There was a commotion in the far corner of our office suite.
Whispers, steadily building in excitement, drifted through the rows of cubicles.
Little snatches of conversation wafted across my desk, “I can’t believe they
did this,” and “we have to do something”, and, “there hasn’t been water in
there for months”. Just as I was about to get up and see what was going on the
entire data entry team, half of member services, one of the accountants, and
the CEOs EA rushed passed me with umbrellas, a mop, a broom, and several
trashcans. I got up and followed the business casual mob as they hustled out
the front door and made a beeline for the little park area that separated our
office building from the one next to it. They were all crowded around what used
to be a rather large, pond like fountain, but had been just an empty, fake rock
lined hole in the grass since the drought of 2018.
The group was standing there, excitedly pointing at the hole
while waving their chosen implements around. Kathy from accounting was lurking around
the back of the group, trying to keep her heels from sinking into the wet
grass, as I walked up to her and asked her what was going on. That was a
mistake, Kathy was great with numbers, but words tended to compound exponentially when she was speaking..
“Oh, Roberta” she said, surprised to see me there, “well,
you see, this morning Data Entry had their bi-weekly huddle, only Shari was running
late, because of the rain. You see she doesn’t like to drive in the rain, so
she gets her husband to drive her in, but her husband… oh wait, I’m getting off
track, anyway, so by the time Shari got here everyone was already in the
meeting . She went to her desk to drop off her umbrella and rain coat before
going into the meeting, then she just happened to look up, and that’s when she saw
them.”
“Saw what?” I asked, but Kathy didn’t get a chance to
answer, because that is when I saw them, “OHMYGOSHBABYDUCKS!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, they're trapped in the pond, without water they have no
way to get back out.” She replied as she shifted her feet to unstick herself
from the grass again.
“Okay team, lets do this” the CEO’s EA exclaimed as my
co-workers poured into the empty pond and began to heard six small, fuzzy little
yellow poofs of quacky cuteness. Armed with our makeshift herding implements,
one by one, we scooped up each duck in a trashcan and deposit them on the bank,
close to their wary, worried mama. Finally, after about 20 minutes, we finished
entertaining everyone who’s offices looked out on the park, and mama duck was
hustling her ducklings to a nearby bush, we congratulated each other for a job
well done and returned back to our desks. It was by far the best teambuilding exercise
I’ve every participated in.
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