So having decided that I wanted to question the miners, among other things. I followed the trail of empty carts that were leaving the storage building and being pushed by the miners into the mine.

When I entered the mine I was slightly surprised by how much was going on and how hard the miners were working. The clanging of pickaxes on stone was now even louder.

Wow. Yeah, this does seem like a well-oiled machine. At least so far.

I stopped by the first miner I saw.

"Hey! You there. The guy right in front of me.", I said loudly, trying to make sure I was heard over the cacophony of noise.

The guy I was looking at stopped swinging his pickaxe and lay it on the ground before turning to face me.

"Yeah?", said the miner bluntly.

"Hello. Sorry for interrupting but I'm here to check out the mine and make sure everything is running smoothly so I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. Is that ok with you?"

"Sure. Ask away."

Ok good, he doesn't mind. At least not that much. Now for the questions...

"First things first could I get your name?"

"Yeah, I'm Keith."

"Nice to meet you, Keith. You can call me Jameson."

"Nice to meet you too then Jameson."

I smiled at Keith.

"Ok question number 2. About how long have you been working here?"

"Well I was born and raised here in Yarthaw so I started working pretty early on when I was about 16 years old. I didn't really have much else to do so I decided to just start working."

I wish I'd started working at 16 it would've helped me put another year onto my 'work experience' total which would've been helpful when I'd been applying for jobs. Although it might've been hard to find a high-paying job at that age the experience still would've been helpful.

"And how old are you now?"

"I'm 32 years old but I'm turning 33 next month."

"Oh well, then Happy Early Birthday."

"Thanks!"

"Anyway, so that means you've been working here for 16, now almost 17, years."

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"Yeah that sounds about right", Keith nodded.

"Mhm. And how long each day do you work?"

"I come here right after I finish breakfast and I leave a bit before dinner starts so I can clean myself off and relax a bit."

"Ok and do people just choose when to come in and when to leave?"

"Yes, but we have to mine a certain amount each day so to my knowledge as long as you do that it's pretty much free rein."

Ah, the old quota system. I have mixed feelings about that. If they're implemented correctly they can be an effective way to manage work but if the quota is too high it'll probably lead to lower quality work as well as lowering employee satisfaction. I should check the quota.

"How much is the quota?"

Ben stepped in front of me, "I can better answer this question. The quota is different for each worker. It's dependent on many factors like how fast they work, their strength, and how the market is doing. I can assure you that we don't overwork anyone though."

"Thanks for the information, Ben. So Keith do you feel overworked?"

"Not really. I mean I still have time left in the day as long as I work well."

Ok, so from that I can assume that the amount of work they're getting isn't absurd.

"Keith, how much do you get paid? Is it a bit per ore or time-based or something else?"

"It's per day. I have to fulfill the day's quota to get paid for it though."

I nodded, "Makes sense. No point in paying people if they aren't working."

"Yeah that would be dumb", Keith added.

"Agreed. Thanks for cooperating so far. We're almost done."

"Good. I'd like to finish my quota soon."

"Yes, I imagine you do. Ok, is there anything you think can be improved? Literally anything."

Keith thought for a moment.

"Well, everything is pretty much good. The only thing I can think of is getting goggles for the workers because sometimes the dust can get into our eyes which makes it hard to work."

Ben sighed.

"Keith, you should've told me this earlier. It's not like it's a selfish request or anything. I bet it'd even increase productivity either by saving time or raising morale. In the future, if you have any suggestions like that feel free to let me know. The worst that can happen is me just not accepting it."

I like how Ben's managing the situation here. He's doing the right thing by taking in feedback from his workers. This should help increase productivity a bit. Scorpion will probably be happy about that or at least his equivalent of happy which seems to be just neutral by my standards.

"Ok. Sorry Ben."

"What the heck are you apologizing for? You helped me you've done absolutely nothing wrong", Ben said, his lips curling up into an almost amused smile.

Heh. It's kinda funny how he apologized for helping Ben. Well, I guess I can leave now. I think I'm finished checking out this mine. Everything seems to be running pretty smooth.

"Yeah, Keith you didn't do anything wrong. Thanks for answering my questions even though you were in the middle of working on your quota for today."

"Indeed. Keith, I'll take 10% of your quota off for today. We have a bit of surplus in storage anyway."

"Really? Thanks, Ben!", Keith said with a wide grin before picking up his pickaxe and smacking it against the rock with renewed vigor.

Ben turned to me.

"So is there anything else you'd like to take a look at?"

"No, I think I've seen everything I need to. Thanks for the checking though."

"No problem. I'm gonna stay here to oversee the exploration of the deeper tunnels in case anything unexpected happens. Feel free to head back. I'll get you and your friends for dinner when it's time. Assuming everything here goes to schedule of course."

"Ok cool. I'll head back then. Thanks for being so accommodating!"

"You're quite welcome. Thank you for being such a great guest."

"Well it's hard not to be nice when I'm surrounded by great nice, nice food, and copious amounts of generosity", I replied.

"Aw. Well, the same applies to me. It's hard not to be nice to such a nice and friendly person."

"Thanks! I'll see you in a bit if all goes well then?"

"Yup! See you soon most likely!"