Why is doing the right thing so hard today for so many people?
07/07/08 09:45 AM
Over the course of my career I have struggled to determine what is the “right thing”. Am I an idealist or the loner swimming upstream? My dad was my mentor in a lot of ways, especially in the business world. He loved what he did and after working for one company for over 30 years he said he had finally had enough and left. When I asked him years later why he left he told me “I just knew it was the right thing to do”.
I believe that a lot of people know what the right thing to do is but they are afraid to do it. People who have stood up in business scandals have been labeled troublemakers and some of the senior managers at Enron who said “something stinks here” have never risen to previous employment levels again. But what about the millions of mid-level managers who work for Directors or who are Directors ? Are they willing to do the right thing when they KNOW it’s the right thing or are they willing to scurry back into their cubes just to feed their addiction to their paychecks. Granted it’s not easy to swim against the current and sometimes it is better to let the current pull you along but there will come a time when we all have to pick and chose our battles and make a stand.
The right thing means that you are making decisions as a person rather than a machine and that the decisions you make benefit everyone mostly your customers. It also means that you feel a hell of a lot better about your job and life than others who have to continually and gradually sell themselves down the river just to keep a job. I read in one of the business magazines that I get about how business in the 21st century is going to be transformed. The cube culture of trying to fit in will slowly disappear into jobs that are defined by individuals rather than HR. Recognition will come in the form of tangible rewards and we will all have enough time off to decompress and clear our heads. It has started at some companies already but others are like trying to turn a freighter in a stream..slow and cumbersome.
So if you are reading this ask yourself this “how many times do I do something knowing that it’s not the right thing to do”? If the answer is a lot then you have a choice: either do what is right in your heart or just look at your job as a paycheck. One of these paths will make you feel great the other will lead you down a road that may not have a u-turn.
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