A Stunning Upset

In an entirely unexpected and completely stunning upset today, Liz, a non-flashy but apparently extremely competent level-1 manager catapulted over all four level-2 managers to win the title of Bureau Chief. She is now the head of all of us in the Air Quality Bureau.

The global email was greeted first with an astounded silence, followed quickly by muted gasps and even quieter hurrah’s. As beloved as Liz is, all of us still work for the four spurned level-2 managers. So we celebrated very quietly. Delight was discreetly masked by quick glances and heads kept down.

One female level-1 manager wept quietly in sheer relief, as if our entire global Trumpian disaster had been rectified by one insignificant promotion within one rural state’s environment department. Unfortunately, the anti-Trumpian triumph wasn’t on the global scale, but the analogy stands – the level-2 who had been favored for the position is an aging authoritarian white male with no love for the environment. And Liz, our darling Liz; fair, earnest, caring, relatively young and completely without pretense – Liz, will you save our country as well as our Bureau? Liz for president!

How will the four take it? Will they retire? Will they contentedly work for Liz, who until today worked for one of them? And how did Liz manage such a coup? Was it ageism, or is she really that good?