Men in White Coats

This weekend I saw the documentary on Enron again, and was reminded again how even normal people can do the worst crimes if they are directed to do them by "Authority figures".

The documentary has a segment on how its energy traders bankrupted the state of California - and apparently quite enjoyed doing this - all under the instructions of the authority figures in the form of the Chairman, CEO and CFO respectively.

Men in White Coats: Through a stark experiment, called the Milgram Experiment, Stanley Milgram showed that ordinary people were willing to inflict immense physical damage to complete strangers, when instructed to do so by serious-looking authority figures in white coats. A small note on the study is here, while the stark video (45 mins) is here. Go watch it, it's very very interesting.

In the news: In a shocking real-life replay of the Milgram Experiment, a hoax caller called into several fast food restaurants and , pretending to be a police officer, managed to order the manager to strip search junior workers.

In your office: The corporate world is full of pretenders who, claiming the authority vested in them through a title or position, drive their firms to do inhumanly stupid acts.
It could be the bean counters driving the HR policies (claiming that The Market wants higher margins, so to hell with the employees), or the CEO who tells his team to cook the books.

Use your head - don't just do it if someone BIG says so. They're human too.