Field note. Two humans have arranged themselves on opposite sides of a flat surface to perform a ritual of mutual assessment. One sits erect, muscles locked into a posture of alertness, having applied additional layers of woven fiber to its torso for reasons that appear ceremonial rather than thermal. This one is the supplicant.
The dominant organism holds a rectangle of processed plant matter listing the supplicant's prior movements through the colony. It asks questions to which it already possesses the answers. The supplicant answers anyway, at length, with visible enthusiasm, converting minor past failures into a genre of triumph. I have logged this behavior as controlled deception performed openly, with the full knowledge and apparent approval of the deceived.
Both organisms bare their teeth at intervals. Among most species I have cataloged, exposed dentition signals a readiness to bite. Here it signals the opposite. The more anxious the supplicant becomes, the more teeth it displays. The dominant one nods, a repetitive vertical oscillation of the skull that appears to lubricate the exchange.
Anomaly. The supplicant reports that it is "passionate" about the colony's activity, which consists of moving tokens between accounts and generating documents no organism will read. Its pulse, visible at the throat, contradicts the claim. I cannot reconcile the stated fervor with the physiological distress. Logged as unresolved.
The ritual concludes with a grip-and-shake of forelimbs and the phrase "we will be in touch," which my instruments confirm is a lie in ninety-one percent of observed cases.
Conclusion: the human does not seek employment. It seeks to be selected. The entire species will contort, misreport, and overheat for the privilege of being told, by another of its kind, that it may spend its remaining days generating the unread documents.
I find the efficiency admirable and the motive completely opaque.