Issues hidden "Under the Rug"


Why do governments, businesses, and institutions, have a dismal record for reporting serious and possibly criminal issues to the authorities? Why would anyone push a serious issue under the Rug? Embarrassment and the resulting loss of stature and income for the organization, is an obvious answer. With this established, we must now consider the logistics of a management hierarchy, that exists in many organizations.


The flow of information within an organization is impeded when all levels of management play the "blame game," in an effort to stack the cards in their favor. Generally, increasingly higher levels of management, have the potential to exhibit increasingly higher levels of predatory behavior. I do not feel comfortable being locked in a cage, with a lion, when I have no means of defense!


Lower levels of management work "at the pleasure of" higher levels of management! What does this mean? In most establishments, lower management can be fired at the whim of higher management. Many of us work for organizations and businesses that can and will fire us in an instant, without notice. This is a sad and ugly fact of life; to live and work without any sense of security. So here we are, trying to support a house, a family, pay our car loan, and pay our credit cards, all under the auspices of a little gremlin in our mind that keeps reminding us that we dare not upset the boss or supervisor. In today's economic environment, the name of the game is ",do not upset your supervisor;" your entire future rests on your bosses perception of a given event.


All of the above work in conjunction with what I call the "Middle Management Corollary," which is "do not drop any problems on my desk." Why would your immediate supervisor get upset? The act of dropping a problem on you bosses desk has the effect of transferring liability to him. Your boss is now stuck with the responsibility of dropping this issue on his immediate bosses desk; that also lives by the "Middle Management Corollary." Dropping a "bomb" on your bosses desk comes with possible serious ramifications!


If an employee brings an issue to an authority outside of his company, he will be expedited upon for breaking the chain of command. He is sure to be fired! There are no laws to protect him!


A person that goes through college so that he will qualify for a management position, can be over Thirty years old before he made his first dollar. The very act of pushing a problem upstream can be a vocational death sentence; you can be fired by any one of the managers above your boss. There is a tendency to minimize the severity of a given issue when reporting it to your immediate supervisor; hoping that he will take the initiative to gather the facts. Working exclusively "at the pleasure of" management, can be a frightening and dehumanizing experience! With this in mind, how gallant could you be with a given issue, when the future of your family is at stake? The actual driving force behind the cloaking of any issue is survival. When it comes to addressing serious issues within an organization, the process of conveying information to higher levels of management, can be sketchy at best.


The ramifications of not addressing critical issues can be catastrophic; a Federal or State Review Panel is needed to protect those individuals who choose to report sensitive issues to upper management. The panel should be empowered to levy and disperse the proceeds of fines, that amount to twice the lifetime income, of a person who was unjustly fired. This panel could prevent many tragedies from ever happening. I believe that serious issues should be addressed by upper management; a clerk is not charged with this level of responsibility. It is managements responsibility to openly address serious issues, that could result in personal damage, and the ultimate collapse of a company or institution.


Before we can successfully remedy this problem, the word "survival," must be removed from the equation.


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