Orientation and Job History both deal with the workplace, although they encompass very different work environments. Orientation is set in an office during a job orientation for a new employee while Job History takes the reader on a tour a Leeland Lee's struggle to provide for his family; whether it's hog farming with his father, running a feed store out of the old gas station, or working on a road crew, Leeland struggles trying to make ends meet throughout his blue-collar life. Daniel Orozco's Orientation, narrated by the new employee’s office tour guide, has an absurd humor that is lacking from Proulx's Job History, which has a much more serious tone. While discussing the same topic – work – the two writers take very different approaches to…show more content… Neither plot contains traditional dialogue. While the narrator of Orientation is talking to the new employee, there is no reciprocation. None of the characters in the story address each other, or the narrator. It is implied that the new employee speaks to the narrator when the narrator says, “What do I mean? I'm glad you asked that.” however it is not presented as traditional dialogue, rather the narrator repeats the question when he answers. (Orozco 1061) Similarly, Job History is entirely narrated, without dialogue. Also, neither one of the stories has any rising or falling action, and thus both lack a climax. The rising and falling action typically centers on a central conflict, but Orientation is not a typical short story. There are minor conflicts that have developed in the interpersonal relationships throughout the office, but there is no main conflict, and nothing is ever really resolved. The reader is only aware because of the secondhand accounts given by the narrator. One of the inter-office conflicts involves a long, one-way chain of unrequited love, “Russell Nash, who sits in the cubicle to your left, is in love with Amanda Pierce, who sits in the cubicle to your right... Amanda Pierce, who tolerates Russell Nash, is in love with Albert Bosch...Albert Bosch, who only dimly registers Amanda Pierce's existence, has eyes only for Ellie Tapper...Ellie Tapper, who hates Albert Bosch, would walk through fire for Curtis Lance. But Curtis Lance hates Ellie Tapper.” (Orozco 1061-1062) Leeland's biggest conflict in Job History is with himself and his inability to develop and maintain relationships, which is the cause of many of his workplace failures: “Leeland can't seem to get along with the oil company dispatcher. After a year they move back to Unique... Before the baby is born he quits the road crew. He can't seem to get along with the foreman.” (Proulx 1153) In