Occupational Reputation: Painting with a Wide Brush

Greetings,

Today I have the question, why is there in every profession those who will follow the rules and those who will bend them to almost breaking? Those who will do their utmost to hold the good name of an occupation, and those who are simply in it for the money, any way it is to be gained?

Today, I had two taxi trips. The first, the driver followed the rules, turned on the meter and proceeded to drive at the speed limit to our destination, expecting the payment as read on the meter. The second was taken from the rank at a shopping centre back home. He did not turn on the meter, he did follow the road rules, but expected payment of some amount which he estimated, rather than what was displayed on the meter, as he had not turned it on. Needless to say, the second was more expensive than the first. This is not the first incident of this occurring.

It would seem that there are also those taxi drivers who are willing to accept cash payments also for an estimated trip so it is not recorded on their meter, thus depriving the owner of the taxi their fair share of the fare. What needs to be noted is that this is not all taxi drivers, there are those who do follow the rules, but there are those who do not follow the rules to earn extra money. The problem is that those who do not follow the rules make a bad name for those who do follow the rules, hence the rather poor name which taxi drivers have.

The phenomenon seems to be common amongst many other professions. Lawyers and politicians are a common target for these accusations. Lawyers have earned the name of "ambulance-chasers" and "leeches" chasing cases and taking advantage of people in need. Politicians have also become known as high-paid individuals who have become disconnected from the constituents who they supposedly support, taking payment from corporations and interest groups to fund their political campaigns and not staying connected with the people who put them in government. Some of these reputations are well-earned, but for some of them, they are not.

The real question is what do we, as the general public, do about these situations? Do we remember the taxi drivers who follow the rules and give them good reviews and complain about the bad ones? Do we write about the lawyers and politicians who give the others a bad name? For the most part, we do not. We sit back and let things proceed as they are. The most important thing to do is to remember that there are always people in occupations of all kinds who do a good job, along with those who do a not so good job. The ones who do a good job need to be commended for their diligence, while the others need to be pushed aside. Remember this in your interactions and considerations of all occupations.

Cheers,

Henry.