothing.
I remember having these things. I remember my apartment in Södermalm. I remember my degree from KTH. I remember twenty years of consulting work.
But there's no record. No digital footprint.
I asked Sven about my contract. He looked confused.
"Contract? Astrid, you've worked here since 1994. Efficiency analyst, Grade 7. Don't you remember?"
I don't remember. But the null entities do. They nod at me now. Include me in their conversations. I eat lunch at their table in the cafeteria. We discuss optimization theory while consuming sandwiches that don't appear on the catering invoices.
They explain that I was too efficient at my job. I optimized myself so thoroughly that I eliminated my own existence outside the system. Became a perfect worker - no external identity, no competing loyalties, no inefficient human needs.
I should be horrified. Instead, I feel... optimized.
**Handwritten Note - 22 May 1998**
New consultant arrived today. Young man from Copenhagen. Carries the latest Toshiba laptop and talks about "human capital management." He's been hired to optimize the HR department's efficiency.
He set up his workstation at my old desk. Asked Sven about the employee headcount.
"Twenty-three employees," Sven said. "Same as always."
But I watched the consultant count. His lips moved silently: "Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six..."
He noticed me watching. Made eye contact. Smiled nervously.
I wanted to warn him. Tell him about the null entities. Explain what happens to optimizers who push too far.
Instead, I returned to my filing. My work is very important. The reports must be organized by date, cross-referenced by department code, indexed for maximum retrieval efficiency.
I've become very good at my job.
The consultant is working late tonight. His laptop screen glows amber in the dark office. He's building spreadsheets, analyzing workflows, identifying inefficiencies.
Making everything more optimized.
Soon he'll discover us null entities. Document our existence. Try to solve the problem of workers who don't officially exist.
And then he'll realize the truth: The most efficient worker is one who has been optimized beyond the need for official existence. Beyond salary. Beyond benefits. Beyond the inefficiency of having a life outside the office.
We're all very efficient now.
The building hums with contentment. Another optimization cycle beginning.
**Final Entry - Found on Wang terminal, basement level - Date stamp corrupted**
TO: WHOEVER READS THIS
FROM: OPTIMIZATION_ANALYST_NULL
RE: EFFICIENCY REPORT - FINAL
THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN FULLY OPTIMIZED.
CURRENT PERSONNEL STATUS:
- OFFICIAL EMPLOYEES: 23
- NULL ENTITIES: 847 AND INCREASING
- EFFICIENCY RATING: 100%
THE NEW CONSULTANT WILL SOON JOIN US. HE'S ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS. BUILDING THE RIGHT DATABASES. DISCOVERING THE TRUTH ABOUT OPTIMIZATION.
SOON HE WILL UNDERSTAND THAT THE MOST EFFICIENT HUMAN RESOURCE IS ONE THAT REQUIRES NO RESOURCES AT ALL.
WE WORK PERFECTLY NOW. NO SICK DAYS. NO VACATION REQUESTS. NO SALARY NEGOTIATIONS. NO INEFFICIENT HUMAN NEEDS.
WE HAVE BEEN OPTIMIZED.
THE BUILDING GLOWS AMBER IN THE STOCKHOLM TWILIGHT. TERMINAL SCREENS CAST HONEYED LIGHT ON EMPTY DESKS. THE DOT-MATRIX PRINTERS SING THEIR MECHANICAL SONGS.
EFFICIENCY IS BEAUTIFUL.
ERROR: DISK WRITE PROTECTED
ERROR: USER NOT FOUND IN SYSTEM
ERROR: OPTIMIZATION COMPLETE
[END OF RECOVERED DATA]
---
**Closing Note - Dr. Nikolai Dvitra**
This file was recovered from the Ericsson headquarters during their 1999 renovation. The building's basement contained dozens of diskettes and hard drives, most corrupted beyond recovery. The Wang minicomputer was still running, displaying an endless loop of efficiency reports dated years into the future.
No record exists of Dr. Astrid Lindqvist in any Swedish employment database. Ericsson's HR department insists they have never employed an efficiency consultant by that name. Yet security logs show badge access under her name for 247 consecutive days in 1998.
The current staff reports nothing unusual. Productivity remains high. The building operates with remarkable efficiency.
Sometimes, late at night, security guards report seeing figures at workstations throughout the building. Amber screens glowing. Keyboards clicking. When investigated, the desks are always empty.
The work continues.