I read a story yesterday about a woman who worked for a dental surgeon. She had told him that she had been diagnosed with cancer. After much thought this doctor wrote a layoff notice for the woman. As he gave it to her he let her know that when she was better she could have her job back but in the meantime since she was incapacitated she could file for unemployment and receive those benefits while she was in treatment without having to worry about looking for a job. This well meaning doctor thought he was doing this woman a kindness. He didn't want her to worry about coming into work while she was going into chemo and be able to just focus on getting better.
Here is the problem with this picture. With the layoff went the woman's health insurance. I'm not sure this well meaning doctor thought about that issue as he was trying to be kind. As a result of this the woman's friend took a picture of the letter and put it on social media and the doctor has received all sorts of negative backlash as a result.
How often do we do something with good intentions only to have it blow up in our face.
People are easily offended and quick to sue. We have to be careful of everything we say and keep up with the current politically correct phrases or find ourselves the subject of complaint for our insensitivity or our racial speech. Most people do not go out of their way to offend others. In fact most people try to be sensitive to the problems and needs of others.
We have become a country that is quick to find faulty in the most innocent of actions. Long ago when one of my adult children were in 1st grade I got a call that he was in trouble for sexual harassment on the bus. Okay he was 6 or 7. The bus driver had accused him of kissing a girl on the cheek. Luckily there had been a camera on board so I went to the bus administration and viewed the video along with the bus driver's superiors. The video showed our child leaning over and whispering to the girl and there had been no physical contact. First of all a 1st grader doesn't even know what sexual harassment is and second of all there was no kiss on the cheek. In the area I live in I have been accused of racism simply because I am white. Imagine my surprise when I received this accusation since my sister married a man from Equador and my mother's third husband was from India.
We are told that we are insensitive, racist, elitist, acting white etc. if our opinions do not match the current political agenda. An innocent comment made by the wrong person gets blown all out of proportion in the media. Politicians have ended up resigning over comments that were taken wrong.
It has been said that no good deed goes unpunished. In this day and age truer words were never spoken. Good Samaritans laws were passed to prevent people from getting sued after trying to help someone. A person trying to appease the masses can have massive backlash if their words are taken wrong. We can try to do good things only to have them come back and bite us in the end.
What do we do about it. Well we need to just continue on our business. We need to keep doing our good deeds and saying our opinions and if we offend someone by doing that then so be it. We can't live our life walking on eggshells hoping to do nothing that will bother someone because it is not possible. Do our best and in the end its how we live our lives that will be the deciding factor in what kind of person we were.
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