When I was a humble bank employee (around six months ago), I practiced the politically correct rules that an employee of a bank must if he is to survive in the 21st century. As politically incorrect rules didn’t exist.
Whilst rules made me follow a code of conduct, they didn’t force me to believe in them.
It’s only since I’ve been working for myself that I have been truly politically correct in my lifestyle.
My wife has a fulltime job and our two children have various activities/tasks that must be fulfilled. I’m – more often than not – the one that farewells our twelve year old when he walks to school in the mornings and am home to greet him in the afternoon. I feed him on both occasions. I’m also tasked with cooking a meal most evenings – something that my wife was doing prior to my career change – only because she got home before I did.
This wasn’t something we discussed prior to me changing roles. It just happened to work out that way.
As it turns out I love to cook but hate to clean (does anyone enjoy cleaning?). I’m typing this article seated next to a Dyson vacuum cleaner. I’m psyching myself up to use it before my colleague arrives in an hour.
It dawned on me that all the rules in the corporate world will not allow someone who isn’t already wired that way to change if they don’t want to.
A few examples:
I once worked with a bloke who –when looking for a new employee – would sort job applications into two piles. One pile for applicants that had attended the right private school and another pile that qualified for automatic rejection.
That was decades ago.
When I enquired how I slipped through the net, he said – quite seriously – I was on leave when your application came in.
Now, this bloke changed his ways over the years and became quite a long-lived banker. He’s now retired and a good friend of mine. But did he really change or was he smart enough to know that if he didn’t he would not survive?
Another example occurred when I was working for a bank whose country head would not employ a candidate because he was divorced (even though he was the best candidate for the role) – and you would be surprised how recent that was.
There are many examples of bastardry by one employee to another. I’m sure all modern organisations have a set of rules and values that are designed to prevent the above from occurring. But they fail – often. I haven’t seen that all the rules and KPI’s have changed anything.
If you are not wired that way (that is, trained to respect those unlike you – either by gender, race or ability) from an early age, no amount of rules will ever change the way you behave.