If the Lieutenant knew anything, the low murmurs that emanated from the other side of the cubicle farm would have worried him. The Lieutenant did not know anything, however, so he remained blissfully unaware of his surroundings as he worked his way through the paperwork on his desk.
The Lieutenant had only been at this job for a couple of months, and he was still trying to find his way through a military career that was more pens and paper and less bombs and bullets. His squadron commander had sent him back to this flight with the mandate of “learn your job, learn it well, and learn it fast.”
So the Lieutenant found himself on a Friday afternoon muddling through contract reviews, and struggling to make sense of the rules and regulations in the Air Force acquisition system. The stack of brown folders in front of him held a number of contracts that the Lieutenant’s flight had worked on over the past few days. While he did not yet understand much about the acquisition process, the Lieutenant could work his way through a checklist, so he happily performed the contract reviews on his desk.
There are a surprising number of math errors in these contracts, the Lieutenant thought. As the realization that almost all the arithmetic errors were made by the same two Airmen, the Lieutenant became aware of the quiet that had replaced the low murmuring on the other side of the cubicle wall. As he turned away from his desk, he was greeted by nearly all the Airmen in his flight standing in the entrance to the cubicle.
“Good afternoon, Ell-Tee,” one of the Airmen greeted the Lieutenant, and the Lieutenant could not help but notice that the Airman addressing him was not only the one who had committed the lion’s share of mathematical errors in his contract administration, but also the only Airman in the entire group who was smiling.
“Good afternoon, guys,” the Lieutenant said, only slightly suspicious, “what can I do for you?”
“Well, sir,” the mathematically challenged Airman continued, “it is 1500 on a Friday, and we are pretty much done with our work for the week.”
The Lieutenant nodded, although he was not entirely where this conversation was headed. So he waited for the Airmen to continue with their pitch.
“So… since the NCO’s are all out, we were wondering if we could cut out early?”
Now the Lieutenant found himself at a decision point. He knew that “no” was always a safe answer, but he did not necessarily want to be known as a leader who always took the safe route. On the other hand, at least two of the Airmen had issues with their contracts that they could fix now. If the NCO’s were gone, however, then the contracts were not going to be reviewed and signed until Monday at the earliest anyhow.
While the training he had received prior to earning his commission had been thorough, at this moment the training for this specific situation escaped him. In the interest of being viewed a firm but fair leader, the Lieutenant made his own decision.
After a few moments of reflection, the Lieutenant nodded slowly.
“Well work is pretty slow,” he rubbed the late afternoon stubble on his chin, “and since the NCO’s are gone, I do not see why not. As long as the flight gets cleaned up before you all leave.”
There was a flash of smiles among the Airmen, and they quickly set about vacuuming the office and taking out the trash. Within just a few minutes, the flurry of noise subsided and the Lieutenant found himself alone in the office, returning to his contract reviews on his desk.
He felt proud of himself, his first real “leadership” decision as the Officer in Charge of the flight. A decision that was firm, but fair he told himself. Excellent job, tip top. The Lieutenant queued up music on his computer, focused his attention on the contract reviews, striving to finish them before he went home for the weekend.
At just before four in the afternoon, as the Lieutenant was getting ready to start his last review, the NCO’s came back.
“Where is everyone?” The Senior Non-Commissioned Officer asked as soon as he opened the door. The other two NCO’s murmured their assurances that they did not know where the Airmen had gotten off to.
Shit. The Lieutenant’s heart leaped into his throat. While he outranked the three men who had just returned to the flight, the Lieutenant was keenly aware that he lacked anything resembling experience and very much required the buy-in and support from the NCO’s of the flight.
“I, uh, let them go home,” the Lieutenant said as he walked around his cubicle and met the NCO’s before they made their way back to their desks.
The three NCO’s shared a quick glance with each other, and then all stared blankly at the Lieutenant. An unspoken “why?” radiated from their stares, and despite not being asked directly, the Lieutenant found himself desperately needing to explain himself.
“Well, you know the work is, uh, slow today,” The Lieutenant found himself sweating more than normal, “and you guys were gone, so I decided I would send them home.”
The NCO’s shared another quick glance.
“They told you we went home, didn’t they?” the Senior NCO asked the Lieutenant.
“Uh, yeah, they did.” The Lieutenant responded sheepishly. He could feel himself turning red.
There was a moment of tense quiet, and then the Lieutenant was relieved to see the three NCO’s start grinning, and then laughing.
“Oh boy, Ell Tee, they got you good this time,” the youngest NCO chuckled, “We were at an NCO-only meeting.”
“Well I did wonder why you guys weren’t here,” the Lieutenant lied. That thought never even crossed his mind. “I just figured you guys left me here on my own.”
That seemed to make the NCO’s laugh even harder, as they made their way back to their desks, leaving the Lieutenant standing alone in the middle of the flight.
“Aw screw it,” the Senior NCO called from his desk, “Hey Ell Tee, can the NCO’s go home now too?”
The laughter among the NCO’s renewed, and the Lieutenant could not help but laugh at himself. He did notice that the NCO’s did not even stop to hear his response as they walked out the door, still chuckling.
Call it a wash, I guess, The Lieutenant figured as he dropped the contract files into his desk drawer before making his own way out of the building to start his weekend.