In the last few years I have heard a number of stories of
police brutality, corporate mismanagement, a number of societal problems. There is a part of me that wonders “why”, how
is it that groups of humans can be so unkind and greedy to each other on a
whole when individually we are normally decent in face to face encounters. Why do these huge monolithic corporations and
societal constructs (police, government) create such problems for us on such a
large scale?
A single thought hit my head today; that people care more
about their “meta-job” then they care about their actual job. I need to define of course what this “meta-job”
actually is and how it is different than your actual job. I am using “meta” here in the same way that
one does when one speaks of the “meta-game” of a physical or intellectual
sport. There are in the individual rules
that comprise a game of chess or football, but there is also the interaction
between the players, coaches, fans, etc.
People often talk about the tactic of “getting into someone’s head”. This is the meta game, it operates on a
different level then the game itself and can also effect the game’s outcome.
The game’s existence is dependent upon the meta-game and
thus by understanding the meta-game you can affect the game. Think about it this way, by affecting the
player’s mindset you can affect the outcome of the game.
When you put a resume in for a job, you will often have read
something about the nature of the job.
This includes necessary qualifications as well as your
responsibilities. Your responsibilities
are essentially the service that your offering the company in exchange for
money; in other words. That bit of
information is your job. Your job
depends on the relation between yourself and your boss/subordinates and those
who give you what your need for your job.
In the same way that we have the meta game for a game, we
also have the “meta-job” for the job itself.
We have all had the experience of
doing a favor for someone at work either in exchange for a favor, good will, or
the expectation of a favor in the future.
These things are normally done with the expectation of our job being
easier.
But what happens when the “meta-job” is more important than
the job that you are doing. Every time
the police let some rich guy off on a speeding ticket because they are worrying
about losing their job; this is the meta job effecting their real job. Every time a pharmaceutical employee ignores
a drug’s side effects because they want their boss to be happy with the drug
getting released on time; this is the meta job effecting their real job.
A real job often has morality as a necessity; whether it is
the police, or the medical industry, or other similar industries. But what happens when you let the meta-job effect
your real job. What happens when you are
“required” to write a certain amount of citations? What happens when you game the meta-game in
order to try to get a promotion in a company?
What happens you turn into a supervisor who uses his people and
resources in order to make his friend’s life easier because he wants a lateral
transfer for the fast track promotion track.
Or oooo another example, a
commanding officer who uses the fact that all the officers on a base are
friends so when one of his sailors files an appeal on a “captain’s master
(non-judicial punishment) it gets swept under the rug so nothing happens. Here is a scarier question, what happens when
the entire chain of supervisors in a company is trying to do the same thing
(ooo ooo I know….ENRON !!!! :D :D))). At
some point someone needs to say the buck stops here.
Sadly of course there are plenty of examples in which
someone has blown the whistle or put their foot down and said “my
ethical/business responsibilities” are more important than your “promotion” or
your “bottom line”.
Food For Thought
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