Dialog and Transcription
In a large 6-panel comic from the series Socialist Grocery by Oli Knowles, Sebastian and their coworkers discuss workplace trauma responses.
In the top left panel, Sebastian eats a sandwich in the break room surrounded by coworkers. Everyone has identical uniforms with button-down collared shirts and name tags. A masked person with dark hair and a coffee mug walks in asking, “Does anyone else want to fight customers who won’t let go of their carts while you’re bagging?”
In the top right panel, Sebastian considers, “Fighting isn’t my usual response. I’m more of a fawn guy.” To the right, a freckled person with short hair and a beard adds, “Oooh nice. I enjoy a little fawning from time to time. Maybe a freeze.”
In the middle left panel, a person with a hat and checkered mug is sitting in front of a bulletin board. They chime in, “I’m definitely a freeze guy. Freeze all the time. My two modes are: chill, or freeze.” Across the table, someone with long, wavy hair asks the group, “What’s everyone else’s trauma response?”
In the middle center panel, a masked person with long, wavy hair holding a phone shares, “Flight. I love to flee.” Sitting in front of them, a coworker with glasses and a furrowed brow agrees, “Yeah I leave and never come back.”
In the middle right panel, three people with similar wavy hair smile enthusiastically and chant “Fight, fight, fight, fight!”
In the bottom panel, Sebastian and a coworker are standing outside in their normal clothes. Sebastian is wearing a plaid sleeveless button-down top and smoking. The coworker has shoulder-length dark hair with bangs and is wearing a floral long-sleeved shirt underneath a short sleeve shirt. They’re standing in front of a brick wall and there’s a tree in the distance to the right.
Sebastian laments, “I swear to God, working here is like being in some kind of Saturday Night Live sketch that a conservative wrote to make fun of Whole Foods, but the episode is also sponsored by Whole Foods.”
