Wolves and Rabbits

        Wincing at a thought wanting to come to her lips, the refrain was unbearable. What will make this diatribe stop? It does not appear that anyone wants to come to any closure and the whole gamut is predicated on one change in the document. Only one, not an entire paragraph or a couple of sentences, a notation concerning the right standard to reference for this new drawing that engineering seems to have created completely backward from their original version. Biting hard on her lip, it was going to come forward anyway, no sense in bleeding over it. She could hear the voice between her ears screaming, “Get on with it, speak up!”

              “Why don’t we just accept that this is the best we can do with what we have right now? It’s the customer’s direction to keep this standard in order to remain flight ready, right? I mean, they want this lower revision, not the newest, because of the flight requirements?”, she stammered out weakly to the engineers who were deep in their froth over the changes the customer asked for at the last minute. The senior lead looked up from his bench, as if an inspector had any right to ask any kind of question to the best staff in the company?  A sneer curled at the corners of his mouth. Wolves do this when they are ready to take a rabbit from its hiding place and he was ready to have the inspector next on the proverbial dinner plate.

              “Why don’t you explain this to someone who might be able to justify your findings? They want the flight standard but we have to maintain the current standard. Go inspect something that is more important, like your nails or your shopping list!”, he barked out to her so she would leave and not keep pressing for a compromise. “Who do you think you are? Are you that nitwit from legal who keeps tabs on the changes we make, because we know what needs to happen for this project? We don’t need you reading the notes, we want you to give us the numbers that make it acceptable for us to ship the product out!”

              “Reading the notes is a part of my job sir, you know this as well as I do.” She felt her stomach flip, the wolf was going to move in for the kill because she dared to stick her neck out and challenge the system. This wasn’t going to pan out well but she couldn’t hold it back any longer. She represented the company’s best interest, even if it meant shoving a couple good old boys off their rockers and off the porch they were parked on too. The wolf might get the rabbit but it wasn’t going to be easy to do. A strategy began to develop in her mind, as the staff slowed their arguing and saw she was going to stand up for herself. It was win, lose, or draw in her head. She was compelled to inspect according to the notes as much as she had to validate the dimensions and the product as it was built and designed. If it says to do something in a manner that is drawn and shown on the sketch, that is what she follows, notes and all information as supplied by engineering.

              “If the customer says they want the flight standard, you cannot remove it, because it no longer complies with your product. If the customer wants the lower revision and the contract reflects their intention, I have to ensure that the drawing reflects exactly that agreement and it is dimensionally sound. This isn’t some pansy paralegal crap you want to think I am pressing on your project; this is the quality assurance the company expects me to uphold, inspect, and ensure that when I stamp it off, it is compliant to us and the customer contract.”

              The stare down between her and the senior lead was incredulous! She could not believe that this was boiling down to a grade school challenge and her own superiors were not backing her up. The wolf and the rabbit were now locked in mortal combat. She wasn’t about to accept that this was the best that they could do with what they had right now. There was better to be had and she knew they could do it. She had to enforce the rule and they were not about to comply, even if it meant seeing who would blink first.

Masculine stubbornness met its match in her fierce feminine stance. Nails and shopping lists didn’t scare her; in fact, it was a ridiculous annoyance for her for years. These old men and their engineering fantasies have always had, in the flight profession culture, a need to force a woman back into skirts and coffee making. Her steel toed boots, butch burr haircut, tie dyed t-shirt, and Levi jeans, couldn’t belie the fact that the curves she had were ones the boys couldn’t handle, especially when she wasn’t going to give them what they wanted, sexist or standard call out. This was going to come down to a win for the preeminent patriarchy or she was going to have to face damning defeat because she is a woman.

As much as she wanted to quit and let this just fall prey to the wolves, let the rabbit be consumed by the desire to push something out for their gratification, it was not going to happen. Her name is on the paperwork and she was not going to be unemployed for their sake. The girl was turning into the wolf and the old men were starting to see they were now the rabbit. The lack of capitulation from her and her denial for understanding them was not waning and they were not going to get back on the porch to the comfort of their rockers either. The inspector was in charge and there was little to be done to change her mind. The senior lead looked at his superior and muttered, “Why don’t we just accept that this is the best we can do with what we have right now?”

The superior walked a tight circle around the bench where the product was sitting like a crown jewel to be placed on the king’s head. Fourteen million dollars was stuck on the technician’s mat, by a thirty dollar an hour hack from a group that for years the superior could mold like putty to respond to him and move the product out for the payment, to save the program and the company quarter. Her own people are not even in the room to support her and they seem to have vanished from the building. Who was she to tell them what to do according to his own drawing? He picked up the drawing beside the product and looked at the note in question that had been bantered and beaten into full submission but not yet done for the sake of the shipment. As he was about to take down the rabbit, he suddenly saw the departure from the previous revision from the sketch. Now it was clear that this amazing engineering feat was her feast and he was no longer in charge.

The room became still, waiting for his final approval, but the superior did not respond. The look in his eyes confirmed what the rest of the old men knew, the rabbit was indeed the wolf and there was no longer a question as to her victory over the ancient school of domineering engineering dudes. The superior took out a red pen, marked the drawing at the notation causing the concern, and flagged over the stockroom personnel to take the product. He then looked at the inspector and before she could enjoy the moment that she had triumphantly enforced the rule, he threw the drawing he just marked into the crate as the team drilled the lid shut. He turned to her as said, “They will have the red-line on the drawing but my sketch does not change because we are going to build another one of these on the next contract. Why don’t we just accept that this is the best we can do with what we have right now?” 

He tossed the red pen onto the mat, while the senior lead leered at her and giggled evilly at the superior’s panache, turned and left the room. She stood there in the silence, eyes on the crate while quietly marking in her notes the completion of the product, then she signed off the project for shipment as she stepped out the room. The senior lead was confused. “Why didn’t you stamp it? It can’t leave until you stamp the traveler for it off and I can turn it in to the document group for filing!”

She smiled as looked at the rabbit now begging for mercy in her wolfish gaze. “He gave them the red-line without the document being updated by the document group. You are now sending out a product that was pushed by engineering for shipment. Please see my lead for his stamp. This is the best I can do with what you have right now. I’ll see you Monday, Carl.”

She tossed the red pen onto the crate as the shipping team loaded it up onto the last outbound truck for the day. Carl stood there in silence, eyes on the crate as the door of the truck rolled shut. The traveler sat on the mat where the product was less than two minutes ago. He bit his lip and picked up the papers, no sense in bleeding over it.