Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

A veto is where one person can say NO, and that over rules a multitude of YESs. Look around and notice the prevalence of the veto.

I was in a fast food restaurant early on a recent Saturday morning (old people like me tend to do those things). Three teens were sitting in a booth listening to music on a computer and singing along with the songs. They were a bit noisy.

The restaurant manager asked people like me if the teens were bothersome. I shrugged an “okay.” Each person in the place agreed that while a bother, there was no need to boot the teens.

This, however, was a classic veto situation. If one customer said, “Please tell the kids to be quiet,” the manager would have done so no matter how many customers said, “they are kids and they are not acting up, so let them be.”

A veto is where one person can say NO. That single NO overrules a multitude of YESs.

The veto exists in government. Well, of course, the President has authority to veto acts of Congress. I am not writing about that veto. There is another veto alive and well in government buried down in the bureaucracy.

Almost any one at any level at any salary can veto decisions made at the highest level.

Don’t believe it? I have seen it – many times. One person takes a paper that requires a simple initial to pass on, puts that piece of paper in the bottom of the In Box, and leaves it there. This occurs in even in those enlightened government bureaucracies that use electronic vice paper routing. The veto-er simply ignores an item he doesn’t like.

These veto-ers can be found and coerced into voting YES with everyone else. That, however, takes effort from people higher in the organization. Those higher-ups, are busy doing things that higher-ups do to fill their days. They assume that once they made a big decision, everyone below them will execute all the little tasks to implement the decision. Silly notion.

Vetoes exist in non-government organizations as well. Ever see a baggage handler at an airport handle some bags carefully while tossing others wildly? That handlers is exercising the inherent veto power of the job.