The Death of All Things Good

I have always believed that people in general are capable of doing good. More often than not, it is the circumstances in which they are that make them do unpleasant acts that have the potential to hurt or harm others. Something happened yesterday and that had me thinking for a long time. I thought I should document, and perhaps welcome others’ views on the subject.

Many of you know that I travel by car to the office. Over the course of the last year, this has evolved into a nice little car pooling arrangement that works as a back office. My co passengers, Dr. AP (40 yo. A marketing faculty, senior and group representative in the academic council) and MR. GR (72 yo. The manager of the MBA and BBA offices), are both very serious about work. More often than not, our little car rides (that last about 20-40 mins back and forth) have become a sort of back office arrangement. The issues that we could not solve in office, we’d discuss and resolve in the car. Some student was having trouble understanding in class, no problem! There was an issue with attendance, not to worry! A cultural event to arrange next weekend, no problemo! Everything could be done through the act of transparent communication and delegation. In summary, our car trips have morphed into some sort of a team building exercise over the last six months.

Given the age of Mr. GR, walking long distances was a difficult activity. Furthermore, he was understandably slow and required help sometimes when climbing up and down stairs and other obstacles. This meant that he required some degree of assistance. It is in this context that one should examine the relationship between Dr. AP and Mr. GR. During the same time that I was learning to give and take during our ride, Dr. AP began treating Mr. GR like he would treat his father or uncle. Given that Dr. AP stayed closer to Mr. GR (their homes were about 100m away from each other), this relationship clearly had more context to grow into something more beautiful. I had often wondered, would I be able to provide an elderly gentleman with the same kind of care that Dr. AP was able to give Mr. GR. For instance, after I drop them at their stop, it is AP who takes the effort to arrange for an auto to their location, something that was about a km or two away (our paths diverge at this point). I too cared for Mr. GR. After having known him for over ten years now (he was the MBA manager at IIM Trichy where I studied), I knew the man to be of impeccable character and resolve. Furthermore, it really takes nerves of steel to work at the age of 72. I am not sure if I would be able to work at his age. The way I showed my care for him was very different. I actually try and drop him as close to the office building as possible. This meant that I would burn some extra fuel in the process and take up about 10-15 mins more time to reach office myself considering the parking spot was a good 1.5 km away from where our actual office was. Had it not been for this little gesture on my behalf, Mr. GR would have had to struggle some more and walk 1.5km as opposed to the 200m he was walking (one way) every day.

Now, boiling down to the reason why I am narrating all these trivial pieces of information on you is to give you the much needed context in which you can understand an occurrence from yesterday. At around 4 pm yesterday, all faculty members at my college received a group email that read,

“Dear faculty members,
_
You are requested to mark your biometric attendance daily at both entry as well as exit time. _

Thank you for your cooperation”

It was signed by the head HR of the organisation.

Ever since that email came through, I have been thinking, what happens if I do not adhere to some sort of arbitrary timing that the HR has decided on? Would I be as motivated as I used to be about all office related matters henceforth? What do I tell my students when they reach out to me later on in the day (which is almost a daily occurrence)? Will I take time off my schedule to drop Mr. GR now because this new policy has in principle put my own needs in cross roads with the needs of others? To be honest, I would have implemented the rule in a very different manner, without really defeating the motivation of my people.

For the students, this example can be quite instructive. No matter what policy you choose to implement, it would have both intended and unintended consequences. Think long and hard about what would happen and how it would make people feel before implementing a policy. If there are going to be unintended consequences, perhaps a good idea would be to sit across the table and actually communicate. Because no harm can happen over a cup of coffee. If not, rest assured that the death of all things good is close.

Have a great day ahead!