Sidetrack

It seems that if you are too honest, chances are you would be sidelined. Employees with integrity that speak up with good intentions for the organisation are usually shut off by management or even their peers. This would induce staff to work in a self-preservation manner and play it safe by covering up deficiencies in an organisation. As a result, many companies lose out on valuable feedback and opportunities. The problems subsist and eventually the failure to address genuine concerns in time will lead to disastrous results.

I had read a story in an email about doing the right thing. There was a place just off a train station with a rail track in service in the open and an abandoned rail track in the woods. There was a little boy who would usually play on the abandoned track by himself, while the rest of the kids would play on the rail track in service knowing that it was dangerous.

One day, a train with faulty brakes zoomed past the train station without stopping. The train was heading towards the group of kids who were playing on the track in service. One of the train staff saw it and could choose to either let the train continue on the track or divert the train to the abandoned track. From where he was, he could not call out to either of the kids. If you were the train staff, what would you do?

Most people would have chosen to divert the train to the abandoned track, thinking that it would be better sacrificing the life of one child instead of a whole group of kids. This means the boy who was doing the right thing by playing on the abandoned track would be injustly punished. Yet most people would have felt they had made the right choice.

However, the moral decision would have been not to do anything at all and let the train continue on its track. The reason being that the kids who were playing on the track in service were aware that a train could come any time. Most likely they would have avoided the incoming train BUT the little boy who was playing on the abandoned track would not have expected any train to come by and would almost surely be run over. Also, by diverting the train onto the abandoned track would be putting the passengers on the train at risk as the track was most likely abandoned for safety reasons!

Yet many a time, people tend to make a choice that sacrifices the minority who could be right. If that is the case, who would want to be the good guy?