Talented Neco

views from a US road trip
Another corporate tale...

Manuel Carlos, commonly known as Neco, was an incompetent. It is not known exactly how he ended up in the company, but everyone knew very well how he came to management: because he was the one who have been staying behind. Without alternatives, someone eventually promoted Neco to manager. In Neco case, contrary to the saying “I know how he was born but not how he survives “, in Neco’s case, “we know how he survived, but how he was born is a mystery.”

However, rumor had it that Neco was about to be fired, after all, no company thrives for long at the mercy of a bad professional in management positions. Neco was incompetent; but he was not unaware of his surroundings.

Neco, upon learning of that, began to outline how he would keep his job. And he began to list his abilities to check if any of them would save him. Neco had no useful talent. Neco was incompetent, but he was not stupid and he knew he needed to be saved.

Then Neco went to look for coaching. There he went to look for the best coaching in the area. Julião, the coach, was well known for his calm and patience. They say he was so good at it that even the local priest went after him, looking for coaching. Unbfortunately, even Juliao would not be enough to help Neco.

It seems that the session was reaching a limit which Julião was getting enraged at Neco’s incompetence and his completelack of skill. He was indeed an useless one.

-But you can’t anything right. Neco, you’re useless.

-OK. Excuse me…

-Please, do never come back here. And I’ll charge you doubled.

-OK. Excuse me.

Julião kept offending and Neco kept apologizing. Neco was about to get to the door, after having paid tripled, Julião shouts:

-Come back here.

-What?

-You have nothing good. But there is one thing…

Neco had the blood of a cockroach. Like those cracky cockroaches. Like those bugs that splashes and makes dirty a whole windshield on the road, when one run onver it at speed. Slimy. So that even the windshield wiper is of no use to clean. Juliao then suggested to Neco something extremely absurd: to use this in his favor.

At the first meeting, Neco endured humiliations, literally being the punching bag, taking all blames and always apologizing. After general relief of those present, Neco was praised for his resilience. With his job guaranteed, Neco cried out loud:

-I can lose my dignity, but I’ll never lose my job.

Okay, then, Neco. Go ahead! Just beware of windshields!

About rftafas 183 Articles
Ricardo F. Tafas Jr graduated in Electrical Engineering at UFRGS with focus on Digital Systems and achieved his Masters also in Electrical Engineering on Telecomunications Network Management. He also author of "Autodesenvolvimento para Desenvolvedores (Self-development for developers). Ricardo has +10 years experience on R&D Management and +13 years on Embedded Eystem Development. His interest lay on Applied Strategic HR, Innovation Management and Embedded Technology as a differentiator and also on High Performance Digital Systems and FPGAs. Actually, he is editor and writer for “Repositório” blog (http://161.35.234.217), editorial board member at Embarcados (https://embarcados.com.br) and he is Management and Innovation Specialist at Repo Dinâmica - Aceleradora de Produtos.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply