The little ant came to work very early every day and immediately started to work. She was very diligent, accomplished a lot and was happy doing it.
Her boss, a lion, was surprised that the ant worked so well without supervision. He thought that if she could do so much without supervision, then surely she could do much more with supervision. So he hired a cockroach who had experience as a supervisor.
The first thing the cockroach did was set up a time clock. Then she needed a secretary to help her write the reports. She hired a spider to do the archives and monitor the phones.
The lion was delighted with the cockroach’s reports, and he asked her to create graphs with production charts and analyze trends so he could present them at meetings with management.
So the cockroach bought a new computer and a laser printer and hired a fly to manage the information technology department.
The ant, once so productive and happy, hated those reams of paperwork she had to fill out every day and the many meetings that kept her from working.
The lion concluded that it was high time to hire a supervisor for the department where the ant worked.
The choice fell on a cricket, who first bought a new carpet and an ergonomic chair for her office. She also needed a computer and a personal assistant to help her create the budget and an optimization plan.
The department where Ant worked was now a sad place. No one laughed anymore, and with all the checks and reports, hardly anyone got to work.
The Lion was told that according to the statistics, the Ant’s department was not as productive as it used to be. So the lion called the owl, an accredited appraiser, to find a solution to the problem. The owl spent three months in the department and submitted a long report at the end. In summary, the owl said, “The department is overstaffed!”
And who did the lion fire first? The ant, of course, because she was unmotivated and had a negative attitude.
