A friend called from Chicago to vent.
“I have been working on a PowerPoint presentation for executive management for two weeks. The Vice President for the company sits ten (10) feet from me, but will not talk to me because I am just a Senior Manager. Instead, the Vice President will only accept email from his Director, who works at the regional office in San Francisco, California.
After reviewing the presentation, the Vice President sends the slide deck to his Director in San Francisco. The Director in San Francisco reviews it. However, since he is a Director and feels the work is beneath him, he refuses to change anything and forwards the slide deck to me.
I review the slide deck. Only three words require changing.
I make the changes and send the slide deck back to the Director in San Francisco. The Director reviews and forwards the slide deck back to the Vice President in Chicago.
After an hour, the Vice President decides he wants to change another slide and inserts a “comment” into the slide on page six (6) and returns the slide deck back to the Director in San Francisco. The Director reviews his request, makes no changes and returns the slide deck to me in Chicago.
I review the requested changes. Only two additional two words.
I then return the slide deck to the Director in San Francisco, who in turn, returns the slide deck to the Vice President in Chicago.
Now, wouldn’t this have been easier if the Vice President just came out of the office, walked ten (10) feet to my desk and requested the change?”
“Pretty funny,” I stated.
“Well, I hate it,” he replied. “I would rather sit and do nothing.”
“Really?”
“Really!” he said.
I concluded with the following parable.
A crow sat on a tree and did nothing all day.
A rabbit noticed this and asked the crow, “Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?”
The crow answered: “Sure, why not?”
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested.
Shortly after beginning, a fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.
Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, better sit very high up. In other words, rank has privileges.