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I simply can't figure out what some leaders are thinking.
You've probably heard the story. A lifeguard in Florida, Thomas Lopez, got fired last week for leaving his designated area to help a drowning man. Six other lifeguards got fired for saying they would have done the same thing.
What we got initially from Jeff Ellis of Jeff Ellis Management, the private contractor who employed the lifeguards, were lame prattlings about policy and liability. Then the media got a hold of the story, and Ellis said he would review the situation to see if their supervisor acted rashly. Under the glare and bombardment of critics from coast to coast, Ellis decided to offer the twenty-one-year old Lopez and the other six their jobs back. They told Ellis to take his jobs and shove them, believing the gesture was simply an attempt to save face.
(The interesting thing is that Ellis offered Lopez his job back because it turns out his area was covered by someone else when he left it...not because he did a humane thing.)
I would have liked to have attended the orientation session for these lifeguards the first day on the job. I can only guess it went something like this:
Supervisor: Now I want to be clear. You are never to leave the area that you are working on a particular day. Never.
Lifeguard: What if a man is drowning in another area and there is no one else to save him?
Supv: You never leave your area.
LG: Really?
Supv: Really. It's our policy.
LG: What if he's bobbing up and down yelling for help?
Supv: You never leave your area.
LG: What if others are screaming for you to come help?
Supv: Ignore them.
LG: What if I can see him choking and spitting water out and flailing around in desperation?
Supv: You never leave your area.
LG: What if it's obvious that he's dying?
Supv: Stay where you are.
LG: And if he dies?
Supv: Leave the area and you'll be fired. We wouldn't want to take the chance of being sued.
LG: But what happens to me if I have the means to help, but don't?
Supv: We have lawyers for that.
LG: Can I at least watch him die through my binoculars?
Supv: That would be acceptable.
I know I really don't need to drive home the obvious points about how need trumps policy, and saving a human life supersedes money. Every human being who's read the story knows all of that to be true and has reacted accordingly.
What I will say is that I don't blame the misguided supervisor that fired him. That person will be vilified by outsiders and has already been scapegoated by Ellis. No, I blame Ellis. It's his company and it's my guess that he created the culture in which the supervisor felt compelled to make that choice.
Bad choice it was, and I think Jeff Ellis Management has only begun to feel the repercussions.
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