Treating Others With Fairness

 

The Beautiful Human believes in fairness.

Whether we are aware or not, we all want to be treated fairly.  We know it doesn't feel good when certain people get special treatment, while others do not.  If parents favor one child over the other, they are causing harm to both children.  The favored child feels more special; the less favored child feels unimportant.  Over time, the favored child may grow up feeling entitled, while the unfavored child has to deal with a lack of self-worth and self-esteem.

In the workplace, employees want to be treated fairly.  High employee turnover, low morale, and poor job performance may be the result of unfair treatment by management.  Imagine for a moment, there are two employees: One is constantly calling out sick and is late to work everyday, while the other employee is always on-time and has only missed 3 days in 7 years.  However, the boss rarely says anything to the employee that is always late and absent from work frequently.  Instead, he yells at the reliable employee that normally shows up to work on-time, but came into work, once, 5 minutes late.  Unfortunately, this is a common example that happens far too often in the workplace.  The wise employer would treat all of his employees fairly.  This would equate to greater job performance, increased morale, and decreased employee turnover.
 
Fairness is something that needs to be consistently exercised in our justice system.  People of color face stricter prison sentences than whites.  Also, individuals that are famous or wealthy often receive more lenient sentences than others that commit a similar crime.  The color of someone's skin, their celebrity status, or amount of wealth should not play a role in sentencing.

There needs to be more fairness in our education system.  Wealthier areas typically receive more school funding than poorer areas.  Is it fair that a child that comes from an affluent family can receive a better education than a child from a lower income family?  All children, regardless of their family's financial status, should receive the best education possible.

Believe it or not, fairness is valued in the animal kingdom, as well.  In a Fairness Study,  two Capuchin monkeys participated in an experiment.  When the monkeys were both rewarded with a cucumber, they were fine.  However, when the monkey on the right was given a grape (the preferred food), the monkey on the left reacted negatively, throwing the cucumber at the person conducting the experiment.  The experiment showed that Capuchins want to be rewarded fairly. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKhAd0Tyny0

The experiment teaches us that fairness is something that we should all embrace; unfair treatment should not be tolerated or accepted.