Goose & the Golden Egg

The Goose and the Golden Egg

The stresses of the modern work life and the imbalanced lifestyle of many of the young professionals in T&T will take its toll in next decade. Author Stephen R. Covey has used the fable of the Goose and the Golden egg to illustrate this imbalance between short term results and long term sustainability. In the case of the young professionals their output can be equated to the “Golden Egg”. From a business perspective Golden Eggs are obviously good things. Golden eggs mean increasing value and profit. These Golden Eggs are not only a function of the Goose which is one’s intellect, skills base and health (mental and physical) and general overall well being.

A person who is not happy at home will also obviously bring that negative emotional energy to work. The central question here is are companies interested in the short term output from employees or are they interested in the long term? Many companies have a policy that seeks to kill the Goose. Others fatten the Goose to later kill it. Some Goose in an attempt to satisfy their personal vanity and inflated ego are committing suicide and don’t even know it. The story of the Goose in Trinidad is indeed a sad one. I have lived long enough to see people whose careers got off to a blistering start in their 20’s end up being the number one customers of bars and rum shops in the mid-thirties. Burn out is also a reality that many will have to deal with in the coming years.

When we hire a person is it our vision that they stay with the company for 3 years, 7 years or 20 years. Companies with a long term outlook would obviously be interested in recruiting the best people and retaining their services in the long term. High employee churn is never a good thing. The third “R” in the human resource triumvirate is “reward”. What does “reward” mean? Does it only mean monetary and non-monetary compensation but should it be viewed in a broader “in-tangible” sense and how is that linked to motivation? Abraham Maslow’s work on human motivation cites “self actualization” as the highest of human needs. Self-actualization is the need to be the best that you can be or achieving one’s full potential.