#193: The lobsters holding you back

Do you have lobsters on your team? For your sake, I hope not.

A couple of weeks ago I suggested that you must fill your position if you want to keep it and more than fill it if you want to be promoted.

A listener responded with this tale of woe. He worked in union shops where if you even got close to filling your position, you would be told to slack off. As he put it, ‘it’s a real morale killer’.

That reminded me of a fisherman’s tale from my youth. A fisherman, walking along with a bucket of lobsters, is stopped by a friend. The friend asks if the lobsters won’t escape by climbing out of the bucket. ‘No’, replies the fisherman, ‘You know what lobsters are like. When one gets near the top, the others pull him back down’.

Now you know why those climbing the corporate ladder often behave badly. Sometimes that’s the only way to kick free of the lobsters holding you back.



I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2008 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am