Grappling with the Gray #99: The rules of lawlessness?

Can compliance demands undermine a healthy and ethical culture?

That's the question driving the conversation when 🟦 Carolyn Lebanowski, Toni McLelland MSc FRSA, and Colin D Smith join the ethics panel for a special transatlantic episode of Grappling with the Gray.

Here is our topic:

A recent post on Reddit recounts how an employee found themselves reprimanded by their manager for taking 45 minutes for break one day instead of 30 minutes. The employee recalled taking 31 minutes that day, because someone stopped them on their way back with a concern that took time to resolve.

It seems that the company punch clock rounded to the nearest 15 minute interval, thereby inaccurately recording the break time, but the manager refused to accept that explanation.

From that day forward, the employee would go on break exactly seven minutes after the cutoff time and return within seven minutes of the cutoff on the other end. For instance, punching out at 10:08 would get rounded up to 10:15, and punching in at 10:52 would get rounded back to 10:45. In this way, a 44 minute break would be recorded as exactly 30 minutes.

When a supervisor told the employee that it seemed they were gone longer than usual, the employee simply said, “Check the record.”

Novelist Robert A. Heinlein coined the term “white mutiny,” which means following the letter of the law so literally that you subvert the spirit of the law, Amelia Bedilia style. The contemporary term is malicious compliance.

When bosses or managers demand strict compliance to the point where they end up punishing employees because of inequities in their company system, are employees justified in exploiting loopholes in the system to their own advantage?

Meet this week’s panelists:

Carolyn Lebanowski is Strategic Leadership Partner with The Institute for Leadership and LifeLong Learning International advising spiritual nonprofit institutions.

Toni McLelland is Founder and Director of 1st Life Group. She is a Critical Friend & Business Mentor in Social Justice, Mobility & Impact leading sustainable change through DEIB & Compassion.

Colin Smith aka The Listener, works with leaders and professionals to improve the listening, thinking and relationships skills of individuals and teams.

#ethics 

#compliance 

#mindset 

#culture 

#accountability 

#grappling