This morning when Big Boss got to work we did our usual routine of WSJ delivery and a good morning. Then he asked me if I knew who drove a gray Corolla. Nope! Apparently someone left their headlights on in the parking lot.
Our office has about 40-50 people that work for my company. We also sublet to a smaller company as well as having another floor that is occupied by a small company. All told probably no more than 150 people. Not that big considering some of the adjacent companies. But still more people than I want to talk to in a given day.
So rather than running through the office asking everyone what kind of car they drive, I sent out a quick email to all the employees letting them know that someone's headlights were still left on. One of my HR coworkers volunteered to get word to the two other companies about the problem. Seemed like a no brainer to me.
Eventually someone figured it out and the lady was able to save herself the stress of finding a dead battery at the end of her day. One of the people I work with is a 30ish single man. I used to think he was a little eccentric, but after the conversation we had this morning I'm leaning toward unempathetic sadistic asshole. (or maybe that's how everyone else thinks)
He asked me why I had sent out the email about the headlights. What? Why wouldn't I ? I told him because there was a problem that I was aware of and rather than waste time figuring out who the correct person to hand it off to (facilities, etc) I just sent it out figuring that someone would alert the car owner to the problem.
He then kind of mocked me. Like I was some kind of stupid do gooder. He pointed out that it wasn't life or death. There's a gas station on the corner and they could have called their roadside service for a battery jump. Well ...... yeah, but at the end of my day that's the last thing I want to have to deal with. I asked him why he wouldn't do what I did. He said something along the lines that it would be more fun to watch the poor person have to deal with the dead battery.
He actually tried to redeem himself somewhat by saying if someone was having a heart attack he'd call 911 or EMS. I then asked if he would do CPR until they got here. I could not believe what he asked next. He asked if this theorhetical victim was male or female. I kid you not! All I could do was stare slack jawed at him. Fucker!
I lost it. I called him an unsympathetic jerk and that I hoped he wasn't the only one around if I had a medical emergency, or any other kind for that matter. What a prick. I mean, does he work to make himself such a big jerk?!!
So I guess I need to ask since it's become obvious that not everyone thinks empathetically.
Do you go out of your way to help avoid a potential problem (or real problem) at work or do you delegate it to the person who is legally obligated to help?
Maybe I do too much or give too much. I'm not planning to change. I'd rather err on the side of being too empathetic than less.
