Resigning with Integrity...

Integrity as a word and its usage was introduced into my vocabulary when Al Pacino delivered his famous speech in the movie “The Scent of a Woman”. The idea as he says was that since Charlie is not a snitch he has integrity. He was standing up for what he believes and is not afraid of the consequences. He ends up saying that this is what the leader should be made of.

Forget leaders for a while. I believed that this is what a Just human should be made of. But over the past year this idea of integrity and the possibilities of following it or breaking it have been making rounds in my grey cells. The conflict inside me has I think reduced my testosterone levels even though studies suggest that marriage is directly linked to the reduction of the former.

Now consider this scenario. Off late with events around me, it is almost a proven fact that the threat of resignation from the current firm helps you get what you want faster. I must say it is a tried and tested method and almost works always. This in spite of the idea that if the company thinks one is good enough for a particular job doesn’t really give it to him/her when he shows interest. Why should you wait for the person to resign to give it to him? Is it a time buying tactic? Possibly! But buying time for what? Well, let’s just forget the company and the managers for a while and the idea that came up a line before.

So the fact that the threat of resignation will help you get what you want is a strong tool. Next question, Is it ethical? Once you do that do you consider yourself to be a man at the same benchmark of integrity? Oh there is a dichotomy here. One part of the world (Lets call this NE) says, this is pure business. By resigning you are just reminding that you are really required for the company which otherwise they had taken for granted. NE part of the world also goes on saying that unless it is absolutely necessary a company wont change something that is already working and hence such a big disruption is needed to get the results. The fallback is that the company might realize that you are not actually required and if the threat was just a threat then you are in a big soup.

Now the other world (let’s call this E) thinks this act is absolutely unethical as one is taking advantage of a weakness. For most part of my professional life I have been a part of this E. Just the fact that I wrote this blog, proves my doubts about the idea. Not really going into the miniscule details of this idea, the central theme is if after resignation one is good enough for a job, he was good enough before that. All that is required is to convince the company about this. The flipsides, one may have to wait too long and by time he gets what he wants the opportunity is stale and lost its luster. When a person from E resigns, he has to leave as he is supposed to have tried all the arguments and his interests are not inline with the company’s. Hence he has to move and not accept any counter offer. Accepting would mean compromising on the idea of integrity for E.

Open ended right. Now how can one solve this conflict of the mind? I am still trying. As you can see breaking the so called integrity definition of E part of the world gives more flexibility. All you can say “Every action we do is pregnant with possibilities; possibilities which have physical, emotional, social and intellectual implications. The trick is to find the right balance”.

Dead Phantom