Comments on: Rule Enforcers and Rule Makers

By: Connie Crosby

Connie Crosby — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:41:26 +0000

Interesting story, and thank you for the post to Jessamyn’s link. I’m glad you met her–you are both some of the coolest people I know. (And my world just shrunk that much smaller!)

By: Gab Goldenberg

Gab Goldenberg — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:01:42 +0000

As someone who worked as a lifeguard, I can say that sometimes it’s the patrons who need to wise up. For example, we had a rule against people being on each other’s shoulders. Point being to avoid accidents. The problem is that people can put their legs on their friend’s shoulders to be carried, or just wrap their arms over the shoulders, from behind, to be pulled.

What happens then is that the people who are on their friends’ shoulders with their legs get told to get off their friend. They ask you why others are allowed to put their arms over some else’s shoulders. So then you as a lifeguard tell those people who just had their arms on their friends not to hang on their friend, which isn’t that dangerous.

-> “Hard cases make bad law.” And the people who have to clean up the messes are your frontline rentacops and librarians, who have my sympathy (even if they’re jerks at times, it’s cuz the job demands it, not by choice).

By: Diane Brogan

Diane Brogan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:30:50 +0000

Great post. I also have some nasty camera story memories. I am glad that Jessamyn West went the whole way to get the policy changed.

We all need to be more diligent in asking why.

By: Naomi Dunford

Naomi Dunford — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:19:38 +0000

Wow, I read the library story over at Jessamyn’s blog. So bizarre, and yet so unsurprising. The details are surprising, but the weird power freakout, not so much.

I think a lot of it comes down to the amount of autonomy and agency given to the members of the lower ranks. They either get power hungry, or appear to be power hungry. The former comes from being treated like shit all the time by the higher ups. The latter can come from being terrified to bend the rules.

Thank God I don’t have a job anymore, but when I did, they were soul-crushingly low level gigs. And there was very much an atmosphere of “we’re not paying you to think, we’re paying you to follow the rules.” So the rent-a-cops and the librarians, often out of a fear of being reprimanded for using their brains, simply follow the rules like cranky zombies.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:27:24 +0000

Back in the days of working with the NFL, we worked with a lot of military folks. These people have chain of command in their blood stream, to the point where they won’t point out any flaws in a plan because “the boss knows best, it’s his show, and he’ll take the hit if it goes wrong” even when the boss will just blame his people for poor execution, doing exactly what he said in the civilian world. This perverse “Follow the leader” stuff drove me up a tree.
In our house, we explain that 85-90% of all rules are health and safety related, the rest are room-mate and courtesy to others issues. You have to learn to live with others at home before you go off into the big wide world, and being considerate and having some semblance of manners is important.

I ask my kids to question any rule they think is unfair, and I have to justify any rule I make- Clean rooms, for example, are about general hygiene, and taking care of your stuff- if you can’t find your school books under the dirty clothes, the panic becomes everyone’s problem, so a slightly neater room prevents the chaos. (We’re not white glove people by any stretch.)
And I agree with you- it’s totally amazing how many people never ask why.

By: Chamika

Chamika — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:28:18 +0000

Do you think that if they paid the enforcement officials more money, they would be more discerning in how they apply the rules? I’ve traveled to police states and I’m usually surprised at the difference in attitude between higher ranking officials and the foot soldiers. I also have encountered situations in airports where the lower ranking/lower paid border officials are fairly ignorant and tend to be extremely compliant whereas the higher-ups much more socially and culturally adept and able to discern to what degree to enforce the rules.

I wonder if that’s a reflection of experience or money.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:05:12 +0000

The problem as I see it is how to say politely “no” to rent-a-cops while at the same time protesting these weird bad-faith power grabs. I think some people, myself included, are just touchy about people telling them what to do, especially when we think either they haven’t thought things through or when they’re promoting stupid rules.

However, sassing the rental cop might make them think twice about having that job [same with telemarketers] but in the immediate now it’s just spreading bad juju around. I’m not sure what our responsibilities are vis a vis juju, but it’s something that concerns me as both a rule follower and sometimes a rule maker.

By: Julien

Julien — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:56:15 +0000

Hahaha, nice Rufus. BURN. :)

By: Jon Brause

Jon Brause — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:46:00 +0000

Rules have gotten out of control. Moral compass is much easier to follow, unless you don’t have one.

By: Rufus

Rufus — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:44:55 +0000

Like a postal letter carrier yelling at you from down the block to get your dog on a leash. http://www.dogwalkblog.com/2009/09/26/experts-experts-everywhere/ OR social media experts telling you to quit self-promting… which is how I found your blog post. Thank God I didn’t listen to THAT crap and clicked through anyway. :-)