Interesting I found this thread today...
Just this morning a Lady was in the ditch, we have about 12" of snow on the ground. I stopped to see if they were OK and if they needed help. She was stuck pretty good, sideways in the ditch, and had been sitting there for about a half hour, I was the first to stop! I went back home to get a shovel and came back (5 min) - still no others had stopped to offer help. I started digging and noticed a man younger than me standing in his garage just watching. I got the feeling he was wondering if I was blocking him from getting out. A minute later a truck with a blade on it simply drove by - would have been no problem for him to drop the blade and move the snow - instead I kept shoveling. What had happened is another person backed out in front of the lady in the ditch. To make things worse, that person didn't even stop to ask if she was alright. That person just sped off, and no one other than myself offered to help. It would not surprise me if this person didn't even realize what had happened.
The lady in the ditch was really concerned about me being late for work so I had explained that I was self employed and it was no trouble. It made me realize how vast spread the "ME" virus is. On one hand I am pissed because no others stopped to offer help (what if it was Mac's Mom? - or Yours!) - but on the other hand I can understand peoples positions and the fact that for some - might mean loosing their jobs. So I blame most Employers for perpetuating the ME virus.
Afterwords I thought about the incident over and over in my mind and the more I thought about it the more pissed I got. I started thinking about a guy I used to work with before I started my own businesses. He was late for work one day and the company wanted to fire him. The reason he was late was becasue he drove 35 miles in near white out conditions, 40 - 60 mph wind gust and -10 degree weather, it was a blizzard. Nearly half the company that lived within 10 miles called in and would not be in at all. But becasue this faithful employee made it to work, but was late, was now on the chopping block to be made an example of. Thankfully his boss stood up for him and refused to fire him, telling the management that if they ******* him, then he would resign.
I understand the need for leadership and discipline within a company and all that stuff (I've been managing people for 30 years now) but not at the expense of common sense and safety for your employees. Had that employee pushed himself to be at work on time that day he may very well ended up in an accident and possibly dead. It is a real shame that a person can't call their boss and explain they are helping someone get out of a ditch (or some other mishap) then they will be right into work without fear of loosing their job. For me it is more important how you do your job, not that you might be a minute late. In fact, if a company can not function without a certain employee even for 5 min then that company better be paying that person a lot more money or something is deeply wrong with management.
On the flip side you have to be cautions of those that will take advantage of your good will, I just had to recently deal with one of those as well. There is not to many of us left that can combat the spread of the ME virus, so be sure to help every chance you get and hope that the cure affects those around you. This whole situation this morning made me start thinking of a Mellencamp song , one that is greatly under appreciated and under heard.
Another Sunny Day (Seeds of Despair) by John Mellencamp
We see it on TV, we get calls on the phone
By the prophets of doom they won´t leave us alone
The planet is dying and there´s no time to spare
They spend all our days sowing seeds of despair
We get enough bad news to harden our hearts
This fear that we feed on is what´s keeping us apart
To say that we are doomed is just an obvious remark
And it don´t make you right it just keep you in the dark
I don´t want to live angry
I don´t want to live scared
I don´t need no more prophets crying
"Brother beware"
Just put some work in my hand
And give me a dollar to spare
And don´t let me sow those seeds of despair
Well this earth is a graveyard it will swallow our bones
It was here long before us it will be here when we´re gone
And it´s a vain generation that looks for a sign
Don´t you think we could make better use of our time
Yeah, the air could be cleaner and the water could be too
But what we do to each other are the worst things that we do
And we can treasure our freedoms behind our locked doors
But God speed the day when we´re lonely no more
I don´t want to live angry
I don´t want to live scared
I don´t need no more prophets crying
"Brother beware"
Just put some work in my hand
And give me a dollar to spare
And don´t let me sow those seeds of despair
