24: Middle Management (1/1)
Jun. 3rd, 2007 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
knitwitficsFandom: 24
Characters: Ryan Chappelle
Rating: PG
Summary: The plight of the middle manager.
Challenges: Written forfanfic100 in the 24 - General Series category, prompt #2 - Middles.
Originally written: October 17, 2005
Characters: Ryan Chappelle
Rating: PG
Summary: The plight of the middle manager.
Challenges: Written for
fanfic100 in the 24 - General Series category, prompt #2 - Middles.Originally written: October 17, 2005
There were times when Ryan felt more like a parent than a supervisor toward his employees. Not in the touchy-feely, "best-friend-and-mentor" kind of way. In the "what-do-you-think-you’re-doing-go-to-yo
Like he didn’t already have three children of his own. Like he needed sixty more.
But not only was he a parent in that sense, he had his own parents--District, who, like his own father, was more than willing to jump in with criticism, in a "if those were my kids, they wouldn’t dare act up" sense. Said, of course, with all the assurance of someone with no direct control, who didn’t have to deal with those kids day in and day out.
And along with that frustrated parent feeling, CTU-LA gives it right back, in true surly-teenager style. The kind of way where they’ll do anything other than what he tells them to, just because he told them. It was like they were all sixteen and angry at their Dad because he wouldn’t let them have the car on the weekend, or deciding they were going to become a Communist because it went against everything their Dad stood for.
Naturally, the fact that they were sometimes--often--right only made it that much worse.
Bitching from District about keeping CTU on a tighter leash, bitching from CTU about his 'interfering'. He just couldn’t win. No wonder he was losing his hair.
The plight of the middle manager, to deal with the hassle from both ends. Sometimes the cutthroat world of Wall Street didn’t look so bad anymore.
Like he didn’t already have three children of his own. Like he needed sixty more.
But not only was he a parent in that sense, he had his own parents--District, who, like his own father, was more than willing to jump in with criticism, in a "if those were my kids, they wouldn’t dare act up" sense. Said, of course, with all the assurance of someone with no direct control, who didn’t have to deal with those kids day in and day out.
And along with that frustrated parent feeling, CTU-LA gives it right back, in true surly-teenager style. The kind of way where they’ll do anything other than what he tells them to, just because he told them. It was like they were all sixteen and angry at their Dad because he wouldn’t let them have the car on the weekend, or deciding they were going to become a Communist because it went against everything their Dad stood for.
Naturally, the fact that they were sometimes--often--right only made it that much worse.
Bitching from District about keeping CTU on a tighter leash, bitching from CTU about his 'interfering'. He just couldn’t win. No wonder he was losing his hair.
The plight of the middle manager, to deal with the hassle from both ends. Sometimes the cutthroat world of Wall Street didn’t look so bad anymore.
