The tyranny of the underlings

William Shakespeare once wrote in one of his great masterpieces: "The fault, my dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings." Well, in the context of today's world, many underlings are behaving like petty tyrants, assuming powers that they do not possess, making calls on decisions that they should not  and arrogating unto themselves some prerogatives that are beyond their competence to exercise. In so doing, they ruin the good name of their bosses and destroy the institutions they are supposed to serve. And above all, they do not give justice to the people whose interests they are duty-bound to uphold.

We refer to some arrogant and discourteous security guards, to unfriendly and difficult to talk to secretaries, to telephone operators who are ''bastos'' and to front desk clerks who are lacking in basic good manners. We have even come across with flight attendants who are impolite and not helpful, waiters who are gross and lacking in customer-orientation and drivers who look untidy, drunk, and disrespectful. There are of course many good and even excellent secretaries, guards, and waiters. But a good number are the bad eggs who make our life difficult and destroy our mood for the day.

The heads of offices are often very civilized and mild-mannered, even friendly and accommodating but the people around them could be overbearing and even high-handed at times. In their overprotective concern for their bosses, they usually exceed the bounds of proper office behavior. In their efforts to isolate their superiors from people who want to visit, consult, seek help or just to say hello and renew old ties, these'' cordon sanitaire'' consisting of chief of staff, secretaries, clerks, janitors, and drivers would sometimes obstruct the flow of clients and customers.

Some store clerks and sales assistants drive away customers because of their brash and aggressive approaches that border on vexations or the ineptitude, lack of attention, or too slow and lack of enthusiasm in attending to prospective clients. There are telephone operators who are very arrogant or impolite in answering calls and front desk clerks who cannot answer simple and basic query or request for assistance. There are security guards who sound like generals barking orders to their subordinates when they talk to visitors. There are waiters who cannot wait for you to finish eating and just grab your plates.

These are the small guys who make big blunders and destroy the good name of the company. These are the worst enemies of management who ruin the organization from within. Profits go down, market shares shrink, customers go to the competitor, and the business plunders. Not because management is incompetent nor that the product is not good. It is because of the tyranny of the small guys who sabotage the company by arrogance, lack of manners, or plain stupidity.