Every morning a small and simple ant arrived at work very early. Without wasting any time it started its work immediately. It produced a lot and was very happy about its contribution to its company. The chief of the company, a lion, was surprised to see that the ant was working without supervision. The lion thought to himself, “If the ant can produce so much without supervision, wouldn’t he produce more if had a supervisor?” So the lion recruited a cockroach which had “extensive experience” as a supervisor and who was “famous” for writing excellent reports.
The cockroach’s first and foremost decision was to setup a clocking attendance system. After all he needed to track the sole employee of the company, an ant, who arrived to work before anybody else did! Next he needed a secretary to help him write and type his reports. And last but not the least the cockroach also recruited a spider, which managed the archives and monitored phone calls. After all, the cockroach needed to see where the ant whiled away its time.
The lion was delighted with the cockroach’s reports and asked him to produce graphs to describe production rates and to analyze trends, so that he could use them for presentations at Board meetings. Now the cockroach had to buy a new computer and a laser printer to produce trendy reports. Not only that, he recruited a fly to manage the IT (Information Technology) Department.
The ant which had once been so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings which used up most of its time.
The chief aka, the lion, came to the conclusion that it was high time to nominate a person in-charge of the department where the ant worked. A cicada was recruited for this position, whose first decision was to buy a carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office. He also needed a computer and a PA (Personal Assistant). So he brought them over from his previous department. They would increase productivity and the bottom line by helping him to prepare a “Work and Budget Control Strategic Optimization Plan”. Around this time, the cicada convinced the lion, of the absolute necessity to start a “Climatic study of the environment”!
The “department” where the ant works is now a sad place where nobody laughs anymore and everybody has become upset.
The chief, the lion, reviewed the charges for running the ant’s department and found out that the production was much less than before. So he recruited an owl, who was a prestigious and renowned consultant, to carry out an audit and suggest solutions. The owl spent three months and came up with an enormous report, in several volumes that concluded, “The department is overstaffed.”
Guess, who the lion fired first? The ant, of course! Because it showed “Lack of motivation and had a negative attitude”.
MORAL I – Often the CEOs walk away with fat severance packages to the tune of millions of dollars. But the common man on the lowest echelon of the value chain and whose blood and sweat runs the company, is simply handed a pink slip!
MORAL II – ‘Keep it Simple’. If a worker is self-motivated and happy at work, there is no value in complicating the system… it only adds cost and results in demotivation.
Editor-in-Chief’s note: I look forward to receiving your contributions in form of such management stories. Please ensure that there is no copyright attached to them.
[Reference(s): Adapted from a Portuguese story by PR. Obrigado Mario]
