Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

We sometimes are surprised at what some persons will do. We shouldn’t be.

A recent story reminds us of an oft-repeated story: people will do that. Yes, even that.

The recent story is about how some persons working at Facebook used their inside administrative privileges to “spy” on other persons. There were various excuses for misbehaving, but they did that.

Surprised? I am not, and I believe no one should be. Persons do things they are not supposed to do. They will even do that (fill in “that” with whatever dastardly thing comes to mind).

The Facebook story is just a recent one that was revealed. Other examples? Sure, why not. I cannot cite the references at this time, but some persons at the library sometimes peak at what books some persons are reading, some persons at the Net-plus-dot-streaming service sometimes peak what what movies some persons are watching, some persons at the driver’s license place sometimes peak at the driver’s license photos, and … I could go on for a while. Just consider any place where some persons can observe some other persons.

Horrible? Should persons go to jail? I don’t know about “horrible” and I am not a prosecuting attorney so I don’t know about going to jail.

Human nature? I am not sure what “human nature” is, but if it describes what some persons will do, I guess this is simple human nature. We are curious. Sometimes we are feeling bad and our misfortune leads to misbehaving. That is not a justification, but it is an excuse.

Now I come to the part of this little blog post where I address managers of work and leaders of persons. If you work in a situation where persons can observe persons and are supposed to respect the privacy of persons (seems like that includes more and more of us each day), take care. Place technical means in the way. That is a start, but realize that technical means are only cracked concrete on the freeway in that they slow persons a little. Trust the persons who do the work. Realize that persons do the work and persons have bad days. Know when a person is having a bad day. Ease their day and ease some of the excuse of doing that.