I was looking at another fire service website and found this little gem, is it just me or does this sound familiar to some of you too?
The Dead Horse
Tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians (so legend has it), passed on from generation to generation, says that,
"When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."
However, in the fire service and more to the point, the senior management team of most brigades, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
Buying a stronger whip.
Changing riders.
Giving horse and rider a good bollocking.
Re-structuring the dead horse's pay scale by removing the horse’s long service payment.
Suspending the horse's access to the executive grassy meadow until performance targets are met.
Making the horse work strange new shifts and rename them “Herd Friendly” working hours.
Deducting 10% of the horse’s wages until it agrees to live again.
Appointing a committee to study the horse.
Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride horses.
Convening a dead horse productivity improvement workshop.
Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
Outsourcing the management of the dead horse.
Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance.
Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Does any of this ring true to you too?
