What Goes Around Comes Around

Burying his face in his hands Hank reflected on his life over the past five years and what he concluded was not very pleasant. It had all been like … a boomerang.1 As soon as the idea entered his mind he smiled about it. What a silly metaphor! But almost immediately the smile was replaced by a frown as his thoughts expanded into several areas of his life. It was a boomerang. Everything had bounced back to him in one way or another. His work situation was a perfect illustration: at the office Hank had cleverly chased away four employees, among whom was Samantha, a bright and promising employee. Samantha, as also the three others who had ultimately left, was a committed worker who was just unfortunate enough to have been part of the previous team at the office. So when Hank took over the management position at that workplace four years ago, he did what most managers do: evaluate who had worked under the previous management, which made these people “guilty by association”; and shrewdly eliminate them, either by taking away their responsibilities, by having them transferred to other, less desirable departments, or by plainly ignoring. In meetings, he made sure their suggestions were never considered.