Deer in the Works

"Deer in the Works" is a short story first published in Esquire in April 1955 and reprinted in the collections Canary in a Cat House in 1961, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968, and Complete Stories in 2017. It was Vonnegut's only short story for that magazine, although he would later contribute other non-fiction work.

Summary

David Potter has waited four hours to ask about employment for writers at the Ilium Works of the Federal Apparatus Corporation. He has owned a small newspaper in the nearby town of Dorset for eight years, but with his wife giving birth to their second set of twins, he is looking for more financial stability. He meets with Mr. Dilling, a man about his own age of 29, who seems sympathetic to David's family concerns and secures him a position in the publicity department. Excited, he calls his wife Nan, who is skeptical since she doesn't think the job will satisfy him and he's never worked for a boss before. David replies that not only is the pay certain, there is coverage for medical care, discounted life insurance, two weeks of vacation, country club membership, and a pension after twenty five years. Many of the other employees are his age but have already put in nearly a decade of service. Nan is concerned that David felt "panicked" into the job and gets him to agree to wait at least a month before he sells the paper to his assistant, Ed Jason.

A male white-tailed deer

Confused in the huge Works complex, David is walked to his new office by a retiree with fifty years of service who is visiting to deal with his pension. His boss, Mr. Flammer, is also about David's age and explains the "rating-sheet system" which determines raises and promotions: every six months, three anonymous co-workers will evaluate him on "appearance, loyalty, promptness, initiative, cooperativeness," and he will do likewise. David instinctively resents this, but tells himself he must learning to start thinking as part of an efficient team. Having heard from Dilling that Flammer also once had a small newspaper, David asks about it, only to find Flammer quickly became cynical and sold it to a chain before he joined the company. The phone rings and David is sent on his first assignment about a deer that has gotten onto the Works. Already flustered, he confuses his directions and gets lost. After passing through deafening workshops and a sales showcase for crystallographers, he accidentally finds himself at the softball field where the deer has run. Flammer arrives with the photographer, impressed that David is already there, just as the wounded deer is chased out by armed security. The company plans to serve the deer meat at a celebration for people who have been at the company for a quarter of a century. David opens a gate to the woods behind the Works, freeing the deer, and then follows it out himself.

Adaptations

A 25-minute short, also titled Deer in the Works, was released in 1980 starring Dennis Dugan, Bob Basso, Gordon Jump, Richard Kline, and Bill Walker. It was directed by Ron Underwood with a screenplay by Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson.