It wasn’t actually a party. The last time I worked at the
company, Don rented a suite at a local hotel every year and we’d have a real party.
Bob and his wife brought their instruments and played while we all danced and sang
Christmas carols. After I retired, the company lost so
many employees that Don stopped holding annual Christmas parties. Yesterday’s
party was just dinner at a restaurant, and only for the employees, not their families.
Not even Don’s wife was there.
Sitting at the table, I became aware of how much the company’s
group dynamic has changed because of Nick.
Most of the employees who are gone now had been around Bob’s
age, and the new hires are all Nick’s age. He and the women sat at my end of
the table, giggling together, while I sat silent.
I asked myself if I was jealous, but decided that isn't the
case. It’s true I used to be the focus of the group, but only in a negative sense, as the eye is the focus of the hurricane. Petty quarrels
swirled around me, but I refused to be drawn into them. I thought of myself as the only real
adult in the room. Nick has made himself the focus
of the group by being the most childish adult in the room.
He babbles constantly about his favorite comic book heroes,
video games, and the pranks he and his 'buddies' play on each other. He doesn’t
do this with the other men in the office.
His audience is the women, who laugh indulgently as they probably do at
the antics of their children (The women are all married, with small children).
I might find Nick as amusing as the women do if I didn’t
have to work with him. But even Bob, who never says a critical
word about anyone, told me Nick is ‘erratic’ and ‘disorganized’.
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