Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We have a #1 response of any bureaucracy in the 21st century.

Any time a bureaucracy has a flub up (technical term), the response is the same:

We will address this item as we change the training.

This is the #1 response to any situation in the 21st century. Gosh. At least they have training.

This is the hallmark of an organization that has a simple rule #1:

Follow our complex rules to the letter.

This implies simple rule #0:

No individual judgement is allowed on the job.

If an employee does something on the job that embarrasses the organization, that is because the organization did not address that situation in training. (See the US TSA for many examples.) Hence, the organization will change its training to include the unforeseen situation that brought such great embarrassment.

The organization will never, ever, ever (did I mention never?) resort to hiring competent people who can exercise good judgement in the face of such unforeseen circumstances. The organization will never issue policies that guide employees in unforeseen circumstances. The organization’s senior managers are brilliant enough to foresee all possible unforeseen circumstances. That is until one tiny unforeseen circumstance sneaks out of some hidden crack and occurs in public to great embarrassment.

Oh, well. Let’s all be a bit more forgiving of organizations. It is difficult to train non-thinking persons for every circumstance.

Then again, maybe organizations should attempt to hire thinking persons who can judge what to do.

Here is a policy to try:

Treat people with dignity.

The earth will not stop spinning if you do so.