You are there to work or guide? A HR message from worker bees

The great job on earth is always done by ‘workers’ and not by the ‘bosses’. If your boss has any doubt in your assertion, take him/her out for a walk in the garden, show them a bee hive and explain the marvel of nature, how the worker bees builds the hive, how they gather nectar from millions of flowers, converts them to honey, store them in the hive, how they nurse and rear the future colony and then retire from the scene swiftly and quietly.

If the corporate bosses ever feel and conduct themselves like ‘typical’ bosses and the ‘syndrome of boss’ has ever struck them deep in their ‘heart and head’, then they need to be told and shown that only the ‘workers’ had made the ‘difference and the wonder’ and not the boss. Further the honey they relish is also only the fruit of the labor of worker bees and not of the queen (the boss of the hive).

Every bee hive will have only one queen and rest of them are workers. The workers account for about 90% of the colony size and rest may be drones, eggs and larvae. The management message is clear. The message will be clear only to those HR functions and corporate leaders who can understand the nature well and also its marvel. The corporate leaders and the HR function must employ ‘workers’ and not just ‘bosses’. Or in other word, the bosses also must work like a ‘worker’ in their assigned job. Yes, of course, the queen bee does her job well in the hive.

Many corporate bosses do not like to do things as most may think that doing is not their job and they are in the corporate only to guide, think and strategize and not for doing. No one has ever done a wonder by just thinking and strategizing or by guiding and instructing others. One has to also involve in the doing, at least, in part.

The most common reason for the boss-subordinate disconnect in he corporate is only due to the behaviour of some bosses that the subordinates are ‘just workers’ and hence must follow their instructions. Unfortunately some subordinates also often think that they are only for doing things and hence their views and suggestions will fall into deaf ears if they ever attempts to make noise about it.

Such subordinates must seriously understand about the wonderment and marvel of the worker bees in building the bee hive. They also must understand the essence of the management message the worker bees convey. Nature has created different orders, patterns and styles in different species of plants and animals may be, only to teach the people in the corporate world.

If you are a worker, be proud as you are building the corporate and not you boss if they claim they are there only to guide you.

Dr S Ranganathan