This week’s blog was generated by my pay stub from this past Friday. I worked many hours of overtime in the past two weeks and was expecting a big check so I didn’t do more than glance over my net pay. It wasn’t until my husband brought it to my attention that I noticed I had been paid TWICE for my wellness money for this quarter. I knew immediately what the “right” thing was to do but my mind wandered all the way into work about how easy it is to get caught up in doing the wrong thing.
Integrity in the workplace might seem like an interesting choice of topic for today’s blog since the focus of this blog is emergency services dispatchers. Dispatchers who stay in this career field for long (over 3 years is “long” for a dispatcher) are amazing people. They can multi-task like nobody’s business; can withstand the stress of other people’s life trauma over and over again, are usually highly educated, very self driven and adrenaline junkies. It’s a job where holding someone’s life in your hands, literally, is an everyday occurrence. Dispatchers make hundreds of split second decisions and do the right thing based on their training and experience every single day. Having said all that, I am surprised how often I see people stumble when it comes to integrity in the little things, which then become big things because of one poor decision.
Integrity is pretty easy to define and we all know what it means. It means doing the right thing for the right reason every time, whether anyone else is ever going to find out or not. It’s part of our character, part of the reputation that we carry with us. Working for a company or a government agency should alleviate any confusion because policies and procedures are in place to explain in black and white what is right and correct for your work environment. Where trouble tends to crop up is when there is an individual or group of individuals who are redefining what the definition of “right” is. Often the “redefining” skirts right around the edge of what the actual correct course of action is. It cuts a corner here and there and arrives at almost the same destination. In dispatching I often say that I am happy that there are about 100 ways to get to the same place. Not every dispatcher has to do things exactly the same way for it to be “right”. The same logic doesn’t apply in areas of integrity. We all need to do what we know to be right, to be the correct course of action – not what has become acceptable – to accomplish our mission. At the end of the day, all you have to stand on is your character. Your attitude is a reflection of your character and values. Every shift your attitude reflects onto all those around you. Do the right thing every time. Hold up a standard to all those around you by setting an example of excellence. Together, we can all make our workplace a positive place to be.
Related articles
- Attitude is Everything (confessionsofa911dispatcher.com)
- “All I Really Need To Know About the Workplace I Learned In Kindergarten” (christinecasey.wordpress.com)
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