The Log in the Hall

One night Henry Ford and two or three men he had hired cut down a tree. Mr. Ford had the men to trim all of the limbs off of it,  and carry the large log to the building where his offices were located. The men were instructed to place the log in a hallway on the bottom floor of the building. The next morning when Henry’s employees arrived to work they began asking each other why the log was in the hallway. No one knew, so they carefully walked around the log all day figuring there was some good reason that a log had been placed in the hall.

The next morning the log was still in the hallway, and the next, and the next. In fact, the log remained in that hall all the next week and the next and still no one knew why the log was there, who put it there, or how long it would be there. Finally a young man, a new hire, decided he was going to find out the purpose for a log in the hall. Knowing that no one on his floor had any answers, he went up to the next floor and found the head supervisor, “Why is there a log in the hallway on our floor?” The supervisor said, “ I don’t know. It’s not my problem.” The young man went to the next floor, and the next, and the next and to all the floors until there was only one floor left. He had gotten pretty much the same reply from everyone he had asked, “Don’t know, don’t care. Not my department, not my problem!”

The top floor was the floor where Mr. Henry Ford’s office was located. He and just a few of his most important people were on that floor. The young man was determined to get an answer about the mysterious log in the hallway. He reluctantly and a bit fearfully made his way up to the top and asked to speak to Mr. Ford about the log. He didn’t know if Mr. Ford would see him, but to his surprise he was told to go right in. “Mr. Ford, I know that I am probably out of line. I am only an assistant to an assistant and have only been working here a few weeks, but sir, do you know why we have a log taking up room in our hallway on the bottom floor?”

Mr. Ford gladly answered, “Yes, I had the log put there to see how long it would take for someone to come to me about the log that has been in the way. The log has been there for over three weeks, and you are the only one that has tried to get to the bottom of this obstical in your hallway. I have been concerned about all of the bureaucratic mess and red tape in our organization, and I’m looking for someone to fix the problem.  I have been waiting for the person who was insightful enough to go all the way to the top to take care of the tree in the hall problem. That is the person I want to fix our organizational troubles. You, young man, will be promoted to vice-president, and I want you to fix the log jam that is slowing down our organization.”

I don’t know if this is a true story. I do know from trying to get answers about tax issues, cable TV, internet and cell phone problems, billing mistakes made by the different places where I’ve banked, gotten medical care, made returns on items we have purchased, and many other business problems, employees want to avoid helping me. I’ve been placed on hold, gotten someone I can’t understand, rerouted to the wrong department, rerouted back to another person I can’t understand, placed on hold again and become so frustrated that I lose my cool after having wasted an hour still not getting my problem solved. AT&T has been the worst lately. I like to talk to someone who will willingly and gladly help me with my problem. But unfortunately that is very rare.