In the video below, Trever Noah talks about his childhood in South Africa. In his neighborhood, kids would pretend-play with bricks taken from outdoor construction sites. Watch the video before proceeding with the dilemma.
Sami is an up-and-coming Project Manager at a construction firm in Johannesburg. Born and brought up in the city of Johannesburg, he loves the work that he does and hopes to make a name for himself by doing quality building at his firm.
For his first big project as a supervisor, Sami has been assigned to oversee the construction of a 2-bedroom house in Soweto, a township in the district of Johannesburg. He has recently been promoted and wants to make a good impression on his supervisors. His client is very particular about the work that happens on the site and demands regular updates from him regarding the material brought and used, the pace of the work, and the number of people working on any given day. His superiors at the firm are also keeping close tabs on his work to assess his capabilities in this new role.
Sami, in turn, has impressed upon his team of builders and tradesmen the need to keep him updated with all details regarding the project.
As Sami and his team are doing the construction work, one of his team members tells him in passing that some kids are stealing bricks from their site. Sami did not grow up in this area and finds it odd that children are stealing bricks. But, he thinks that it might be a one-off incident and lets it go. When his client asks Sami for an update, he doesn't mention this incident.
The next day, however, while walking over to the site, he catches two children stealing bricks from the site. This time he is a little annoyed and tells off the kids, warning them to not do this again.
For the next few days, Sami doesn't get any more reports of children stealing bricks. However, the work at the construction site is not moving at the pace that it was supposed to, and the team is running behind schedule. Sami has received multiple notes and phone calls from the client and his supervisors regarding their slow progress.
Given that this is his first opportunity to really prove himself as a supervisor, Sami feels very stressed about getting the work done well and according to the timeline. Due to the pressure, he begins to "lose his cool" over small things, even snapping at his team members easily. He also takes any mistake or mishaps very seriously.
A week later, in the midst of the stress, as Sami is heading to his car after a long day at work, he finds the same children stealing some bricks again. Sami loses his temper: he goes over to the kids and loudly screams at them. He snatches the bricks from their hands and threatens to take them to the police. The children are really scared and run away from the site.
Sami thinks on his drive home about how he should have handled the situation with the children. He wants to do his best work overseeing the building project. However, he also feels that maybe he misunderstood the children and could have interacted more thoughtfully with them.
Activity
Use the Circle of Viewpoints handout and associated questions to analyze this dilemma.