In this monologue, Tom recounts a personal experience that became a vivid management case study. After his long‑time hairstylist (referred to as X) left a Connecticut salon to start his own shop, Tom learned that the departure was the result of a new leader treating the stylists— the true talent that drives the business— like interchangeable parts, imposing absurd schedules and taking a large share of their earnings. Tom uses the classic "goose that laid the golden egg" metaphor to illustrate how managers who try to "choke the goose" by over‑controlling and exploiting high‑performing employees ultimately drive them away. He notes that X and about twenty of his colleagues defected to the new venture, underscoring the business risk of mistreating talent. The story concludes with Tom’s consulting‑style advice: management should nurture and protect its valuable people, providing supportive environments rather than restrictive, profit‑first mandates. The lesson is presented as universally applicable across industries, not just salons.
Chapters
Hey, good morning, it's Tom. I got an interesting story to tell you. You know that Work Jerks video I did the other day? I don't know if that video got featured. I can't find it on the featured page, but I got more hits on that video than any video I've ever made. And it's got a link to the front— anyway. So you may notice, those of you who watch very carefully may notice, I got a haircut yesterday. Now my hair was getting shaggy. My hair was getting shaggy because the guy who cuts my hair has been at a place, a salon— this is Connecticut, you know, so it's a salon, uh, a spa actually, uh, for like 10 years. This guy's been cutting my hair and Karen's hair. We really like him. And lo and behold, a few weeks ago Karen was all set to go in for a haircut and she gets a call from the spa saying, "X," I won't use his name, "is no longer with us. Would you like to see why?" And Karen said, "No." Lo and behold, later that day we get an email from X saying, "Guess what? I started my own business and it's going to be open the first week of April." So now, This was about a week after I had had, while getting my hair cut, X and I were having a conversation and we were talking about some of the things that were going on at his workplace. And the things that were going on at his workplace were stupid. Why were they stupid? Well, they were stupid because the boss I won't call him a name, but if you see the last video, I think he qualifies. The boss was treating— now remember, this is a spa, a salon. You have stylists. The stylists are the reason that you go to the salon. You don't go to the salon because of the zen music that they play. At the salon, right? You don't go to the salon because they have wonderful, you know, smocks that you put on when you are getting your hair cut. You go to the salon because of the people who work in the salon and the relationships that you develop with the people who work in the salon. It's a relationship business. In the, let's call it, the movie business or the TV business or even in the many design businesses that I've worked in, the stylists would be called the talent. They're the talent. They're the people who make the business work. Now, the people who ran the spa— by the way, the spa was started by an individual who had a vision about what this spa was going to be like, and she ran the spa according to that vision. Now, unfortunately, a few years ago, the founder passed away. Now, when the founder passes away in a place like this, the vision doesn't always persist. And in this instance, it looked like the vision didn't exactly persist because here was the new leader treating the talent as if they were, oh, I don't know, interchangeable parts in a machine. We don't care who the stylists are. All we care about is making the money, making the money. So we're talking yesterday, X and I, while I'm getting my hair cut, and I said, you know, we were in X's new place and it was quite nice, and all of the people who were there at X's new place were defectors from the old place. Because why? X wasn't the only one. X and about 20 of X's colleagues came over to start this new business. A few partners, and they brought all these other people with them. Why? Because all the people who were there at the old place were being treated like they weren't important. They had to do absurd things. So I'm talking to X and I say, "You know, this is always— I've seen this before." And this is always when I start talking about the goose that laid the golden egg. See, here we have people who have a goose, in this case very, very talented and engaging personable stylists who are laying golden eggs. They're bringing a lot of people into the business. The business is doing very well. But what do they start to do? They start to choke the goose. They got their hands around the goose's neck and they're saying, "You have to show up at this time, goose, and you have to lay eggs on this schedule. And by the way, when you lay your eggs, we're going to take half of that egg and we're not even going to tell—" I mean, all sorts of absurd things. So what was the moral of the story? The goose defected to another place, as geese will do. See, this is what geese who lay golden eggs do. They go elsewhere. The moral of this story for me, as it has been for many years in my consulting practice, is do not choke the goose. It isn't because you love the goose. You don't have to even like the goose. You can think geese are stupid. It doesn't matter. But don't choke the goose. Management is about getting productivity out of the geese. And if you think the best way to get productivity out of golden egg-laying geese is to put your hands around their throat and to strangle them, think again! The best way to get golden eggs from geese is to give them nice nests, feed them nicely, and leave them alone as much as possible. So that was my story. It was another interesting day of watching the things that I think are important in management play themselves out in an interesting setting. So I hope you enjoyed the story, and take it easy. See you again soon. Bye.
