Black or white

In my job I sometimes happen to talk with readers and advertisers who complain about the way they have been treated when working for a certain hotel or a certain travel agency, or about the behaviour of some employee. In such cases, the request or advice I receive most often is not to publish the advertisements of those subjects again. I decline to do so, because I am in no position to judge and, at any rate, Job is just a showcase allowing everybody to assess the most suitable opportunities. Sometimes, however, this decision leaves me unsatisfied and in doubt about its absolute correctness. The situations are not all similar, nor are similar the responses that can be provided. The superlative maitre of an important hotel would certainly not be appropriate for work in a self-service, but in both cases specific skills are necessary in order to perform one’s functions adequately; problems arise when positions are not covered by the appropriate type of personnel, and I am aware that in each case, quite apart from basic professional correctness, the specific experience and contingent situation may lead to adopting certain attitudes, including negative attitudes. In moments of crisis, it is first of all necessary to ask ourselves whether the placement is correct, and then if we have really given our best (which applies to both companies and employees), even though sometimes there are indeed situations that are objectively censurable; a reader, for example, wrote to me complaining about the fact that the lodging he was assigned was impossible to live in. I am convinced, however, that reality is never either black or white, but rather a spectrum of shades which everybody can to some extent identify with, with one’s own skills, experiences and personal situations, and it is reality, too, that favours a sort of natural selection – companies that do not behave correctly will have difficulty finding qualified personnel, and incompetent or unreliable employees will have problems keeping a job – and I do not feel there is a need for Job in Tourism to play the role of judge.