Physiology of Right and Wrong

Part of human existence is the desire to have power or be powerful. If one is powerful than they are above all others and that commands respect and high social standing. People abusing the limited power they hold be it in their title or position often demonstrates the want of acceptance.

These people feel that their title gives them the complete right to do as they wish, and how they wish to do it. Even if in general society their actions deemed unacceptable, in their position they feel 'above' society. This normally found in any situation whereas there is a hierarchy of leadership. The basic principle that there is someone 'higher' ranking than they are, this sets them off into a pattern of abusing the limited power they hold to make themselves appear more powerful.

A large company like DWI needs to pay very close attention to their employees, especially middle management for they are the most at risk. This is because of the small amount of power they hold above the lower management and they crave for more. This varies with level as well. Whereas in retail an assistant store manager will have the power complex, yet the store manager does not. When a district manager enters the picture, the store manager temporarily gets the concept to appear in more power of his crew. This goes on up the chain of command until it reaches the top executives. Once it reaches this level they can fight like to neighbors always trying to 'one-up' each other, or they allow the system to roll on and continue to make them money.

There are a few such examples where this abuse of power can really cost a company like DWI a lot of respect. One such example is also the most prevalent. Pay, or underpay one might call it. It is fully within a company's right to pay their employees the absolute bare minimum they can get away with. Get away with meaning at least minimum wage in the US. They do this to cut down on overhead and increase the profit share. Simple enough, yet, when looking at some company is who only pay these low wages, they also have incredibly high employee turnover. Fast food restaurants for example, they only pay the basic employee minimum wage, and their managers do not make much more.

From my experience when I was working these types of jobs, there where several restrictions on what you can and cannot do. As in, discounts for meals or even break times where none existent, which combined with the bare minimum pay, caused many of the employees to steal from the company and quit without notice leaving the business short handed until a new group of workers came in.

The philosophy of these was always the same; there is someone else out there who is willing to work in your place. Yet, they never work for very long once they learn about this abuse of power the company holds so dear.

Along the same lines of low pay comes no pay or regular pay for overtime duties. Most businesses who have salaried employees expect fifty hours plus a week of work. Forty hours, is considered full time and so there are an extra ten hours whereas the employee works free in essence. This is also a very standard practice whereas to get the most work out of an employee with the least amount of pay.

These companies are within their right to offer these type of substandard pay rates, yet, to most it is not right. Right in the sense of keeping the moral high and with a high moral the level of work improves. The quality as well as output improves because the employee feels as though they are worth something and not just another warm body taking up space.

Another example of right vs. right to do, demonstrates the power concept perfectly, is when a person in position or rank demeans another simply because they can. The best example I can give you for this is in the military.

While in the military, I heard repeatedly that even if I do not respect the person I need to respect the rank. Yet, to me they are one in the same. There was no way I could respect the rank when the person behind it was on a power trip. I am a big guy, so I am told, and for the most part people do not bother me out of fear. I do not try to be fearful, it just happens that way because people are not used to someone being as opinionated as I nor with the shear physical presence I bring. Yet, I have had 'bosses' (for a simplistic explanation) who would be amused that they could now 'tell off' this big guy, whereas in the civilian world they would never dream of such a thing.

These bosses where much smaller than me, and would abuse their rank and position by ordering me to do the worst possible tasks at the worst possible times. Two am, while every one is asleep out in the middle of nowhere, they would call on me to crawl my way through the dark tent and take a bag of trash to a truck not more than 5 feet from the front of the tent. Where they within their right to order this? The answer is yes, they were fully within their right to order a lower ranking soldier to do something in the middle of the night. Was it right that they do so? No, not at all, being on how they were closer to the front of the tent as well as other soldiers of similar ranking yet, they chose me.

These bosses would also single me out for 'extra' inspection, whereas they would allow a fellow solider to 'slide' a little with their uniform yet with me, they would find every minor fault and over punish for each one. Granted, there were times when their bosses would see this abuse and step in, but it never ended. Even while in different units with different bosses, because of my shear presence I was always singled out for 'extra' abuse.

As a mechanic in the motor pool, you have a duty to properly and correctly fix and maintain vehicles. The simple fact is that you hold someone's life in your hands if you mess up. There are certain procedures one has to follow when giving annual maintenance to a vehicle, a certain protocol if you would. For one such truck, it should by the book, take a week to run through protocol. Ad a wrecker attachment to the truck it takes a bare minimum of two full weeks of work for protocol. My bosses ordered me to finish the protocol and maintenance on the vehicle in two days. This instance they where not within their right, to a point. They were in since of out ranking me and ordering me to do so, yet not in the sense of the safety procedures, they wanted me to skip, and the fixes that needed to be made to the vehicles.

Regardless to say, it was my assigned vehicle, and I kept it in the best shape I could, even if it took me extra time to do so. Yet, this command they gave me of undercutting the maintenance did come back to haunt them. I was placed at another unit on base, and heard from a fellow soldier, my former bosses had a huge inspection from their superiors and they where severally marked down for the condition of a certain vehicle. Like any good boss they tried to pin it on me, yet several other soldiers stood up for me stating that I did ask for certain things for the truck and so on. Their superiors did not look highly on this situation and my former bosses where reprimanded for their actions.

I could almost write a book on examples from the military alone, but it does not only happen in the military.

I was working retail for a very large sporting goods chain. An assistant store manager told me to move some dumbbells from one area to another area about five feet away. This incorporated moving close to a ton of free-weights, literally nearly two thousand pounds. I did this very carefully, for the injury in my back I did not want to aggravate. However, once the task was accomplished this manager stated she/he did not like them there and wanted me to move them back. I stated to her that I could not, because of the strain, it had already put on me, and that there was another, younger/stronger employee scheduled to arrive in just a few minutes and they would be fresh enough to handle it. She/he stated that they wanted me specifically to move them, and so I told them I needed to take my lunch break first to rest. I was allowed my break and I did not return afterwards. I came into the business the next day with my letter of resignation and they presented me with a letter of suspension. The next day I was terminated under mutual reasons.

Who was right under this situation? The manager was within right of her/his position to order me to accomplish a task that needed to be done. It was not right of them to do this knowing of my disability (I had worked there for nearly two years). Further more it was not right of them to ask me to move them back after I stated my injury was being aggravated. I was in the wrong for not returning to work after my break, yet, I was right to not return in avoidance of a situation that might have escalated out of control. I was in the right returning the next day with my letter of resignation, my two week notice. They were within their right to suspend me for not returning to work. This situation is full of rights and wrongs, yet the bottom line being that the manager had the right to order me to move the equipment, but it was not right of her to due so knowing of my injuries and possible aggravation it would cause.

I could really go on with situations like these; however, this is only a three-page paper so I will end it here. References for this work are my life experiences. Everything I have witnessed and experienced has taught me a lot about what is right and wrong and within your right to do.