Human Nature

Well, today I had my faith in human nature restored, or more specifically, my belief in the fundamental goodness that resides within my colleagues.  We had a bit of an incident this evening, where something pretty important went missing.  To start with, there was the usual finger pointing and everyone trying to apportion blame.  Noone really wanted to accept responsibility for the loss and there was a great deal of confusion.  Once the original panic subsided, my colleagues then started to rationally track the movement of the missing items throughout the day.  It was eventually established that the chain broke at a specific staff member.

Yet again, we moved back to passing the buck and some stepping back shrugging.  Eventually, however we realised that the items were definitely missing and action needed to be taken.  And this was where my colleagues showed what I believe to be their true colours.  

Obviously, I cannot talk about specifics on here, as that would lead to further complications, so please forgive me for going about this in such an indirect manner.

So back to what happened.  One colleague was needed to return to our place of work to search for the items.  He had been asleep, as he has a particularly early start in the morning, but was woken up to verify that he did not have the items.  He willing returned to his bedspace to dress and whilst he was changing the staff members who had so far become involved stepped up to the plate.  Instead of heading for their own beds, bearing in mind that by this time it was pretty late, they one by one decided to return to work and help in the search.  They didn't need to do this, but they willingly sacrificed their time to support each other.  

Once the search began, each and every one of them did their part.  Although there was some complaining which would be expected, they all pulled their weight and did everything they could.  I felt so proud to be a part of it and it showed me again why I love it out here.  There are days when the petty complaining really gets to me and I wonder what has become of the good nature that I know resides within all people, but then something like this happens and I see the beauty that I always look for.  

Six of us went back to work tonight, one out of necessity and the others because they chose to show their support to a valued colleague.  I have never felt so proud to work with this group of people as I do now.