(originally published April 30th, 2005)

I’m talking about Jennifer Wilbanks, the woman who went missing earlier this week when she was supposed to be getting married on Saturday . Instead, she bolted for New Mexico, set up with others that she’d been kidnapped, and caused all sorts of problems and issues of expense and convenience until she finally came forward with the truth late yesterday. Sure, she felt pressure; a wedding of over 600 people, the wedding party of 14 people on each side, lots of money and expense put into something she wasn’t sure she wanted to do, but look at what happened on the flip side. Doesn’t anyone really think about consequences of stupid actions anymore?

The answer is no. If you’re a parent who doesn’t discipline your child because you’re afraid they’re going to get mad at you, who are you doing favors for? If you’re a manager who won’t get rid of a bad employee because you don’t want them to get mad at you, who’s going to get the ultimate blame for bad departmental performance later on?

Every once in awhile you just have to do the right thing, no matter how much you don’t want to, because, well, it’s the right thing to do. You have to make the hard decisions because you’re the person who’s responsible for it. Did Jennifer really think that this was all going to go away by using the story she did? Is it better now that the entire nation knows that she’s a selfish and scared child of 32 as opposed to the “few” friends and family members that she’d invited to a wedding she ultimately didn’t want? I’m wondering who’s going to get the interview first, Katie or Diane.

If it were your child, would you allow the child to put any and everything in its mouth because you didn’t want your child crying if you didn’t allow it? Would you let them put the cat in the microwave because you didn’t want to deal with the temper tantrum? I’m certainly hoping the answer is no. As a manager, or person in charge, if you had one employee who went around slapping all the other employees, would you let the behavior go on because you don’t want that employee to slap you, or to get mad at you because you did something about it?

Just my thought for a very rainy and wet day.