Monday 12 December 2011

Volunteers

A while ago one of my acquaintance took on a job no one wanted. He was very keen and took a lot of trouble to get things right. He worked on this project for some time until another man became interested. The first man showed him much of what the job entailed....he spent quite a lot of time with him hoping that the enthusiasm would rub off....
The two men worked together for quite a long time until a third man arrived who wanted to learn how to do the job. The first man was by this time getting old and he had spent quite a lot of his own money replacing worn out parts and buying more up to date ones...
He had a short fuse though  and was not a very social animal so some of his explanations bordered on the snappy. He suffered fools badly.
This was though how he spoke to most people.....those  of us who knew him accepted it as part of his character...
The third man though resented some of his remarks and the day came when enough was enough.
"Your sacked " he said, "I'll take over from now on"
The first man was stunned....he had been thinking of doing less anyway....he had achieved what he set out to do and might have welcomed a rest....this however made things different...
"You can't sack me" he said, "I'm a volunteer"
Those words have cheered me up more times than I could ever have imagined over the years....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

3 comments:

Revjeanrolt said...

For anyone looking for an allegory here, there isn't one! Its a true story...I still know all the people involved. And they are all still working!

Kathryn de Belle said...

That's funny! I was doing exactly that until I thought to scroll down. I was also wondering what the second man thought of it all.

Revjeanrolt said...

Not much Kathryn.....but he's much too nice to tell people!