There was a story in the newspaper today where a young lifeguard was fired after saving a drowning man's life . This took place in Miami(click here to read the story).
You are probably thinking "isn't that a lifeguard's job?" And yes, you would be correct. But you see the drowning man was "outside the boundaries" (by 400 metres) of where the company responsible for the lifeguarding was paid to patrol. So he broke the rules and saved a drowning man, who didn't have the foresight to try to drown in the right area!
Yes, the drowning man was swimming at his own risk in a so-called "non supervised area" and as such, by the actions of this lifeguarding company, he deserved to die. Maybe they thought if this man died, then they could get more business from the county to supervise this other beach, because letting this man die would "show them!"
This adherence to rules and the lack of humanity is abhorrent. The manager who decided to fire this young man will probably be fired for what he did, but this kind of behaviour comes from the top, not from the one manager. He is just following the prevailing culture of this company. I don't believe that this was a manger going rogue.
The unfortunate thing is this happens in corporations and governments every day. The courageous "lifeguards" of these enterprises go outside the accepted "rules" to do the "right" and "moral" thing and are then either fired or severely chastised for so doing. And what does this result in? An organizational wide climate of keep your head down, follow the rules and let the proverbial man "drown."
I wish the young lifeguard who got fired well. As this story hits the airwaves I am sure he will get lots of offers for various jobs with various corporations. My fear is that many of those corporations which will offer him a job, do not realize that they have lifeguards in their own corporation which they may have sidelined by being enamoured with bureaucracy.
Let's hope he gets a job with a firm that truly embraces courage and authenticity!
1 comment:
Good observation and see this all too often. It is a significant shift in our thought process when doing the right thing is not always the right thing and when you do the right thing you pay dearly. Well written Dorothy
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