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Ethics and Plastic
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I have this problem. I've always, always wanted to be and tried to be an ethical person. I've spent a good deal of time and effort figuring out what I felt was the right thing to do in various circumstances, and then doing it. And yet I find myself doing things like this--making blog entries--at work, rather than doing what I'm paid to do.
It's not that I don't like my work. It's interesting and stimulating, and I'm reasonably good at it. I just find that I far too readily slip into a state where I end up doing a lot more web surfing than actual work.
What bothers me about it is that I'm effectively stealing from my employer (UCLA, funded by public research grants, so in some way that would be all y'all who are US taxpayers). It's theft, plain and simple, and it is a gross ethical violation.
And I can't stop doing it. So far I've been lucky enough to have pretty tolerant employers (unless it's not so much that they're tolerant as that this is normal behavior, which is really even more troublesome), and the work does get done. Still, I know I could do it better and faster than this. In those times when I have been able to focus, I've been happier and more productive. So why can't I just stay focused?
My inability to control myself--to be what I want to be, should be, and could be--is extremely frustrating.
It's a matter of choices, I guess. We all make choices, all day, every day. I'm making one right now, and it's the wrong one. The nice thing is that I can do something different.
As to plastic--I just bought a couple of electronic boojamawhatsits, an SD card for my PDA and a USB flash drive, and they came in those immensely annoying heat sealed plastic cases which can oly be opened by hedge clippers. I suppose it's good, in that it prevents people from easily pocketing small, valuable items at Best Buy, but it's annoying when I can't get to my neat new toy until I can lay by hands on surgical instruments.
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