Is my moral compass pointing North?

We often find ourselves spending a lot of time resolving issues around employees who have gone against our internal policies and procedures, sometimes even against the law.

We read of incidences in our cir-cles of colleagues, families, and loved ones who have met some unpleasant incidents or other. No doubt all these incidences have the capacity to create quite a great deal of loss, pain and anxiety.

The question I invite us to ponder is; what are some of the factors that bring about these incidences? Who or what is responsible for this situation? Is it the perpetrator? Is it systems that have failed us? Is it society?

Could it be argued that the victims perhaps put themselves in harms way? (I hear the protests from this provocation!!)

The truth is that we are all responsible in some way. Before the protests rounds ring again kindly afford me an opportunity to explain what makes me take this view.

There are many ways to look at it, but if we take a simple example; think about those of us who have responsibilities to raise younger ones either as parents or we are aunties or uncles or older broth-ers/sisters.  From time to time our children will irk us with wrongful behaviour and will err many a times. What is our typical response in those circumstances?

Do we castigate and look to leave no room for doubt that the behaviours displayed are unacceptable? Do we make it crystal clear that the negative behaviours have to change? Do we reinforce our young ones understanding that words such as ‘please’, ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ are critical words in their vocabulary and must be used liberally? Do they know the basics such as dishonesty is unacceptable and that it would attract negative consequences?

Are they aware that when they play they must learn to be team players and should learn to take loss with dignity? Do they know that sometimes though you may be wronged, you need to take the first step to make amends and apologize even when you are right?

Is being right and honourable still a huge achievement in the sense of a good name surpasses wealth? Or do we find ourselves turning our eyes away, muttering apologies in embarrassment and proceed to make excuses ranging from how the child must have woken upset today, or the classics; the child has inherited the temper of his relatives amongst a whole litany of quite comical excuses that are actually belly laughter evoking.

Well, the reality is that these beautiful cherubs that we excuse from learning accountability, will definite-ly become someone else’s headache in a few short years – in the workplace and in our society.  And they will possess and bear all the hallmarks attributed to the lack of accountability that we embed with the slew of excuses we give on their behalf. Some will be very lazy, others super entitled, others will be involved in all manner of misconduct and such. 

They might have a deep seated sense that they are awe-some, even when they have no results to boot, they may demand the best the world has to offer in record time, with little to no input from themselves as they will not have made the connection between action and consequence.

Sadly, they will also lack the resilience that is increasingly mission critical to survival in a challenging world where hard knocks are in greater abundance than pats on the back. They will suddenly have to reckon with the harsh reality that the world can be a cruel and harsh teacher.

Ultimately some may evolve to become the inefficient, uncaring employee that will be every supervisors nightmare, the irresponsible employee who may end up displaying unacceptable behaviours and the only thing that could be worse if we stretch this analogy a little further; is that the person on the receiving end of this negative behaviours could very well be me and you. This is how we are all responsible, be-cause it is our collective problem in the end.

The great news is, it is never too late. We still have many opportunities as a society or communities to do right by our future. Next time we come across undesirable behaviours in our younger ones we need to ask ourselves the question;

“How do I contribute to making our world better? If not for today certainly for tomorrow?” 

Think about it. I promise you, it is worth your consideration.

Ms Terry Ramadhani is a senior manager in the Human Resources Department, East Africa Aga Khan University