Even though many are better paid than ever, it still doesn’t seem to be enough.
Here’s my theory: The people working for the public good are rankled that guys like the wolves on Wall Street are making so much more money and, for what?
So, when some of those who are supposedly working to save the world have the opportunity to pamper themselves at someone else’s expense, they feel entitled to take it. After all, they’re the hard-working good guys.
Let’s run through a recent list of entitled takers. Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau. Alberta’s former premier Alison Redford. Linda Reid, the speaker of the B.C. legislature. And, the managers of the Portland Housing Society.
I started reading the audit reports on the PHS determined to read, but not write about them because so much has already been reported. But my tipping point came at page 109 of the 126-page report by KPMG. I’m not entirely sure why it was the spending of $3,472 on a painting of Pigeon Park done by a PHS staff member that pushed me over the edge, but it was. This was money intended for the poorest and most desperate people on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, not for art to hang in the society’s accounting office.
But at least the painting may have some lasting value, as opposed to the $12,115 for flowers and cards, $5,316 for alcohol, $4,518 for spa treatments and — most curiously, given what’s happened — $19,089 on “reputations management.”
My pledge to read-but-not-write was nearly abandoned on Page 108 where $2,063 spent at the upscale decor shop, Chintz & Co., was described as being for “Christmas party decorations, including spraying supplies to fragrant the air with Christmas scent.”
And that was just below the $5,938 spent on a computer and a printer in Berlin by Kersten Stuerzbecher, the director of human resources and finance. She told auditors that she was vacationing and needed to do some work.
Yet many pages earlier, senior executives’ comments and contracts were at length, saying how they were expected to be on-call 24/7.
So, why didn’t Stuerzbecher have her computer with her especially since these days, even vacationing octogenarians travel with tablets and laptops.
Senior executives’ constantly on-call, all-encompassing jobs were the reason that the board paid out all of their vacation time in cash even though it’s obvious that some did get away on holidays (including to Disneyland with family).
I don’t doubt that PHS executives worked hard and found solutions to difficult problems.
But does that justify limousines and luxury hotels like the Plaza in New York or eating at some of the most expensive restaurants in Vancouver?
You’d think these were private-sector masters of the universe, not servants of the poor when you look at a few of the bills — Gotham Steakhouse ($852 for three visits, averaging $284 each time), Le Crocodile ($504 for two visits) and Tojo’s ($421 for one).
Maybe I’m wrong, old-fashioned and naive to think that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.
It certainly didn’t stop B.C.’s speaker with her lordly hat, robes and independence from scrutiny from charging taxpayers for her assistant’s commuter flights to Victoria from Richmond or flying her husband first-class to South Africa or doling out “free” muffins to members of the legislature (whose annual base salary of $101,859 suggests that they can afford to buy their own).
The obvious response is better rules. It seems clear that more oversight at PHS and possibly other non-profit organizations as well as tighter, clearer guidelines for spending in the senate, provincial legislatures and municipal halls would be an improvement.
But is that the best we can do?
In his book, Practical Wisdom, American psychologist Barry Schwartz rejects the idea that more rules and incentives produce better outcomes and behaviour.
If anything, he argues, more rules simply result in people finding new ways around them.
As for incentives, Schwartz says it puts a price tag on bad behaviour.
The example he uses is a daycare that fined parents $40 for being late in picking up their children. The result was that the number of late parents doubled. Rather than being punitive, it gave parents permission to be late if they were willing to pay for it.
Schwartz insists it’s time to “re-moralize” work by rewarding people for having the wisdom to do the right thing and making heroes out of the heads of organizations who create environments that “encourage and nurture both moral skill and moral will.”
Given the dearth of examples of good leadership lately, maybe it’s worth a try.
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: DAPHNE BRAMHAM
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