A small-minded production manager with a big head had a heavy cross to bear – he was better than the others. He carried his burden like a real gentleman, with plenty of grace and dignity. No one had ever heard him moaning about it and no one had ever heard him groaning about it. A lot of people would crumble under such a weight, but no production manager. Confronted by good luck he enjoyed his privilege to the fullest and looked down on people whenever there was an opportunity for him to do so. When he was in a good mood he would look at people with the glee of personal satisfaction, glad to be so much better than anyone else. When he was in a bad mood, it would be a smirk of contempt, for no one could compare with him. His mood depended entirely on a sober assessment of his own achievements which seemed just fine for as long as he did not compare himself against the directors.
Being better than the others was not easy on him and there were times when the production manager had to remind himself that it was not just a gift but also a responsibility. The company was full of people dreaming about turning their fortunes around and it was the production manager's responsibility to ground those dreams to a halt and to remind everyone that they lacked the necessary qualities to make it in the world. His success was not a fluke. The production manager was a man of faith and strongly believed that he owned it to a set of soft skills which let him flourish where others had failed: the ability to listen to himself when on one else would, boldness to claim credit for successes he did not contribute toward and wisdom to blackmail those below him when necessary. A dignified and humane treatment of workers was enshrined in his moral code and the Production manager would restrain himself from intimidation unless absolutely necessary. Intimidation and blackmail were always absolutely necessary and it was a tragedy of his life that he was not allowed to fire people at his whim and instead had to compensate for this unfair limitation with secondary solutions.
He sought comfort in the fact that he was surrounded by people who responded far better to fear than to kindness allowing him to carry on with his managerial duties in a relatively effective way. He considered blackmail to be pure in its intentions and easy to grasp. Blackmail left no illusions as to how things were supposed to go. It was a proven and transparent device for a positive change. For as long as people were afraid of losing something and they were always afraid of losing their job, blackmail could be easily applied, did not require any consultations, had little or no visible side effects, and was much more effective than any other form of professional communication. Its educational value was immeasurable.
Like every good man, the production manager had a hobby - he loved when people enjoyed his music. Heconsidered himself to be a talented singer and multi-instrumentalist. Giftedwith a natural sense of humor he did not mind poking fun at the singing abilities of his fellow managers, none of whom claimed to knowhow to sing. They all claimed the Production manager knew how to sing and werewidely responsible for the development of his irrational self–proclaimed artisticpedigree. In reality, the Production manager did not know how to sing, did not haveenough confidence to practice, and did not know it was possible to develop hispassion because he did not know that passion was something people do notabandon at the first sight of disappointment. He was a common man and like mostcommon people he thought he was special.
The only thing which was special about him was his unusual ability to connect the dots. The distance between the dots was of no particular importance to him. Their size was irrelevant. Once detected, the Production manager would connect them with an engineering precision even though he was not an engineer but liked to think about himself as such.
At the age of 65, he was nearing the end of a mostlyfruitless career, and to extend his shelf life, started following directors'example and invested a small fortune in a set of pink shirts he religiouslywore to work each and every day objectively noticing that pink shirtsaccurately highlighted his social standing, fulfilled him with a senseof belonging to a group of professionals who did not consider him to be theirpeer and made him look better in the eyes of the factory workers, most of whomthought he was completely useless. The production manager dismissed those voices as mere jealousy. A lowly human predisposition for unbalanced judgment would notruin his day.
