Tale of a Bridge

Once upon a time two large cities flourished on the valleys of two mountains. There was a vast lake that separated these mountains. The administration of these two cities decided to build a ten kilometres long bridge that was to connect these two cities. It was a mega project predicted to catapult both the cities to exceptional levels of progress.

Plans were drawn, preliminary work started and the dreams for two cities getting merged into one big city started taking shape. Esteemed members of city councils visited the location regularly. The top brass from the government bragged about their vision and the benefits, the bridge project was going to bring to the region.

As the calendar progressed, one day a junior-most engineer while going through the plans, noticed a significant anomaly. One of the many pillars of the proposed bridge was short by a few inches in height. That was at a critical point in the design of the bridge which could pose a grave threat to the very existence of the structure once built.

Now, the junior engineer was a simple and straightforward girl who promptly presented her finding to the top executives and even proposed an alternate course of action to correct such mistakes in future. 

As soon as the authorities, heard her out, all hell broke loose! The young girl was severely reprimanded for highlighting such a major mistake which put the whole project team in a bad light. She was even given an ultimatum to do only what was asked to do and nothing more. The backlash was so harsh that she even wondered why she even bothered to highlight the anomaly! 

Another sincere employee died a painful death that day.

The above story is a pure work of fiction. But if it did remind you of any experience, you had or heard in the corporate world, do not be alarmed. There will always be bridges that are built with design flaws. There will always be sincere junior engineers who highlight the anomalies. And there will always be corporate martyrs.

Learn from the mistakes of either yours or others. Diplomacy is an underrated skill, especially if you are unaware of the power of it.

Life goes on. So does the corporate world.