Ambition - Too little of it is unproductive. Too much of it is dangerous. Stick to middle intensity throughout the echelons, and you are well served and safe.

Bargain - Not a capitalist vice but a basic law of nature. It means, making an advantageous exchange. This occurs when a tree spends energy extending its roots through the earth in order to gain humidity. A job applicant who hides his desire to gain an advantage through the employment is insincere and should be discarded. Enterprises which deny that they are there for the profit should be avoided by job seekers who wish to escape poisoned corporate airs.

Contact - Not to be cultivated excessively. Is an indispensable condition for teamwork, but no substitution for it. In the end, what counts is productivity and not the atmosphere.

Discipline - Should be substituted by motivation. However this has proven not always to be possible, whatever the degree of democratic desirability.

Elucidation - There cannot be enough of it. The act of explaining is never a loss of effort or time.

Formality - A way of letting weak personalities play a strong role. Admissible in controllers, but making big bosses look a little smaller.

Gang-leader - Mostly up to something nasty rather than to something nice. Even if he happens to be a good worker he will make management feel uneasy.

Haughtiness - An attitude which is rarely concomitant with real competence. If there are signs of intelligence anyway, behavioral advice should be given and may have a healthy effect.

Intimacy - Please not on the working place. If a boss happens to indulge, fire him rather than his object of desire.

Jeering - Only allowed at soccer games.

Kisses - Unhygienic and therefore OUT, whatever the emotional implications.

Looks - More important than egalitarian minds are likely to admit. The wise business man will afford to be politically incorrect and give in to aesthetics, especially when it comes to shop-windows, sales personnel and receptionists.

Marketing - Whoever claims competence in it, without ever having tried his hands at sales, is like an officer who never went through basic military service. That's the way wars are lost.

Nepotism - An inheritance from the glorious times of strong family firms. The effect on corporate morality is murderous. Management does not have to be particularly progressive to avoid this kind of provocation.

Organization - Can never be entirely fair to human nature. It handles people as if they were pens not applied to write upon paper but to punch holes into it. However, mankind has to choose between accepting this kind of abuse or living on trees. Whoever dreams of unhampered human fulfillment, will have to leave the organization and try to go back to paradise. No notice has appeared of anybody ever having reached it, in spite of the pleasant perspectives opened by the likes of J.J.Rousseau.

Promotion - Never try to turn a competent professional into a leader without him showing the desire of being one. One loses a good employee without gaining a supervisory asset.