The early morning sun shone down on Oakwood Forest. It looked like it would be a beautiful spring day. Rabbit hopped out of bed and stretched his legs. He grabbed a carrot for breakfast and bounded off to the Oakwood Shoe Shop for work.

Rabbit’s job was to make shoes for all of the animals in Oakwood Forest. He loved his job and felt a real sense of purpose, keeping everyone’s feet safe and sound!

Over the years, some of the animals in Oakwood Forest had children. Some of them had lots of children! These children grew into young adults and were eager to start working. Rabbit was very excited about the whole thing. He hired many new animals in the Oakwood Shoe Shop. The first animal he hired was Toad. He taught Toad how to make shoes and the two of them worked side-by-side. Later on, he hired more animals. He hired Ant. He hired Bear. And he hired several squirrels.

Shipping technology advanced, so the Oakwood Shoe Shop merged with the Sherwood Shoe Store. The Sherwood employees (which included Gopher, Groundhog, and several chipmunks) relocated to Oakwood Forest in order to make it easier for Rabbit to watch over everyone and used the improved technology to ship shoes to customers in both the Oakwood and Sherwood regions at a reasonable cost.

Rabbit was a smart guy. Instead of teaching each animal how to make shoes and having them all work slowly side-by-side, he taught each one a specialized task. Here is what the office looked like:

Rabbit: Chief executive officer.
Toad: Marketing specialist.
Ant: Human resources.
Bear: Competition analyst.
1st squirrel: Shoe sole design engineer.
2nd squirrel: Shoe sole materials specialist.
3rd squirrel: Shoe sole pricing specialist.
4th squirrel: Shoe sole supply chain consultant.
Gopher: Tool shed organization specialist.
Groundhog: Chief financial officer.
1st chipmunk: Shoestring design engineer.
2nd chipmunk: Shoestring materials specialist.
3rd chipmunk: Shoestring pricing specialist.
4th chipmunk: Shoestring supply chain consultant.

Thanks to increases in technology and the size of the workforce, Oakwood Shoe Store had become a super-efficient beacon of corporate productivity!

But it came at a cost. Back when Rabbit and Toad were the only ones working at the Oakwood Shoe Store, each one felt like he made a real difference, keeping the animals of Oakwood Forest’s feet safe and sound. The 3rd chipmunk knew that he was helping the cute little footsies of Oakwood Forest and Sherwood Forest in some way, but his job as Shoestring pricing specialist was so distant from the end product that he had trouble feeling like his life had any sense of meaning.

Moral: join a church.