Week 1 Story: The Builders and the Business

     A short time ago, there existed an expansive construction company responsible for building roads and skyscrapers, and homes galore. For many years, the company had brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual profit, bringing prosperity to all its employees and the towns where it brought its business. They offered health care and pensions and even stock shares to the employees who stayed loyal to them and worked hard.

(impressive architectural structure)

     Economic prosperity, however, can be as fickle as the rain, and the company fell upon hard times with the turning of the economy. As the employees began to struggle with the rising cost of living, the company struggled with the dwindling number of incoming contracts.

     The burden of expense grew heavier and heavier until finally the CFO began sending out emails with big, red, ominous, negative numbers to the heads of departments, explaining the bottom line. The company was in debt. There were not enough new contracts coming in to pay the employees’ salaries and benefits. People just didn’t seem to have the spare money during this financial crisis to pay for home renovations, and the government was being pressured by the people to reduce spending so the contracts they had in infrastructure were also being taken away, little by little.

     Towards the end of a particularly bad quarter, the company announced a massive shareholders meeting where all employees who held stock in the company were welcome to come and make their voices heard. The meeting was held, and almost every employee of the company was there. People had noticed that the economy was faltering. They were scared, and they wanted to know what was going to happen to them.

     First the CFO stood before the people and explained that the company was going under. He went on to say that there was little he cared to do and that there was still work out there for college educated people. He argued that they should simply let the company go bankrupt and start looking for new jobs now.

(indifferent bearer of bad news)

     A representative from the company’s legal department then stood and explained that they did not much care whether the company went under either. “There are always private law firms.” He reassured his colleagues.

     Employees from other white collar branches of the company all murmured in agreement and many sent representatives up to reassure their branches and express that many of them were already received job offers from other, better-off companies.

     The CEO considered the facts and chuckled a bit, thinking of his savings account now overflowing from serving the company during years of prosperity.
“It might even be nice to take some time off work and enjoy a sort of vacation off work for a while. Take some rest. Live off your savings. See the world. You all have to admit that that sounds pretty fantastic.”
The other members from corporate applauded as he sat back and relaxed some more, safe in the knowledge that the good years of his father’s company would protect him from a lack of income now.

     The construction workers and lower level managers of the company, meanwhile, whispered among themselves about the mortage payments and the health care they couldn’t afford if they lost their jobs.

     Realizing that the people at corporate would simply allow the business to fail, the blue collar workers banded together. They toiled and made phone calls, wrote letters to senators and sought out businesses needing renovation. After months and months of incredible work and countless calls to the CFO for updates on the bottom line, the people began to see the debt shrinking and then disappearing altogether.

     They met again when the economy had stabilized to drink and celebrate what they had achieved together. As they sat around they mused to themselves that the company’s reclaimed success was a blessing to many for the benefit of few.


Author's Note

This story was based off of an Indian Fable, The Fish and the Rain, written by Ramaswami Raju that tells of a lake that is drying up from lack of rain, much in the same way that the business I wrote about begins to lose money and go under when the economy falters. In Raju's fable, the animals hold a meeting when the lake becomes dangerously low. Many of the animals express disinterest in the problem with the crocodile, turtle, and crab all saying that they can simply move to land if the lake dries up. The fish do not have this option and see it as their duty to pray for rain to save the lake so they diligently pray until rain comes. This story intrigued me because I believe it to be very accurate to reality in many ways. At the end of the tale, it is those who will suffer at the hands of a problem that solve it. Many others simply benefit by proxy. I believed that my tale captures that spirit in the story of the builders who save their company because the crocodiles at the top will not.

Bibliography. "The Fish and the Rain" from Indian Fables by Ramaswami Raju.