There is an old saying 'Never mess with the little people!' I get somewhat miffed when the leaders of companies think that the company is bigger than the people who work in it. The following comment is from a Chairman of a particular sports club who, after he unceremoniously and without warning dumped the coach of some 27 years and after the coach had made a comment in the press as to the method of his sacking: "I told him:'Don't destroy your own brand out of personal bitterness. In the end it will bite you and not the club. The club always survives. The institution survives and the individuals suffer.'"
The Chairman goes on to explain that the reason they had to move on the coach quickly was because another coach had become available and " ....we didn't want to be at the back of the queue."
Whereas I tend to agree with the sentiment that 'personal bitterness' is not a good weapon, the Chairman's implied arrogance that the institution is better than its individuals hits a raw nerve. No institution is better than or superior to the individuals that work within its walls (Just look at Communist Russia) and if its leaders think that it is - then they are horribly wrong and shouldn't be leading the organization.
So, I say - 'never mess with the little people' for they may be alot bigger than you think.
Finally, a quote that I came across which I hadn't heard before: 'It's just another splinter in the bum as you slide down the banister of life.' (Darren Beadman: record-making jockey after he was suspended for 7 days by stewards in the UK for excessive use of the whip on his horse at Ascot.) I wonder what his horse would say??
ian
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