On Monday, a large tent had appeared near the construction site.
Below, a long table had been set up, and at noon containers of hot soup, a main course and fresh bread arrived.
« Guys, dinner’s ready! » shouted the team leader.
Marcel smiled.
Daniel had kept his word.
And this wasn’t a measure for a week or two.
The hot meal was left.
From time to time, Daniel would come to the construction site at lunchtime.
But now he was no longer standing apart, phone in hand.
He would take a plate and sit down among the workers.
One day, a business partner who was with him looked at him, surprised.
— Do you really eat here with your employees?
– Yes.
— Don’t you think you lose authority if you get too close to them?
Daniel put down his spoon.
He looked at the men laughing at the table, then at Marcel.
— The authority you lose because you sit near people was never respect. It was only fear.
What remains
Marcel heard these words.
And he hasn’t forgotten them.
Just as he never forgot the day he tried to hide his lunch out of shame.
Not because Daniel had paid him for the days he spent with his daughter.
Nor even for the hot meal afterwards offered to the workers.
But for this first step.
At a time when Marcel felt small, a man he considered to belong to a completely different world sat down next to him and shared the same bread.
And Daniel had learned something too.
You can build buildings, run companies, and sign multi-million dollar contracts.
But a company is not made up solely of numbers, machines and concrete.
It is made up of men.
And sometimes, to remember it, you don’t need a consultant or a report.
All you need is a board, a can of cheap pâté, and a slice of bread to share with the man you’d been passing by without really noticing until now.
The worker quickly hid his pâté sandwich when he saw his boss approaching. He was convinced he was going to be reprimanded. But when the businessman stopped in front of him and saw what he was eating, he did something that left the other workers speechless…
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