Victimization as a policy matter


An interesting example of warped thinking from Amos Shapir in the latest RISKS-List newsletter:

"A common tactic of authoritarian regimes is to make laws which are next to impossible to abide by, then not enforce them. This creates a culture where it's perfectly acceptable to ignore such laws, yet the regime may use selective enforcement to punish dissenters -- since legally, everyone is delinquent."
Amos is talking (I believe) about national governments and laws but the same approach could be applied by authoritarian managers through corporate rules, including policies. Imagine, for instance, a security policy stating that all employees must use a secret password of at least 35 random characters: it would be unworkable in practice but potentially it could be used by management as an excuse to single-out, discipline and fire a particularly troublesome employee, while at the same time ignoring noncompliance by everyone else (including themselves, of course).

It's not quite as straightforward as I've implied, though, since organizations have to work within the laws of the land, particularly employment laws designed to protect individual workers from rampant exploitation by authoritarian bosses. There may be a valid legal defense for workers sacked in such circumstances due to the general lack of enforcement of the policy and the reasonable assumption that the policy is not in force, regardless of any stated mandate or obligations to comply ... which in turn has implications for all corporate policies and other rules (procedures, work instructions, contracts and agreements): if they are not substantially and fairly enforced, they may not have a legal standing. 

[IANAL  This piece is probably wrong and/or inapplicable. It's a thought-provoker, not legal advice.]

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