i could have done more

Someone at my office got laid off this week. In my own department no less. It is the first layoff where I work. I guess an impressive feat in an economy that is making every company struggle. It’s the first, but it won’t be the last. Intellectually I get it. It had to be done. The budget just cannot support the amount of people in the office. But my heart doesn’t get it - at all. Not surprisingly a movie comes to mind. This time it’s a movie based on a true story – Schindler’s List. If you don’t know anything about Schindler’s List or Oskar Schindler I recommend looking it up.

Toward the end of the movie Oskar, who saved nearly 1,200 people cried out: “I could have done more.” He takes off a pin on his suit coat and says “I could have sold this and saved another life”, and so on. In the end no one gets mad at Schindler for not doing more. He amazingly did more than anyone could ever imagine. He turned his business and his life upside down not for himself, his 401K, his stocks, but for people.

As an industrialist in Germany during the war, I am sure Schindler could have made thousands of dollars. Instead he sacrificed profits for life. Are companies doing this today? Are companies, top CEO’s, Presidents, and the like sacrificing profits for life? Are top bank officials from places like Citi giving up their half-million dollar bonuses to keep employees at their company? Are smaller companies doing the same? Are there any top executives taking pay cuts for the good of the company? Are we doing all we can be doing? Are we sacrificing for the sake of stocks and profits, or for lives and relationships?