A friend of mine has been dreaming of owning a MacBook for a while. He had been hearing about Apple products since his college days and had seen his manager and the CEO of his organization use only MacBooks and other Apple products.
In fact, early in our friendship, he wanted to know my experience of using MacBooks and how I transitioned into the Apple ecosystem. After months of research and saving, my friend bought himself a MacBook.
Now he swears by it and cannot imagine working on any other machine. He hardly uses his work laptop anymore — everything gets done on his MacBook.
Here comes the twist, his organization is set to soon implement a policy that all work gets done on a work laptop. My friend says that he, his boss, and even the CEO are ready to protest and do not intend to follow the policy.
I was surprised at such a policy. I assumed most work-related output is created and stored in the cloud these days, making the device used to access the cloud irrelevant. My friend had no idea about the thinking that went behind this policy. Whatever the organization’s reasons, I believe the organization has the right to formulate policies to ensure an equal professional work environment for all. I am sure all policies cause a little bit of personal inconvenience to many.
I was curious if my friend — who is very socially conscious — felt his plans for “option to use personal laptop” protest was fair? He started to mumble an unconvincing answer.
It made me think about how we think about rules. When rules apply to others, they feel reasonable, even necessary. But when the same rules apply to us, they suddenly feel restrictive, unfair, and unnecessary.
The principle remains the same. Only the willingness changes when the inconvenience becomes personal.
I reminded him of his vociferous defence of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC)* in India. He was in favor of millions of people giving up identities, behaviours close to their hearts for the UCC but he was unable to give up his MacBook for the hours he spends at work?
I find it fascinating how easily we support sacrifice — as long as it is someone else who has to make it.
Principles are easy to defend when they are abstract.
They become harder when they become personal.
They become hardest when we have to pay for them.
George Orwell was probably right: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
*I am also in support of a Uniform Civil Code in India