No Wonder We Don’t Know Anything About Personal Responsibility

Recently a friend was telling me a story about something that happened at work.

According to my friend, the employees had long been allowed to take scrap materials home for personal use.

Then, there came a project where the customer wanted all the scrap materials from that specific project returned to them after completion of the project. Apparently no one told the workers that this particular scrap was “Off Limits”.

One employee on night shift had taken a few pieces of scrap materials home. It just so happened that it was some of the special “Off limits” scrap.

Another employee, on day shift, was driving his truck up to the back and just hauling off all the scrap he could find and selling it. It also happens that it was the special “Off limits” scrap he was taking.

I don’t know how many others may have gotten some of this scrap.

So when someone went to collect the special “Off limits” scrap in order to return it to the customer, there was none left. The Management began to question workers about the scrap.

When the first employee (the one on night shift) answered honestly that yes, he had taken some home, he was suspended without pay for a week. I don’t know what happened to the guy on day shift with the truck. I assume he got far worse punishment. At least I hope he did.

The company has changed their policy regarding scrap materials and now no one can have any scrap material whatsoever.

It seems to me that the guy who took a few pieces of scrap and was honest about it, did no wrong. After all, the policy had been that workers were allowed to take scrap materials home. No one had informed the workers that this particular scrap was off limits. AND this guy was honest. AND this guy did not seem to be abusing this policy.

The guy with the truck seems to have been abusing the privilege (of being allowed to take scrap for personal use). Even had it not been special “Off limits” scrap. Even had there been no stated limits to how much you could take, his taking does seem over the top to me. He was hauling it away in a truck for the purpose of selling it! So I can see punishing this guy. However, he was doing it during day shift when the Management Staff were presumably around. Why did no one notice before this and do something about it?

It seems to me that the company is punishing all the workers for the missing scrap with the new policy of “No one is allowed to take any scrap materials home”. They are punishing the guy on night shift (severely it seems to me). They are probably punishing the guy with the truck.

Someone was supposed to be responsible for communicating the special instructions for this particular scrap. Whoever it was, dropped the ball. What happened to that person? I don’t know. Has anyone even evaluated their communication system? Alas, I doubt it.

The company was in trouble with the customer, and needed a scapegoat or two. So they picked some out.

Unfortunately, this is not that unusual. Those in charge will almost always pick someone on the lower rungs to take the fall when things go wrong. I admit it is easier to do this than to make sure your company is running efficiently and with good communication in the first place. An ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure, but it is easier to find a scapegoat when the **** hits the fan than put in the effort of that ounce of prevention.

It is also common to use group management techniques like punishing the whole group for what one or two individuals have done. I had a teacher once who did this, and called it using “peer pressure” to his advantage. At least he told us up front what he intended to do should one of us act out. The company seems to be using a form of this with their new policy, but peer pressure does not work if no one is informed of the rules. No one knew that this particular scrap was “Off Limits”, and therefore none of the workers had reason to “pressure” the two mentioned above to leave that scrap.

Of course, the company is fully in its rights to make policy about what to do with their scrap, and to discipline their workers. Hoiwever, all actions have consequences. Some of these consequences have ripples of effect.

One of the results of actions like this is in what the workers learn. Often in these types of environments which are more the norm than the exception, people learn that what they do does not matter. That they will get punished or not based on unknowable factors. So why try at all?

To me, this whole thing is irrational. Discipline is supposed to put errant individuals back on the right track. Rewards are supposed to reinforce good behavior. When discipline is imposed upon an individual who thought his behavior was in line, what do you think this individual now feels? To have the rules changed without notice and to then be punished for not following those rules creates rage.

Sure life is unfair, but do we need to add to that? Some things that are unfair are beyond anyone’s control, but some things are within our control.

Should we not think about what we do, and think ahead to the consequences. I fear short term thinking is quite rampant in this world. The short term solution solves the current problem, but often creates new problems for the future. However, I don’t think the company really solved a problem, they covered it up. The problem was lack of communication. By punishing the lowly worker bee, they got their scapegoat so they could get out of trouble with their customer. “See we did something about it!” The problem of poor communication will probably live on to create more problems in the future.

Any thoughts on this?