The Serbian "extra"
A day labourer hired to cover a sick man at the Hôtel X. He works flat out until noon, then gets himself sacked on purpose, because the wages are already earned.
To be paid for a full day and work half of one. He explains it plainly: the law owes him a day's wages if he works up to midday, so he sees no sense in working after that.
The book
At a glance
- An "extra" at the Hôtel X, hired for one day to replace a sick man
- Never. The book calls him the Serbian
- Thick-set and nimble, about twenty-five, speaking six languages including English
- Twenty-five francs for the day, paid in full
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeGeorge Orwell calls this man the queerest type he ever saw in the hotel. He was taken on at the Hôtel X as an "extra", a casual hired by the day at twenty-five francs, to cover the cafeterie man who was off sick. Orwell describes him as a Serbian of about twenty-five, thick-set and nimble, speaking six languages including English, and apparently knowing everything there is to know about hotel work.
He is in the book for one day, and the day is a demonstration. What looks at first like a good worker going bad by lunchtime turns out to be a method he has worked out and used across Paris.
How the book draws them
- How the book describes himThick-set and nimble, about twenty-five, speaking six languages including English. Orwell gives no more of his appearance than that.
- Before noonUp until midday he works, in Orwell's phrase, like a slave, and seems to know all about hotel work.
- After noonAs soon as it has struck twelve he turns sulky, shirks his work and steals wine, and finishes by loafing about openly with a pipe in his mouth. Smoking in the service quarters was forbidden under severe penalties.
- The remarkThe manager comes down fuming and demands to know what the devil he means by smoking there. The Serbian asks him calmly what the devil he means by having a face like that. Orwell says he cannot convey the blasphemy of it, and notes that the head cook would have thrown a saucepan of hot soup in a dishwasher's face for less.
- The methodSacked on the spot, he is paid his twenty-five francs at two o'clock. On the way out Boris asks him in Russian what game he is playing, and he explains: he takes a job as an extra, works hard until twelve, then raises enough hell that they have no choice but to sack him. Most days he is out by half past twelve. That day it took until two, and he counts it as four hours of work saved.
- The limit of itThe one drawback, he says, is that it cannot be done twice at the same hotel. Orwell reports that he had played it at half the hotels and restaurants in Paris, and that the trade defends itself with a black list.