Work Archives - Wattalife

For twenty-three years, he has been the only person in America still making a part for a dryer that stopped being manufactured in 1978.
ByMargot Hale August 10, 2026September 23, 2026

A retired machinist in Missoula has, for twenty-three years, been the only person in the country still making one small brass gear for a clothes dryer that stopped being manufactured in 1978. He makes them in his garage, one at a time, for fourteen dollars. About eleven hundred people have kept a discontinued appliance running because of him. He is seventy-eight, and he intends to keep going until he can’t.

Read More For twenty-three years, he has been the only person in America still making a part for a dryer that stopped being manufactured in 1978.
For twelve years, she has quietly written down one sentence from every emergency room patient she has scribed. She has 43,000 sentences.
ByMargot Hale August 4, 2026August 9, 2026

A night-shift medical scribe in Baltimore has, for the past twelve years, been quietly writing down one specific sentence from every emergency room patient she has documented. She has 43,000 sentences. She has never told a coworker. She has never told a patient. She does not, at forty-one, know what she is going to do with them.

Read More For twelve years, she has quietly written down one sentence from every emergency room patient she has scribed. She has 43,000 sentences.
Three months ago, her new coworker started leaving her a specific small note every Monday morning. She has not, in three months, ever mentioned the notes.
ByMargot Hale August 3, 2026August 7, 2026

A woman in Charlotte has, for the past three months, been receiving a specific small handwritten note on her desk every Monday morning from a coworker she barely knows. She has not, in three months, ever mentioned them. Neither has he. The notes are approximately thirty words each. She has kept every one of them.

Read More Three months ago, her new coworker started leaving her a specific small note every Monday morning. She has not, in three months, ever mentioned the notes.
The employees at a small Nebraska water plant have been writing letters to their eventual replacements for twenty-nine years.
ByMargot Hale July 22, 2026July 30, 2026

Seven employees at a small municipal water treatment plant in central Nebraska have, over twenty-nine years, developed the specific practice of writing letters to whoever will be doing their jobs after they retire. Every new employee receives one on their first day. Every departing employee writes one on their last. The practice was started by nobody. It has been continued by everybody.

Read More The employees at a small Nebraska water plant have been writing letters to their eventual replacements for twenty-nine years.
Their office designated one room as a “wellness space.” The employees turned it into an underground economy.
ByMargot Hale July 13, 2026July 29, 2026

A downtown Chicago office designated one small room as a “wellness/quiet space” in 2023. Employees have, without any official acknowledgment, turned it into an informal trading floor — power naps for coffee runs, meeting prep for someone else’s calendar block. Nobody in leadership knows. The system now involves fifty-eight people.

Read More Their office designated one room as a “wellness space.” The employees turned it into an underground economy.
He has been trying to get fired for six months. He has been promoted twice.
ByMargot Hale June 30, 2026July 19, 2026

A senior engineer at a Bay Area software company decided in December that he wanted out. He has been, in careful escalating fashion, trying to get himself fired ever since. His performance metrics keep going up. He has been promoted twice. He is now, formally, a director. He does not know what to do.

Read More He has been trying to get fired for six months. He has been promoted twice.
Her out-of-office reply has become the best writing of her career.
ByMargot Hale June 15, 2026July 19, 2026

A woman in Chicago wrote an out-of-office email reply in a single afternoon in 2022. Three years later, it has been screenshotted, framed, quoted at conferences, and read aloud at a friend’s wedding. It is the best writing of her career. She wrote it in forty minutes. She has been trying to make peace with this.

Read More Her out-of-office reply has become the best writing of her career.
She drafted her resignation letter in 2019. She hasn’t sent it.
ByMargot Hale June 8, 2026July 19, 2026

A woman in Boston drafted a beautifully composed resignation letter in 2019. She has updated it forty-seven times. She has not sent it. The letter now lives in her drafts folder like an annual Christmas card — refined, never mailed, present.

Read More She drafted her resignation letter in 2019. She hasn’t sent it.