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Fifty Pounds of
Principle
by
Christopher Chaney
First
Enron Corp., with Arthur Andersen LLP, and eventually followed by
Worldcom. Now included under
the dark cloud of investigation Tyco International (TYC), Adelphia
Communications (ADELA), Computer Associates (CA), Qwest Communications
(Q), and Global Crossing, according to Business Week Online.
It
doesn’t end there. CEO
Martha Stewart now finds herself being queried for possibly trading
stocks with inside or privileged information.
Finally, a financially troubled Kmart receives bad press for
traveling to bankruptcy court in a million dollar private jet.
Once at bankruptcy court, Kmart’s bankruptcy attorney ($695.00
per hour) argues many hours, convincing a federal bankruptcy judge to
approve a $2 billion dollar line of credit—allowing Kmart to “give
it another shot” at trying to make the company profitable.
Now, with all that said, if you think
this article is simply going to talk about the “evil and greed” of corporate executives, then hold on
to your hat! I’m going to
share a personal history from my early days of employment.
That illustrates no matter what your station in life, acting in
principled or unprincipled ways always makes a difference.
While
working as a landscaper one sunny Southern California work day, another
co-worker and I completed fertilizing a beautifully landscaped
building on a Naval base. We
did excellent work. We were
so efficient in the use of fertilizer that we completed our work, with a
full 50 pounds to spare—incidentally, all of which was paid for by the
federal government.
After
loading the truck, my co-worker and I headed back to the shop to
conclude the work day. First however,
he made a quick detour through the parking lot, stopped at his personal
pickup truck and quickly threw the extra 50 pound sack into the back of
his truck. He then looked
at me and said, “don't you think that with all the money our company
makes, and all the work I put in, and for what I get paid, I don’t
deserve a bag of fertilizer?”
My response was something like, “Do the contractor and company
supervisors say it’s okay?” His
response was, “They don’t have to say it’s okay; it’s expected
and they do the same thing when they drive the company trucks to conduct
personal business.” Before I could say more, the truck was in drive and we were
speeding through the parking lot, minus one fifty pound bag of
fertilizer.
My
point is to use recent incidents of corporate pillaging and
malfunctions, as lessons to all of us.
Is the company executive who takes a multi-million dollar loan
from a company that is pending bankruptcy, more evil than the man who
threw the extra bag of fertilizer into his pickup?
Perhaps one might argue the significance of the damage, without
examining the principle of action.
However,
if you find yourself asking, “How could those executives do that?”
Then perhaps we should check his resume to see if he once worked
as a landscaper, spreading fertilizer for the government!
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