Well, not really updated, since Aesop’s originals are
timeless, and as relevant today as they were
centuries ago. The Fox continues to see the grapes as
sour when he can’t reach them, and no doubt he
always will.
But Aesop never worked in a thirty story office
building or a twenty level office hierarchy, and never
had to deal with a recalcitrant computer or a
belligerent boss. So for those of us who do, or did,
here are fables about folk who coped with some of
these modern aspects of life.
Aesop drew his morals from life; I draw mine from
four decades of working for a living, thirty of them
as a Federal Bureaucrat in Ottawa, (fifteen as a
first level Senior Executive). I know that many
people would say that “life” and “federal
bureaucracy” have little, if anything, in common, but
I believe that they share, amongst other things,
bungled messages, suffocating committees,
politically correct morons, managers who cannot
manage and leaders who cannot lead. And also a
few good guys.
