The Managers Must Be Crazy - Final part

9.???Poseidon -?Damages of rivalry

Recruitment and selection weren’t at their heights, when Zeus, the CEO drew lots to decide who would lead the Olympus Holding’s Division of the Seas and the Underworld. The short list showed Hades and Poseidon who both were his brothers, Poseidon wanted to bother Hades so much that he didn't even care what department he would get. He just focused on pretending to get what he had always wanted. When he finally became the leader of the seas, his ambition immediately targeted the number one position. He attended once in a blue moon in his office. Cynically he always kept on humming the lyric ‘I’d like to be, under the sea’ meanwhile he tried to spend as much time at the headquarters as he could, watching for the great opportunity to replace his superior. Due to the absence of any control, whirlpools, storms and tsunamis started to rule the seas in the meantime. The effects coming from Poseidon’s negligence are perceptible since then.

Gods save us from an ambitious manager who doesn't consider his current position satisfactory enough!

10.???Demeter - Creating the unfair performance appraisal system

One of the greatest things is when people outdo themselves. By contrast, it is one of the most shameful things when managers can't grow up to their position.?

Demeter was the director of the Agricultural Business Unit, carrying out her tasks well and reliably. As a relatively good communicator, she presented the introduction of months unsuitable for farming as a thought-out decision. It was a clever move, since it was actually a forced solution. Namely, Persephone the indispensable expert responsible for crops had an expat contract with the underworld for 4 months a year. During this time, suitable working conditions could not be provided for her subordinates, who were pretty understanding.

Sometimes leaders make decisions for only the decision itself. That is, they definitely want to fix something which is perfectly working. In other cases, they make a decision just because they want to get into the limelight.?

This was somehow the case with Demeter, who wanted to put her name in history by a dramatic decision. Her son, Plutus aspired to the position of the Head of the HR Department. The ambition had a basis, since he had a so-called ‘cornucopia’, by which he could provide unlimited resources to anyone. He rightly felt that it was the high time to set up a fantastic performance appraisal system. Based on evaluation, managers always would have been able to give benefits to those who deserve it the most. Demeter could not suffer such a promising project to be realized without her. She simply put out Plutus' eyes so that he could no longer see who was needy and who was undeserving. This action really made Demeter famous in a bad way and the effect of the horrific decision is still alive: Distribution of goods is often not done according to merit.

Limelight, fame, history, whatever, a bad decision remains a bad decision forever even if there is concept or conviction behind it.

11.???Apollo – Bad delegating might be tragic

It should go without a single note that Apollo was a petty and vain leader, as this could be said about almost all of his colleagues. Now there is one more general characteristic have to be mentioned: Humour. I mean the lack of it, which was also true not only for Apollo, but for almost all members of the Olympus Holding management. Simply and solely, they had absolutely no sense of humour.?

Those who have a good sense of humour know everything, however those who don't have it, they are up to do anything with no inhibition.

The latter made these figures truly terrifying, and among many other duties, even the music industry was entrusted to one of these chaps like that! At the first Euro-non-vision Song Contest, Apollo defeated Marsyas, who was an acclaimed panpipe pop star at his time. How? By cheating of course! Amidst of the musical duel, Apollo suddenly turned his stringed lyre upside down and continued the solo this way. The poor goat-footed satyr could no longer follow the unexpected impromptu and failed. It was a bit like Jimi Hendrix expecting a right-handed guitarist to follow his special mouth riffs. Having this questionable victory, Apollo brutally murdered his competitor. Never hit the music world such a shock as far as 8th, December 1980.

However, his greatest shortcoming, which led to tragedy, was that he had absolutely no talent for delegation either. He never handed over the driving of the solar chariot entrusted to him. Not even to Helios, who had all the competence for this task and would have been an excellent choice. In comparison, he once entrusted the driving to his supposed son, Phaeton. The boy was inexperienced and incompetent. The solar chariot overturned and scorched the northern third of Africa, creating a desert later named Sahara. It should be said in Apollo's favour that after this ecological catastrophe which was the first on Earth he appointed Helios as his deputy, who has been doing good job ever since.

12.???Dionysus - Blinded by the success

Dionysus alias Dio was the youngest member of the management, whose start was extremely difficult. As his name’s origin shows, he was born twice. The second time, he was born from the thigh of Zeus, might have been inconvenient also in itself, but the circumstances of his first birth were so horrific that its description would derail this article. From then on however, fortune followed him. It never happened before, nor after that, a leader decided to retire. Hestia, the most gentle and humble manager was the only one who did so. Due to this once in a lifetime opportunity Dio could fill the vacant position. Luck didn’t leave him later either. Thanks to an accident, he fermented grape juice in such a way that it turned into an alcoholic drink, called wine. The junior team member had a good ability to recognize opportunities. He presented this coincidence, as it was his own invention and managed it extremely well. It can be stated that the successful brand building of Olympus Holding was mostly due to him. Having the new product launched on the market, the company's popularity skyrocketed. The success made Dio frivolous. Being late for the meetings became normal, moreover he didn’t attend to his duties. The godsdamned booze grew on him so much that he was often seen drinking even in his office. Regardless, he was the most loveable, cheerful pal in the team. He had a good sense of humour and he was basically well-intentioned. As we saw, that was really exceptional in this company. Dio remained the only Olympus Holding manager whose memory is still payed tribute daily by many because of his ‘diwine’ invention.

Epilogue

Fortunately, it’s all Greek to us.?We have never even heard about anything similar in our life and that is our best of luck. We don't even really realize how easy life we live, that we do not need to be working at Olympus Holding. Our job is led by people who are light years away from any of these ungodly bad manager characters and they outdo even gods by their professionalism and humanity.