The Chicken Ladder

As we pursue our careers, we often have to take flack from above. After retiring, I have concluded that no matter high up the ladder one gets, there will always be some flack coming down from above. Here’s the story.

The Chicken Ladder

.

When I was a young engineer with Phillips Petroleum Company, I was sitting in Sherman Plant office near Guymon, Oklahoma. I was meeting with the Plant Manager when the Area Superintendent walked in and heard what we were talking about. He jumped right in the middle of me and said…What are you working on that for, that’s related to safety and Engineering has no business working in that area. He gnawed on my ass for about ten minutes and finally let me talk. I explained that the Plant Manager had requested my help and I was doing my best to comply the request. He apologized after making me feel like a low life and left. When I got back to our office in Borger, I met with my boss Wayne and his boss Everett and explained what had happened. In that meeting, Everett came up with a little advice which didn’t help much, but I have remembered all this time. He said….”Bill, your career with Phillips will be like a vertical chicken ladder roost. The higher up the ladder you get, the less shit you will get from above. So strive for excellence in everything you do, and soon you will be at the top of the ladder. Then you will never have to take any crap from above.” I really didn’t see how this helped my situation much, but it did stick with me all of these years. I thought it was appropriate for graduating high school students, so I have often sent it as a message in the gift card for the graduate.

 

OK, let’s give some crap to those rookies below us to show them who’s the boss.

 

Later in my career, I was working in the Bartlesville office and I received notification that Phillips original 40 year contract for selling LNG ( Liquefied Natural Gas ) from our Alaskan LNG Plant to the Japanese was expiring in two years. We had drafted a scope of work and selected a major reputable contractor to complete a Reliability Study independent of Phillips. My boss Phil and I were on our way up to Alaska to meet and kick off the contractor. The Vice President we were working for said the corporate jet was going up to Anchorage on the day we were going up, so he booked us on that. I was real excited about getting to ride on the Corporate Jet.

 

I once thought that those who get to ride on the Corporate Jet were in for a much more comfortable ride than a ride on the commercial airline. It turned out to be a function of how many people on the ride out rank you.

 

 

I was the first one to the Corporate Jet so I took the first seat I came to and the pilot told me…”You can’t sit there, that’s the CEO’s seat” So I moved back a couple of rows of seats and the Pilot said…”you can’t sit there either, you are the lowest ranking employee aboard today. You’ll be on that bench in the back.” Well that just burst my bubble. It was the most uncomfortable plane ride I have ever taken. I wondered what all the executives were doing on the plane that day. It turned out they were headed to Alaska for their annual Salmon fishing trip. I thought about it for a while and I remembered the chicken ladder story. I had been working for Phillips 25 years and I was still on the lower rung of the chicken ladder roost that day on the plane. On the trip home, I flew first class on a commercial airline and had a very comfortable ride. I decided I would never ride the Corporate Jet again. ( unless forced to )

Then I thought about it some more and decided even the CEO has to take flack from the Board of Directors and the governing offices regulating the oil industry. Let’s face it, we will all have to take some shit from above all the rest of our lives. We might as well grin and bear it.

Let’s all grin and bear it. Even President Obama ( highest  ranking Job in the USA ) is catching a lot of flack in recent years.

Thanks for reading The Chicken Ladder,

Bill