A friend of mine got a speeding ticket and had to attend one of those safe driving schools. The class was taught by a police officer and was rather informal. At one point, the officer took general questions from the students and one asked if police officers had to write a certain number of traffic tickets in order to meet a quota.
The officer smiled and replied, "No. But if we had a quota, we could meet it within a half hour at most intersections."
Such is the messiness of life. We are surrounded by the challenges of what to ignore and what to address, what to neglect and what to enforce. The supervisor who adopts rigid enforcement of minor items - "You were three minutes late!" - can count on subtle retaliatory behavior. The employee who was three minutes late but has seldom taken the entire time allotted for breaks will now do so with a vengeance. Words will be parsed and footnotes will be added. Street justice will be used in response to technical justice.
That's why it always makes sense to determine whether certain issues should be pushed. If the other side feels that the usual deferences have been ignored, the small win today can produce a much larger loss tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment