The Misuse of Power

When hearing about "The Misuse of Power" we think immidiately of the top of the pyramid. The president using the jet for a trip to Jamaica with his mistress and the minister putting money aside.

But I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about the small administrative employee, who has just enough to power to use it to make other people miserable. I am sounding annoyed? Yes, I am because there is no other point in what they do than to prove to themselves that they have power over someone.

Today I went to get a residence confirmation (not sure about the proper english term, but basically a paper proving that I live where I say I live), as it is required by the consulate to issue a new passport. Since my passport is outdated I took my drivers licence as ID, which according to them is no acceptable ID, instead the outdated passport was required. You might say: The rules are the rules! Well, ironically my dad requested the same document for the same reason only three days ago and in this case the drivers licence was a proper ID.

This is just one example of many as I am sure each of my readers can come up with at least one similar event. It is not a big deal, tomorrow I will return with the outdated passport and get the document, that point is: Why do this people behave like this? They have no real personal gain and have to end up doing the work anyhow. It is about proving they have power over you, they can make you return the next day, having to run extra errands etc. But this doesn't happen only with adminstrative employees but all over the place, like the practise nurse telling you there is no earlier appointment available or the tax investigator being extra thorough, so that the invistigation costs more than what you make in year.

The question is: Are we all predisposed to behave like this, when we have a little power? I guess each of us should be careful, because it is rather easy to fall into this behaviour. We should bear in mind that we could be on the other side next time. It all comes down to one thing:

Try to be understanding to other people and don't misuse whatever power you have.