Secret society

What happened was this. The dancing monkey on the gold chain got it into his head that there was a secret society thwarting his boss's plans to drag the factory into the 21st century. The members of the supposed society were lathe operators and the monkey had noticed that when things didn't turn out as planned, the lathe operators would nod at each other and, perhaps, tap an index finger on their noses.

It didn't occur to the monkey that what the lathe operators were being asked to do was not only difficult but foolish, and that maybe that was why things didn't turn out as planned. He simply thought that the lathe operators were acting as though they knew more than he did and were saying, in code, "Hah! Just look at that monkey. What a hopeless little nonentity he is." Deep down the monkey knew this was true, but because all is for show in Monkeyworld he put the thought out of his head. And what the monkey did instead was this: he whispered, as monkeys do, into the ear of his boss, who listened, as bosses will to fawning monkeys, and said that the lathe operators would have to go. Dismantle the secret society. Smash it to pieces. What do we need lathe operators for, anyway?

And that is what happened, though it took a couple of years and caused much misery. And now the factory is all run down and everyone is uphappy - except for the lathe operators who left. And most of them lived happily ever after. Some even went to work in different parts of the factory because - do you know what children? - the bosses eventually came to understand that they'd make nothing but losses and fools of themselves without lathe operators.

Bored now. Make up the rest yourselves.