Today’s Transparency: They Are Watching You

They are watching. And they are talking. They told everyone what I did after dark in the Walgreens parking lot!

In this age of transparency, you never know who is watching, what they will say and what impact it will make. Whether you are a company or an individual, your actions are public knowledge more than ever before. You’ve probably heard that before. You may not know just how true it is. I do now.

It happened a couple weeks ago. I was working late and finally left for home around 10:30 that night. I stopped at the 24-hour drug store on my way home. While shopping, I kept passing this homeless man dragging all his belongings behind him in a little suitcase on wheels. On the way out, I went to grab an Arizona Iced tea. Turns out they had a two for one special so I grabbed two.

When I left, I noticed the man was now outside, talking to a store manager type. I didn’t know if he’d been ushered out or the manager was trying to help the dude. But, as I was putting my things in the car, the Walgreens lady went left the man outside. I looked at my free second tea and thought the guy might appreciate the cold drink. So I walked back across the parking lot and handed it to him. He smiled and mumbled something. No big deal. It was dark. It was late. I didn’t think anyone saw me.

When I got home, my wife yells from the computer room, "hey, Mike, do you know so-and-so?" "Yeah" "Well she says she saw you with that homeless man."

Sure enough, at the beginning of this long day I had posted an article about a homeless blogger who had gotten hired by Elle magazine on my Facebook page. Over the course of the day had completely forgotten about it. But, there, attached to that post, was a comment from someone I worked with 15 years ago, "So, Mike… was this the inspiration for you handing a returnable to the homeless man at Walgreen's just half an hour ago? I caught you out of the corner of my eye as I was leaving the lot. It was truly a sweet gesture"

Even though I wasn’t seeking any attention, it was a nice to see my efforts noticed. But, what if I was doing something bad? What if, instead of helping, I’d had taken his jacket thinking no one would be the wiser?

That’s the world we live in today. And companies need to realize that too. It’s an added incentive to be a good corporate citizen. It's even more of a reason to make sure you go above and beyond to make your customers happy. There are no shadows to hide in anymore. The world is a much more open and public place. You can pretend not to notice, but chances are you’ll hear about it anyway.

Mike McClure, ECD & SM Guy