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.

Like lemmings to the slaughter - part 2

If I learned one thing from Mr Bacon, my high school history teacher, it's that you should always question things. Question rules. Question policies. Question everything. Now, don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean you should ignore rules... you shouldn't break rules... but question why they are in place, and if they are effective in controlling what they intend.

Because there is nothing that pisses me off more than someone who blindly enforces rules without knowing why!

It seems that the higher-ups at my place of work have decided that they need to crack down on people who steal laptops. Now, I've never heard of a laptop being stolen at work... EVER... but hey, maybe they cover that stuff up from us contractors. Fine, whatever.

so they created a new policy. You have to "register" your laptop in the system and then print out a property pass that you keep with your laptop at all times. We've been told that security will randomly stop people to check their passes. If you don't have one then they take your laptop.

I have so many issues here that it's going to be difficult to keep the story straight... so let's try numbering them...

1. This applies to employees and contractors alike. Sure it makes sense if you have a dupont laptop. But I don't! I have my own laptop! So if a security guard asks me to hand it over to him because I don't have a pass, then I'll go ape-shit on his ass. That's theft in my book.

2. Let's talk about this pass. It's not an official laminated card that comes in the mail. It's not a sticker that you put on the laptop. It's not a water-marked unchangeable document. It's a freakin 5 line word doc that says you own this laptop. What's to stop someone from taking someone else's pass and changing the name on it? Hell, I've already done it 3 times for fun! (it would seem that Will Smith, Captain Planet, and Hitler all own my laptop as well).

3. How can they possibly expect people to carry this at ALL times? What if you grab your laptop one day and not the bag? What if you lose your laptop bag? What if you get a new laptop with a new serial number? To just confiscate someone's laptop is ridiculous! Most people continue to work at night at home... now they can't do that if they don't have a computer to work on. The company is hurting itself here.

4. So what pisses me off the most is that the rule came down and people are just doing it. They aren't even questioning if this is a good idea. Why are we carrying a pass? Why can't there be a more secure and less invasive method? They just say "Do it or you get in trouble." It drives me crazy!

This rule is stupid.

You might notice that the blog title says "part 2" and you can't find a part 1. Well, I didn't write it yet. I was going to put both parts together but this blog is already long enough. so later this week I'll explain a similar story from college which still haunts my dreams...