I work for a State agency, a big one with about 650 employees statewide. We have about 600 that work here in the Capital. That’s a lot of people and a lot of driving and a lot of looking that has been wasted this week.
Watched the local news last night. “A supervisor with the State Agency of Whatever has been missing for over a week.” They showed a picture - it’s Bob. The talking head said he was suicidal and if anyone has seen him to please contact the police. Bob?? Wha?? Bob’s a great guy, a bit of a mean snake but he’s a boss, that’s to be expected. I can see him storming the front offices with a sledgehammer or a gun, but I can’t see him just driving off. He’s 61, he’s got a wife, a daughter my age. Bob? Missing? For a week??
So it’s in today’s paper. I come into the main office this morning and everyone’s talking about it. Rumors flying, blah blah blah. We’re all trying to remember exactly when we saw him last, but it’s hard. He works in a different building now, so I don’t see him everyday, maybe once a month. I know I saw him this month but was it last week or the week before. I dunno.
Come to find out that Bob went missing last Tuesday. Never showed up for work; he got in his ugly little truck and hasn’t been heard from since. His wife filled out a missing persons report the next day and the police called for work information late Wednesday afternoon. Wife’s been calling the front office to see if anyone’s heard anything.
The front office knew for a week that Bob was missing. Let me put that a little clearer… The stupid, son-of-a-bitch, military asshole that runs this place and his conniving, backstabbing, I’ll-get-you-my-pretty, sycophantic waste of breasts deputy decided that it was bad form to let anyone know about Bob. Why would they possibly want 550 people, who all have different means of transportation, that all take different routes home, most of whom travel every single freaking road in the state to-and-from inspections, looking for Bob and his ugly little truck.
You smarmy bastard. You and your hoary-haired bitch have shown us once and for all how much we mean to you. Only the two of you and his direct supervisor knew. You’ve been more concerned about having his shifts run smoothly than whether or not anyone in the Agency actually knew anything to help. For a week, you’ve been telling the little group in the other building that he actually supervised that everything was OK. They didn’t even know he was missing; half of them thought he was on vacation or training in the main office. So, rather than have people concerned and trying to help for a week, now you have 550 people who are pissed. And about 200 people who worked directly with him are sitting here at desks shell-shocked trying to remember anything. If y’all in the front office were trying to avoid this, talk about a miserable failure. You just delayed it and made it worse. I’m not wishing death on you, but if anything should happen to you, it only seems fair that you’re lost in an Alabama swamp in the early summer and not found for a good long while.
