A cow that doesn’t give milk in the morning is beef in the evening!!
I recently heard this quote from my dear friend Shelton Rego and it instantly appealed to me so I thought – Why not write an entry on this?
Though some of us might scorn at him for making such a callous statement, if you were to think of it, aren’t we all in the position of either the cow who gives milk or the milkman and on the other hand, either the butcher or the cow that gets slaughtered.
Let’s try and expound on this thought with a few analogies from the corporate world. A typical result and target driven boss is the perfect example of a milkman. They give you the cattle feed read bonuses, R&R and salary hikes and you give the milk read target achievement. I am sure that most of us would agree with this analogy and have probably witnessed this in some form in the various organisations they have been part of. So there is nothing wrong in this approach! Or is there?
If I were to look at it from a layman’s perspective, money is probably one of the biggest motivators, however after a point if you are burning out due to excessive stress, no amount of money can give you happiness nor can it give you satisfaction. Yes what it can do is pay your doctor’s fat bills and probably get you a private room in the best hospital when you are down.
What can be done differently and if its already being done, how can you adapt it to your organisation, something that our well qualified and bright human resource professionals should be figuring out.
However, coming to the second analogy, our Human Resource brethren are very much the butchers who come in to the picture when the cow hasn’t been giving milk read delivering numbers and then needs to be chopped read retrenched. However the way the Power Loom came and relegated handloom weavers to obscurity, technology came and now one robotic arm does the job of 20 human beings in any modern automobile assembly line. So, in all fairness to the “Butchers”, retrenchment is merely a by-product of technological advancement and not the end result. And hey, someone has to do the dirty job. Its too bad that it comes down to Human Resources to let people know that they have to go.
So, as we can see, the corporate world is a prime example of this statement. Let’s look at a few analogies from the sporting world and of course, they are going to be from Cricket.
Back in the day, we used to have 6 day test matches and One Day Internationals were at times two day internationals as well, however seldom did players get injured and if they did, they sat out rather than playing with a niggle and running the risk of aggravating it. Cut to today, and you have the cash rich IPL, where injuries suddenly disappear or for that matter even the national side, where players declare themselves match fit and in the very next series are down with the same injuries. They are the cows who have to continue giving milk read match winning performances else they will be turned into beef read dropped from the side. Coaches, selectors, sports administrators and others in the various governing bodies are surely the milkmen and the best part is that they are the butchers as well. Wow! Too much power concentrated in the hands of a chosen few.
Though the title is sensitive and might hurt people’s sentiments, it should be known that it has been used in a completely figurative sense and hopefully the analogies from the corporate world as well as the sporting fraternity bear testimony to this fact.
Today since we live in the world of marketing glitz and try to package everything with a fancy wrapper, we use the statement “A cow that doesn’t give milk in the morning is beef in the evening". However, back in the day, elders would have simply said “Perform or Perish”.
Signing off and hope to add a few more entries before the end of this year.
Though some of us might scorn at him for making such a callous statement, if you were to think of it, aren’t we all in the position of either the cow who gives milk or the milkman and on the other hand, either the butcher or the cow that gets slaughtered.
Let’s try and expound on this thought with a few analogies from the corporate world. A typical result and target driven boss is the perfect example of a milkman. They give you the cattle feed read bonuses, R&R and salary hikes and you give the milk read target achievement. I am sure that most of us would agree with this analogy and have probably witnessed this in some form in the various organisations they have been part of. So there is nothing wrong in this approach! Or is there?
If I were to look at it from a layman’s perspective, money is probably one of the biggest motivators, however after a point if you are burning out due to excessive stress, no amount of money can give you happiness nor can it give you satisfaction. Yes what it can do is pay your doctor’s fat bills and probably get you a private room in the best hospital when you are down.
What can be done differently and if its already being done, how can you adapt it to your organisation, something that our well qualified and bright human resource professionals should be figuring out.
However, coming to the second analogy, our Human Resource brethren are very much the butchers who come in to the picture when the cow hasn’t been giving milk read delivering numbers and then needs to be chopped read retrenched. However the way the Power Loom came and relegated handloom weavers to obscurity, technology came and now one robotic arm does the job of 20 human beings in any modern automobile assembly line. So, in all fairness to the “Butchers”, retrenchment is merely a by-product of technological advancement and not the end result. And hey, someone has to do the dirty job. Its too bad that it comes down to Human Resources to let people know that they have to go.
So, as we can see, the corporate world is a prime example of this statement. Let’s look at a few analogies from the sporting world and of course, they are going to be from Cricket.
Back in the day, we used to have 6 day test matches and One Day Internationals were at times two day internationals as well, however seldom did players get injured and if they did, they sat out rather than playing with a niggle and running the risk of aggravating it. Cut to today, and you have the cash rich IPL, where injuries suddenly disappear or for that matter even the national side, where players declare themselves match fit and in the very next series are down with the same injuries. They are the cows who have to continue giving milk read match winning performances else they will be turned into beef read dropped from the side. Coaches, selectors, sports administrators and others in the various governing bodies are surely the milkmen and the best part is that they are the butchers as well. Wow! Too much power concentrated in the hands of a chosen few.
Though the title is sensitive and might hurt people’s sentiments, it should be known that it has been used in a completely figurative sense and hopefully the analogies from the corporate world as well as the sporting fraternity bear testimony to this fact.
Today since we live in the world of marketing glitz and try to package everything with a fancy wrapper, we use the statement “A cow that doesn’t give milk in the morning is beef in the evening". However, back in the day, elders would have simply said “Perform or Perish”.
Signing off and hope to add a few more entries before the end of this year.
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