The manager of a large corporation had a heart attack, and the doctor told him to go for several weeks to a farm to relax.
The guy went to a farm, and after a couple of days, he was very bored, so he asked the farmer to give him a job to do.
The farmer told him to clean up all of the cow manure. The farmer thought that for somebody coming from the city, working the whole life sitting in an office, it would take over a week to finish the job, but to his surprise, the manager finished the job in less than one day.
The next day, the farmer gave the manager a more difficult job: to cut the heads of 500 chickens. The farmer was sure that the manager would not be able to do the job, but at the end of the day, the job was done.
The next morning, as most of the jobs in the farm were done, the farmer asked the manager to divide a bag of potatoes into two boxes: one box with small potatoes and one box with big potatoes.
At the end of the day, the farmer saw that the manager was sitting in front of the potato bag, but the two boxes were empty.
The farmer asked the manager, “How is it that you made such difficult jobs during the first days, and now you cannot do this simple job?”
The manager answered: “Listen, all my life I’m cutting heads and dealing with crap, but now you ask me to make decisions!”
A new manager spends a week at his new office with the manager he is replacing.
On the last day, the departing manager tells him, “I have left three numbered envelopes in the desk drawer. Open an envelope if you encounter a crisis you can’t solve.”
Three months down the track, there is major drama, everything goes wrong – the usual stuff – and the manager feels very threatened by it all.
He remembers the parting words of his predecessor and opens the first envelope. The message inside says, “Blame your predecessor!”
He does this and gets off the hook.
About half a year later, the company is experiencing a dip in sales, combined with serious product problems.
The manager quickly opens the second envelope. The message read, “Reorganize!”
This he does, and the company quickly rebounds.
Three months later, at his next crisis, he opens the third envelope.
The message inside says, “Prepare three envelopes…”
