Willy Loc: Alaska

Hope you all enjoy this. I sure do. It is SO true!

A Story We Can All Relate To:
Start with a cage containing five monkeys. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when any monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.
Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again, replace a third original monkey with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four monkeys that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.
After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, all of the monkeys, which have been sprayed with cold water, have been replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs. Why not? Because that’s the way it’s always been around here. And that’s how company policy begins...

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

Hey Doc .....

SpeedyWilson Loc: Upstate South Carolina

Moral of the story ... don't hang out with monkeys at work.

Bangee5 Loc: Louisiana

That was a good story Willy but I am not sure what your point is. I am not a monkey. I was a new truck driver at this company. After my first trip out the older drivers told me that I made the trip too quick, that the trip I just came back from was an eight hour trip - I had made it in three hours. I ask why? They said that that was the way they did it. I again ask why? More money they said. What am I to do with all that extra time I ask? What ever they say.
Needless to say, I did it my way. Two trips to their one trip. Why? Because, I am no monkey!

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

Hey Doc ..... perhaps the other drivers are making a monkey out of your boss .....

Bangee5 Loc: Louisiana

Maybe hauling sheep on the side and using the wool to cover his eyes. It got to the point of sending drivers home early because of the cost in overtime. This really happen.

RixPix Loc: Miami, Florida

Integrity and ethics are two of the most important aspects of character that one can have. Stick with them and you may be bruised but unbowed.

rayford2 Loc: New Bethlehem, PA

I hope you're not working in a union shop.

Millismote Loc: Massachusetts

You mean like the union they had at the twinkies factory.

hamtrack Loc: Omaha NE

This is the basis for Army Basic Training and it works everytime.I am 80 years young and my serial number was US55389511 and I can still recite the general orders.

time and place Loc: Oly Penn, WA.

It is this kind of exercise that results in the great religions of the world,........................... and governments.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I used to work for the phone company (union company CWA). I was new and worked circles around all the other people that had 5 years of seniority. I worked in the central office installing new digital phone switching equipment back when phone companies were going digital. We installed 11 foot tall relay racks, ran cables, power etc. I learned from the ground up. After a few years the boss asked me to do the more technical related work and less physical work. The people with more seniority complained that they didn't get the less physical job, and a guy with less seniority did. They pulled pranks on me because they thought that I made them look bad because I did my job and didn't slow to their pace. The other union members hated and despised me. My boss had to put me on loan to another area where I didn't have the reputation of making the other workers look lazy and of being a brown nose. I got through it, but not before being humiliated with little cartoon images with my name being taped up for all to see, confetti all over my desk and drawers, tools stolen, car vandalized, etc. Sometimes you have to find a middle ground. I don't think I'd do it any differently today if I had a chance to do it over.

hamtrack Loc: Omaha NE

Well, this is what we have become. A nation that rewards slakers and lay abouts and punishes those seemingly few that still enjoy their jobs and work accordingly.

TchrBill Loc: Houston, TX

Actually, I think some of you folks are missing the point of this story. I have heard the same story worded slightly differently but, the point is the same. If you have ever been the new person in any organization, work or not, and had someone explain a process or procedure to you as to how certain tasks are accomplished, and you had the audacity to ask why it is done that way, the response most often heard is, “That’s the way we do it around here.” It doesn’t necessarily have to relate to slackers being exposed. Often fresh eyes, unbiased by history, can see through the fog and suggest alternative methods. The problem is, often no one wants to listen.

By the way, I agree with the comments about the slackers. Years ago I had friends who worked in a GM parts/assembly plant and they were given quotas. They soon learned to meet their quotas but not regularly exceed them because, if they did, the quotas were increased. So, some of these guys would meet their quota in 4-5 hours and sit around for the rest of the shift. It pissed me off but, the unions seemed to encourage that behavior. Unions are great aren’t they?

Tarzan Loc: Brazil

Oh my army days... I long for them. Some hard training plus some fun and laugh, and, last but not least, I was young!
But, to the matter. We privates were learning to disassemble-reassemble a rather complicated piece of ordnance, a Madsen machinegun. I figured a way of reassembling the thing that was faster, and asked the instructor, a second leutenant, what he thought about.
He told me harshly to stick to his method, and when I asked why...
"Because I'm a leutenant, and you are a private."
He had a point...