Do unto others is a rule that applies in interpersonal actions.
In a system, especially a workplace1, your duty is to make things fair for you2. What is fair for you is not dependent on what is fair for every one. It is the system’s duty to make it fair for others. By the system i mean the other individuals and the processes and structures and whatnot. This is why we unionize, because it makes it easier to ask for fairness if a bunch of us are. But I don’t know if that will always work and work in your favor. I think collective action needs more energy and investment than I am willing to put into most work related things.
if you try to ensure that things are fair for you and for everyone else, you are making the assumption that you know what is fair for everyone and you don’t. You know what is fair to you.3
so you ask for that. and when something is unfair to you, you do not say OK, I will tolerate this because the system is unfair to other people also. because then you’ve just made one more unfair thing happen.
you can support things that other people want. you can speak up for those without a voice, and be transparent. all that is good. but making a system unfair for yourself because you feel bad for other people overall supports the system’s continued unfairness.
there is a malignant form of an inner-do-gooder that we are infected with, which i think of as Augustine’s influence on the world. and that is broken4. it is safe to ignore it.
- OK,fine, #NotAllWorkPlaces, you figure which one you’re in ↩︎
- within reasonable* limits ↩︎
- period ↩︎
- the world suffers from a particular form of christian morality that Augustine “invented”, and he stole a lot of it from Plato ↩︎
*professional ethics