Company X had a slogan that reflected doing the moral and ethical thing.
Like all good corporations Company X believed in profits, growth, client and customer satisfaction, and providing jobs to very qualified individuals.
Company X had a Board of Directors, A CEO, Vice Presidents, upper, middle, lower management, and the common line employees in their various functions.
The company bus was rolling along the American Economic Highway. It had been smooth sailing from the start, very few bumps in the road, relatively smooth terrain, and very few problems to worry about.
Then one of the drivers decided he didn't like the way his bus in the convoy was running. So he opened the floorboard and threw an employee under the bus. Kathump went the wheels of the bus over the unnamed person. It was nobody significant, and the driver of the bus said that it was necessary to throw one employee under the bus for the good of the whole.
The driver then decided to rearrange the order of the passengers of the bus. He took employees from the back and put them in the middle, middle employees to the front, front to back and so forth. He created several new areas within the bus to to help the functions of the bus run smoother.
With so many new arrangements the driver again had the floor boards opened up and threw another three bodies under the bus. Nobody really notice or much cared. It wasn't them and they were thankful for that. The bus driver pulled into a large vehicle wash to get the blood and debris off the company bus. The bus had a brand and could not be seen driving around with the blood and guts of those thrown under. It wasn't good for morale anyway.
Once the bus was underway and one more person got thrown under, the bus driver looked among his bus staff and found several people he would make micro managers. To oversee the micro managers would be managers, an associate director then the driver at the top. There was always a need to be ready to throw someone under the bus so the bus driver made the human resources job to throw unwanted or unneeded people under the bus.
When someone would ask the driver to give them a raise he said "no" or made an excuse. He would make silly rules to save a dime. Some of his very first passengers had been loyal to him from day one, but the only way they could get a raise is to install glass ceilings in the bus and take on a lot of responsibility. So the loyal minions that were most likable were promoted to micro manager.
There was one micro manager who had great thoughts and ideas and they helped the Company X bottom line. So they borrowed his ideas and utilized them. He was a good micro manager, but hated doing too much micromanaging. The driver did not like this neo micromanaging style and so he called a meeting of the management minions. He told them he had gone to a bus line owner convention, come up with new ways of doing things. The micro manager he cared about least was thrown under the bus. But he was asked to hang on for dear life, because they may need to yell under the bus to get more ideas.
Now he was just another passenger, but now under the bus, and was asked to be loyal for the good of the Company X brand.
Not being stupid he let go, let the wheels roll over him and found himself alongside the road. Fearing they might loose intellectual property or the man's brain, nobody knows for sure, they U turned only to find the spot where he let go there was no corporate road kill. Just a skid mark and a note that said "I dodged the wheels and I am not telling you how I did it."
The driver tried in vain as more minions got passed the micro managers went out the windows, the emergency exit, or the front side door to jump to other buses and trucks on the American Economic Highway. Even the bus Attorney tried to sue some to no success for violation of a no compete clause, but all in vain.
Finally in time a call came in from corporate dispatch at Company X. The driver was hauled out of his seat, put under the floorboard, and crunched under the bus. Seems the ethics monster had caught up with Driver Robespierre. In the end he was expendable too.
The bus is still rolling and making money, but has lost much intellectual talent due to its policies of treating employees. Because only the employees could make the company money and Company X had thrown out all those expendable minions.
So is the ethics and values of Company X. No longer a major player, but a minor one, because they did not observe one simple principle. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
