First off, I wanna put a trigger warning on mine for suicide.

So, I wrote up a thing about how the reaper world functions and specifics on William's life over in this post. It's from forever ago, and it's gotten tweaked a bit over the years, but it's my basic go to for William's back story.

All that being said, my William is a very depressed man who dislikes himself very much. He's never let anyone else know about the details of his mortal life and does his best to keep any emotions regarding it to himself. Hence why he comes off as such a stoic, stuffy and work obsessed man. In actuality, he does care for his coworkers, even though they infuriate him with their careless behaviour. If he wanted to, he could always have them transferred or let their carelessness get the better of them and not interject when situations become a life or death matter. It is less about not having enough help in the department and more so that these are the only individuals he has close to him in his life anymore and does not want to lose them. Of course, he will never admit to any of this willingly.

Random other bits:
-Regarding the pigeon thing, William is not obsessed with the birds. But he does have more respect for them as workers than he does most of his subordinates.
-He has a bit of a sweet tooth for Teddy Grahams chocolate chip cookies.
-Every reaper is required to take an annual evaluation that ultimately determines whether or not they remain a reaper or pass on. William has nearly passed each time, but never quite gets there.