A young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a
job. "That depends," replied the foreman. "Let's see you chop down this
tree." The young man stepped forward and skillfully chopped down a great
tree. Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "You can start Monday."
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolled by -- and Thursday afternoon
the foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your
paycheck on the way out today."
Startled, the young man replied, "I thought you paid on Friday."
"Normally we do," said the foreman. "But we're letting you go today
because you've fallen behind. Our daily felling charts show that you've
dropped from first place on Monday to last place today."
"But I'm a hard worker," the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave
last and even have worked through my coffee breaks!"
The foreman, sensing the young man's integrity, thought for a minute and
then asked, "Have you been sharpening your axe?"
The young man replied, "No sir, I've been working too hard to take time
for that!"
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