Yesterday, I had two experiences that brought home a major problem of our culture … it’s inhumanity. We tend to think of this as a corporate problem, for example the stories of insurance companies denying claims or corporations moving forward with toxic products that harm their employees and the environment. It’s all about money, the bottom line, not about people.
But yesterday, the experience was more “up front and personal.” When I was at the local supermarket, the deli manager did not look happy. I usually banter with her so I asked her what was wrong. She told me that management is not allowing her to take time off to get her brakes fixed. And they need to get fixed.
The second experience was at a Mexican restaurant I frequent. I said to the waitress, who is always there and very pleasant, that when I was there the last time neither she nor any of the usual staff was there. She confided in me that the manager had put her on probation and cut her hours because she had had to take off from work because her son was in the hospital!
What is wrong with people? This is not a situation where a corporation is dealing with someone who is anonymous, a number, where inhumanity is bad enough. This is person to person, people who work together every day. And still, the reaction of management is impersonal, inhumane. The restaurant isn’t even a corporate setting.
I’m sure that management’s response would be that they are judged by the numbers they produce. So they have to be strict. But this is not about being strict. If someone has to take time off to get their brakes fixed, this is an emergency or will prevent one. If a child is taken to the hospital and the mother feels she needs to be there, then don’t punish her.
I assume that both these individuals did not have any personal time left, if they even had any to begin with. And I’m sure it’s an inconvenience for management to get someone else to cover their hours. But there’s always someone looking for extra hours. Or someone to shift around.
I have a suspicion that part of the reason for management’s reaction was that the requests were from hourly staff. If someone salaried asked for time off for these purposes, my bet is that it would probably have been granted. In today’s workplace, there is no respect for hourly staff; they are expendable.
The point of this post is that the inhumanity of our culture (see my various posts, for example, “Creating a Safer World for Our Children”) has seeped into all corners, even small, person-to-person settings. People are infected by the bug of impersonality. Their addiction to their screens and social media has made them oddly incapable of handling real live interactions; studies have shown this. I would bet that 40-50 years ago, these two women would not have had this experience.
When Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson speaks about the need for more decency in our society, she has hit the nail on its head. Unfortunately, having people see that need, let alone guiding them to the point where they are able to act on that need, is a lost cause for the mass of people. They are a total captive of our culture. The problem is not just Trump, it is our culture.
But as I always say, individuals have the ability to march to a different drummer. They can build their own world of humanity regardless what is going on around them. It takes great discipline and faith. But it is possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment