This reminds me of my high school woodworking teacher, who would tend to write late notes for other teachers on pieces of wood whenever we didn't finish class on time.

Anywhere wood shingles/shakes are used for siding they're commonly used as scratch pads for record keeping. If the writing on them is no longer needed and they're the right size and close at hand they get installed. There are plenty of last month's time punches and yesterday's materials lists on people's houses.

how high was the rate of illiteracy then? I' guessing it was still high at that point in time, which makes you think why it was written out in the first place.

Blue tile, pink slip.

What's the purpose? Is it for communicating? or a signed document?

Maybe the clay composition, the process of firing it and the final product serve as the signature of the company? Also tile can't be burnt while paper can be. Interesting idea.

I miss the days when people would bring their animals on the job <3

The tile next to it has got a 200-year-old offer of "generous" severance that is conditional on non-disclosure, non-disparagement, a waiver of all claims and an agreement to binding arbitration in the case of disputes.

I do wonder if British roofers in the 19th century had a similar sense of humour to British roofers today.

"Psst, pass this tile up to that useless so and so John..." or "Hey, John, there's one tile left over, you can have it."

> Once the inscription had been made, the clay was fired to create a finished roof tile and was then put to its intended use.

fun fact: this is the origin of being 'let go' coming to be known as "getting fired"

> The fact that someone went to the trouble of writing that out on the back of clay before it was fired, and then firing the tile

Not to mention firing John Lewis. It does have some consistency to it.

They fired the clay to fire someone

“To whom it may concern,

After thus performing one’s duties with this tile, report to E. Booker for reeducation.”

This is what I immediately thought of, some dystopian metaverse where a roofer gets sacked…

The story is less dystopian and pale.