"Following the Systems"

a.k.a. "Obeying the Law"

It's funny (not in a "ha ha" sort of way), but I often get chided for my sometimes rigid adherence to systems. Not that this bothers me - I grew up in a family where we were always able to find something to give each other a hard time about, so it more or less rolls off me. Plus, I know that I will sometimes overreact to some of these things and worse, demonstrate an inflexibility that essentially paints a target on my forehead for this sort of banter.

That being said, I think it's important we look at "systems" in a larger, societal context, and consider the importance, both for yourself and others, of following those systems - or, as the title of this blog implies, obeying the law.

The idea for this blog came to me when I was sitting in the line-up at the border after the STP. I was at the truck crossing, and as we all know, there's a single lane for cars; the lane next to it is for buses/Nexus only, and the far one for trucks. Well, here's the thing: despite being well marked, a large number of cars will drive ahead in the bus/Nexus line to skip the car line-up, and then bully their way into car line-up near the front. I had someone decide to do this in front of me, and we had a little showdown - in fact, the only reason I relented was because of the ripple effect it was having behind me, slowing down other people who had patiently waited in the same line-up as me. So after coming within inches of hitting the other car, I opened a gap.

How many of you have done this? Not at the truck crossing, maybe, but gone into a lane you know full well is a turn-lane only, just so that you could skip the line and cut back in at the front? Let me ask you this - what the hell do you think gives you the right, makes you so special, that you deserve treatment better than all of the rest of us? Now let me suggest another, much more likely possibility - you don't think at all. In an ultimate act of selfish and self-serving behaviour, you drive alongside that lane and cut in because YOU don't want to have to wait, and don't think it's fair to YOU.

I am not noble, I am not a selfless individual - these are not the reasons for my following what's been laid out. No, it's actually that I detest hypocrisy and hold integrity in the highest regard. You see, I hate it when people do it to me - so I will never do it to someone else. Laws exist for a purpose - they are what allow us to co-exist comfortably and securely in the world. When people start making their own rules, it throws the natural ebb and flow off - how do you know what rules you're supposed to be following, when everyone's making their own up? Okay, so maybe you let people in because someone let you in - but if that was how it was supposed to work, then that lane wouldn't have been designated for another purpose. And now, some will let people in, some won't, next thing you know there's an accident, the traffic behind is all held up, and I'm somewhere back there chewing off my steering wheel because again, my own forward momentum is held up because people aren't following the systems.

Well, the systems at a company are the same as the laws in the real world - the are there for a reason, and if everyone just operated within the parameters that are laid out, then we'd all be able to move ahead faster. So the next time you are going to do something you know isn't policy/legal/ethical, please, stop and think: what are the potential ripple effects of this choice I know to be wrong, and how can I justify it?

Yes, I know that there will always be jackasses who continue to operate outside the systems because of their inherent narcissism and self-absorption, and you may be one of the few who are actually obeying that particular law/following that particular system - but at least there's one less person contributing to that problem now, and one less person holding up the forward momentum.

~Guy