Some long time ago, I used to supervise people. Once I began doing that, I quickly became aware that I had to be cautious about my committing any "random acts of kindness, compassion, generosity", etc., etc, etc. Because I discovered that many people would take advantage of such things.
For instance, I learned to carefully weigh someone's request for time off. To consider a person's request, not just in light of whether the business could afford to lose their output during their time off, but also in light of whether that particular person was likely to form a habit of taking time off if I too easily granted them their wishes.
Now, I could give many other examples, many of them not so trivial as that one, but I think you might get my drift. There seemed to be a conflict between my freely expressing some things -- freely expressing compassion, kindness, etc -- and running a productive and profitable business.
But none of that made much difference to me -- it was all par for the course -- until some events occurred to make me acutely dissatisfied with such things. So dissatisfied, in fact, that I eventually swore I'd never again in my life supervise people. And I largely have kept to that promise made to myself.
Perhaps most importantly, because of my own experience, I began to suspect there might be a more general lesson to be drawn. I began to wonder whether all or most all business organizations suffer from similar problems!
It's quite a leap from one person's experiences to seeing those experiences in an universal light, but I think the question of whether they might be at least somewhat universal is a good one.
So, do you think business organizations (or even all hierarchical organizations) have a tendency to limit or constrain the extent to which such things as compassion, kindness, generosity, intimacy, friendship, and so forth are expressed?
And, if that's so, then is it significant? Is it important? And why or why not?
Last, is there some reliable means of ameliorating or eliminating those constraints? A means that would be both effective in dealing with them, and still allow a business to be run profitably?
What do you think?
For instance, I learned to carefully weigh someone's request for time off. To consider a person's request, not just in light of whether the business could afford to lose their output during their time off, but also in light of whether that particular person was likely to form a habit of taking time off if I too easily granted them their wishes.
Now, I could give many other examples, many of them not so trivial as that one, but I think you might get my drift. There seemed to be a conflict between my freely expressing some things -- freely expressing compassion, kindness, etc -- and running a productive and profitable business.
But none of that made much difference to me -- it was all par for the course -- until some events occurred to make me acutely dissatisfied with such things. So dissatisfied, in fact, that I eventually swore I'd never again in my life supervise people. And I largely have kept to that promise made to myself.
Perhaps most importantly, because of my own experience, I began to suspect there might be a more general lesson to be drawn. I began to wonder whether all or most all business organizations suffer from similar problems!
It's quite a leap from one person's experiences to seeing those experiences in an universal light, but I think the question of whether they might be at least somewhat universal is a good one.
So, do you think business organizations (or even all hierarchical organizations) have a tendency to limit or constrain the extent to which such things as compassion, kindness, generosity, intimacy, friendship, and so forth are expressed?
And, if that's so, then is it significant? Is it important? And why or why not?
Last, is there some reliable means of ameliorating or eliminating those constraints? A means that would be both effective in dealing with them, and still allow a business to be run profitably?
What do you think?