On honesty…
Earlier tonight, I went to the neighborhood grocery store on a whim. Randomly, I went to a few aisles and picked up whatever my impulse tells me –yes, I do this from time to time, for no apparent reason really. After one swoop, I went to the check out counter with four items: a pack of banana chips, a liter of pulpy orange juice, a pack of apples and a pint of pistachio ice cream. I paid a couple hundred bucks for the purchase. Took the receipt and started walking towards the exit.
Taking a quick glance at the small piece of paper on my hand before crumpling it and throwing it away, I noticed that only three items were accounted for so I went back to my counter to pay for the overlooked item. You see, I never cheat on any of my purchases, however cheap or costly it may be. This is one of the very few (only as of now) principles I live by consistently. Everything went fine –another honest day chalked up.
But then, as I was walking away, I saw the nearest watchman kind of smirk at my cashier lady. I realized then how my good deed could have made her look awful. I mean, I’m sure that was an honest mistake on her part and I don’t have any problems with that kind of mistakes whatsoever. But then, my and the business’ take on this are probably treading very different routes. To me, it was really nothing. While to the, let’s say, store manager, it may be one x mark on the lady’s performance.
Now I felt kind of sad with what happened. Had I ignored the slip and walked away from paying for the missed item, everything would go on like nothing’s happened. But because I did not walk away, I served the Corporation (let’s just use this term for the grocery business because it’s cool that way) right and possibly made the Individual (the cashier lady or any employee for that matter) look bad. Well, I know that what I did was the right thing to do. But thinking about the constant battle of the Corporation vs. the Individual, I cannot help but want to side with the latter –because of me being part of that set in my own workplace. With that in mind, now I don’t really know what to make out of the good deed I just carried out.
Oh, well.
I’m not sure if I made any sense but that’s that. It’s 3:28 AM anyway.
