Like lemmings to the slaughter - part 1

2 days ago, I spoke of a stupid rule at work... and my overall hatred of stupid rules. Sometimes, the rule isn't stupid, but no one will explain to you why it needs to be followed. I really just want a reason. We shouldn't follow rules because we're told to. We should follow rules because it makes sense.

Here's an example from college. This still haunts my dreams. Seriously. It does.

For 3 years at UDel, I lived in the Christiana Towers. For those that don't know the significance of this, they are basically apartments. Unlike a dorm room, we had a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and private bathroom. Also unlike a normal dorm room, we never got kicked out at holidays.

That's where we get to this stupid rule. In a normal dorm, you sign out before the holiday and turn in your room key. Then, after the holiday you sign back in and get your room key returned to you. Fine, that makes sense.

In the towers, we never turned in the room key. In fact, I hardly went home. I spent most of winter break working or taking classes. So you can imagine my surprise when, a week after the spring semester started, I got a voice-mail telling me that I needed to come to the "common area" and sign back in or else they would cancel my room assignment.

Hmm...sign back in? I never signed out. I also never left.

So I went down to the common area and talked to the person working there (another college student). They had no idea why we have to sign in. It's just something we have to do. And if we didn't sign back in then they could take our room away. Well, I thought that sounded pretty stupid. So I didn't sign it.

A few days later I got a voice-mail from one of the managers for the towers. They left the same message. Come down and sign or you can get your room taken away.

So again, I went down and spoke to this person. She was older, and I figured would know more about it. She said that signing this paper proved that we were here at school. Without signing they would assume the room is empty and put someone else in there.

So I asked, "What about the fact that I am signed up for classes, paid my housing fee, attend classes, and never actually left during the winter? Doesn't any of this prove that I'm here?"

She gave me a Deer-in-headlights look and told me that she really didn't care. It was policy and I had to sign.

After a few more minutes of trying to "reason" with her, I gave up. I figured that it was easier to give in and sign rather than go through the hassle of getting a real explanation that made sense.

And to this day I am angry with myself for signing the paper. I should have gone up the chain of command until someone could tell me why I needed to do this. Maybe I could have been the one to change school policy. Maybe I could have made a difference. Maybe I could have made the world just a little bit better.

...but instead I signed the paper like a chump.