Impassioned hotelier Ashish Modak puts a Shakespearean slant on the issue of managing difficult staff...
William Shakespeare, the all-time great of bards, penned a very famous play sometime in the 1590s called The Taming of the Shrew.
This play achieved great popularity, like the rest of his works, and eventually also received a great deal of criticism for its stance on feminine submissiveness and equal rights.
However, to date this play remains a popular and regularly-performed stage show, and has even been adapted by Hollywood for the big screen.
For those amongst us who have not seen wither the adaptation or the play, here is a quick synopsis: two daughters of marriageable age are born to a rich baron in Italy.
While the younger and more beautiful has many suitors, the elder one steadfastly refuses to get wed-locked and aims to avoid the whole institution of marriage.
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However the baron makes a rule: he will only agree to the wedding of the younger daughter if the elder one is married off suitably.
A “will do anything for money” bachelor takes up the challenge to marry the elder one at the behest of the suitors of the younger one.
However she refuses to abide by the traditional rules of female and wifely conduct.
The play then unfolds around the story of this husband who wins over his wife and essentially ‘tames’ her.
Definitely a controversial idea for many in this day and age; but the aspect of this story that interests me is the idea of discipline and control.
As a father to a four-year-old, I have to admit that I find it extremely difficult to discipline my child today, compared to a couple of years ago when he was less independently-minded.
And if disciplining a four-year-old is such a herculean task, then how on earth can we go about this function in our professional lives?
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