The Story

Harry Spratt was having a life crisis. He was 42 years old, a public servant in the mid-management ranks. He was feeling stuck. He had been a boy wonder, a Director at the tender age of 30. Now, there didn’t seem to be a future in his chosen field of Agriculture.

The problem seems to be that there are only a few major organizations involved with setting agriculture policy across Canada. You either work for the feds or you work for one of the provinces. The only other option to progress up seems to be moving to another field or to an outside agency. Harry feels that when you go to university and get an Honours degree in Agricultural Science, and then go to graduate school for a MBA, you shouldn’t have to leave your chosen field to advance towards senior ranks.

Harry thinks he must have done something wrong. He has questioned his superiors about his performance; they simply repeat that his productivity is great, his skills are at their peak and he is a net asset to the organization. Despite what his superiors say, Harry feels himself slipping. He just doesn’t seem to have “it” anymore. Today, Harry’s paranoia reached its height. His boss called him in and offered him a one year special assignment. Harry was going to be put in charge of a task force accountable for establishing a new inspection program mandated by the department’s political masters. Suddenly, Harry felt that he was being shunted off the main career track and put on a shelf.

“The writing’s on the wall,” he said to his wife Jill, a successful real estate manager, “and my name’s not in it.”