Henry Osmond was a participant in a supervisory training course conducted by one of thetrainers for a large clock manufacturing firm. He was in his mid-thirties, tall, quiet, andreserved – somewhat meek in appearance. He contributed little during the first two days ofthe course and during breaks didn’t mingle with his 15 colleagues, all of whom, like himself,were first-line supervisors for the company. During one of the breaks, the instructor askedone of the participants about Henry.“Well,” said the participant, “don’t blame yourself for the course for Henry’s not gettinginvolved. That’s just Henry. He’s a most interesting case. He’s like that in the plant, too.It’s a shame what’s happened to him, really. Believe it or not, Henry is one of the topclockworks men in the country. His dad worked in this plant and had the same outstandingreputation – better, in fact, than Henry’s. Henry Senior’s retired now, but he makes moremoney running a clock repair operation than he ever did here. He’s even had private planeslanding here, picked him up, and carried him to Europe to repair expensive collectors’ ormuseum clocks. Well, Henry has the same skill. He picked up everything from his dad.The guy can look at a clock movement and immediately spot a problem that’d takesomeone else several hours to track down. I know – I’ve worked for three different firmsin this industry – the guy has a special talent.“Well, here’s what happened. About nine months ago, the company moved Henry up toMovement Supervisor – this is the department that reworks, makes adjustments, or tries tocorrect any problems in the movements before we ship a clock to a retailer. The departmentalso handles any defective movements that a retailer returns.“Now our union contract doesn’t allow supervisors to do actual ‘hands-on’ work, but Henrywill generally watch the best jobs – I mean, you’ll see him looking over the shoulder ofone of his people, giving step-by-step detailed instructions on what to do. He drives these technicians absolutely batty, interjecting himself into the most challenging jobs and over supervising. Not only is he resented, but he’s our weakest supervisor – and he knows it.Never should have been offered the job and never should have taken it. It’d be a real lossof face now for him to be ‘demoted’ back to movement technician – at least in his eyes. Iguess when they promoted him to Supervisor, they didn’t realize that they were takingaway his toolbox. And Henry just doesn’t have much else to offer. What a waste!”