Pecking Order

When I returned to the office this morning after a week-long vacation, I was prepared for the pile of paperwork that would be awaiting me. No one else around here does any of the heavy lifting when it comes to administrative process. None of my staff seems to have an iota of initiative, or ambition to move up the organizational ladder of responsibility here at the Recycling and Disposal Facility.

During the last week, I spent a lot of time sitting on the beach soaking up the glorious rays of the sun and watching the endless variety of birds - seagulls, terns, shrikes, pelicans, sandpipers - working the shoreline. Groups of brown and white pelicans skimmed over the water surface on the hunt for hapless fish that schooled near the surface of the clear warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.

There was a constant cooling wind off the water. Flocks of birds would gather in small groups to rest on the sands, and also keeping a sharp eye out for an morsel of food dropped by beachgoers on the sand or left unattended on a blanket. Always facing windward, the gulls would hunker together in close gangs of 10 or 15 birds. Sometimes you could see that there were as many as three distinct species in a group - but always self-segregated. Orange beaks with Orange beaks; Grey heads with Grey Heads; White heads together also.

There was a constant jockeying around for position. With some birds acting aggressively, attacking another bird with no obvious provocation. Chasing them out of their positions. Squawking furiously. Somehow, the pecking order of the group was established without a lot of actual pecking.

My thoughts returned to reality as I drove up to the shack that I call my office. I was glad to be back home. Where everyone knows your name. Where you belong. The guys would be glad to see the old DFM back on the job. Very likely, they had been wandering around aimlessly all week. They know that I am the glue that binds them together as a team. The leader and mentor that they need. The peacemaker when they get into their petty squabbles. Without me, they are like the seagulls and crows over at the landfill.

When I walked into the office, Lardass and Lefty were sitting in front of the Franklin reading the paper. Bill was eating some Chinese food out of a carton even though it was not lunch time yet. George was sitting near the window looking out with a pair of binoculars and a thumb counter.
"Hi guys" I said cheerfully, "I'm back!"
No one looked up from what they were doing. Ok I thought, the old silent treatment. I thought of my cat and how annoyed she was that I had left her alone for the week. The crew was just being petulant. Like the cat, they would warm up after a bowl of tuna fish.

I sat down at the desk. The inbox was empty except for several phone message slips. A sheaf of invoices and bills of lading were stacked neatly in the "to be filed" box. Someone had been taking initiative. Someone who was probably after my job, I mused.