When working is like playing football

I once worked for a company that was slowly going down the shitter.

It was like playing football.

The team had 4 games to play to save the club from administration.

They needed a big win. If they could win this game they may survive the season.

The old manager had recruited a new striker to save the team. The chairman had given up hope of survival. Sometimes he never even bothered to turn up for games.

The game kicked off. The striker couldn't get the ball, the midfield kept loosing possession. No drive, no motivation, no desire to win.

At half time they were 3 goals down. The manager ranted, shouted, verbally abused the players. He demoralised everybody. He had no idea what he was doing. His tactics were old, copied from previous teams. They never worked. He actually never did anything.

The striker offered some new advice, some fresh ideas. It motivated the players. The manager shouted "If you think you can do a fucking better job, then you FUCKING do it!"

The dressing room fell silent. Morale was at its lowest.

They got a lucky break. The striker scored a cracking goal. The team embraced.

It was short lived.

They lost the match.

The chairman still couldn't face coming in. He phoned the manager, said he would invest, buy new players. He couldn't afford it. He said he will come to the next game.

Everybody knew he wouldn't. He didn't. He was a broken man.

The fan numbers dwindled. They were pissed off seeing old tactics played. They no longer visited all the games. The support was lost. Many had left years ago, let down, feeling neglected. The club never encouraged them to come back.

Everybody at the club knew it wouldn't survive. There was no confidence in the manager. He could no longer take the pressure and eventually resigned, to the relief of everyone at the club.

The press were swung a story of how great the manager was, what a fantastic job he had done, how the chairman wanted him to stay, how he didn't want to renew his contract as he wanted a new challenge.

Everyone at the club, the press, the industry knew it was total bull shit.

The striker took over and became player manager. His new ideas and tactics were put into place. Confidence was high. Even fans started coming back.

However it was too late. The years of poor management, lack of investment, extremely bad financial decisions, general neglect had taken it's toll. There was not enough fans coming back generating enough money. There were rumours of staff not being paid, suppliers chasing payment. The chairman was sniffing what money was left up his nose.

The player manager resigned to save wages. He would rather leave so other staff could be paid. He even offered help and advice after he had left, for no charge. If only he was aware of how bad the situation was before he joined.

Everybody resigned themselves to the fact the inevitable was coming.

The club would not survive.

It closed down. The manager went on to do the exact same thing at other companies. He's still a total fuckwit to this day.