Let’s discuss a few essentials to be borne in mind before you begin your career journey.
First thing to be borne in mind is the law of the land. Remember, ignorance of law is not a valid defence. And one has to obey the law, whether one likes it or not.
I often say, one who doesn’t like the law of the land, has three options.
1. Gather enough majority in both houses of parliament or state legislature and modify the law.
2. Follow the law, even if one dislikes it.
3. Choose a country whose laws suit one.
Whatever Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) your organisation has, it cannot be against the law of the land.
So like I said, abiding by the law as it’s laid down, is a given. But the law maybe silent on many aspects of your operations. After all, laws aren’t designed to suit one’s business requirements. In such cases how does an organisation protect itself?
Many educational institutions have a rule that bars one from writing the final exams if one doesn’t have a minimum percentage of class attendance.
Is there a law to this effect? Certainly not! The law says, having paid one’s fees, one ought to be allowed to write one’s exams.
How do these institutions get away with this rule then? Do you remember a document that you were made to sign at the time of admission, clearly spelling out all the rules of the institution that students have to follow? If you were below 18 years, your parent/guardian was also made to sign.
The document you signed was an agreement which resulted in a contract between you and the institution where, you have inter alia agreed, that you will not be eligible to write the exams if you don’t have a minimum percentage of class attendance.
Now if you try to sue the institution on the ground that despite your having paid tuition fees, you are not being allowed take the exam, the institution gets protection under the Contracts Act, which is a part of the law of the land!
Thus, when the law is silent on a particular issue of concern to one, one can always take shelter under the contract act. Thus organisations protect themselves by drafting suitable contracts to protect themselves in all aspects of business not covered by law.
But then, not every eventuality in real life operations can be foreseen and covered in a contract. In such a situation, where an issue arises on which the law is silent and which hasn’t been covered by a contract, how do you, as the person facing the situation,  protect yourself?
Your action will be able to withstand legal scrutiny if you take care of the following three things:
1. You should have acted in good faith and without malafide intent. That is, you acted, thinking that you were doing the right thing and there was no hidden agenda.
2. Your action was as per normal business practice. There are many actions which are part and parcel of your line of business.
For instance, RBI doesn’t ask banks to allow premature closure of fixed deposits. But it is a time honoured business practice that every bank follows.
3. You used normal prudence. This is most important. You are supposed to apply your mind and act just as a prudent person would be expected to have acted.
This is why, people who cannot act prudently, for instance minors, lunatics, those under the influence of alcohol etc aren’t allowed to enter into  contracts.
Let’s say that you are handling cash in your organisation and a person approaches you with a heart-rending story about his child needing an urgent operation. It’s fine if you pay him something from your pocket or account. How will it look if you were to pay from the company’s cash box or account?
This is a straight forward example. But in real life, there will be many situations where your prudence will be called to question. Prudence is an adjective and all adjectives and adverbs are amenable to subjective interpretation.
So, in everything that you do, see that you will be able to defend your action if it is called to question. Again, it is a matter of priorities. Those actions covered by Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) can be performed without application of mind. Anything not covered by or deviating from the SOP requires application of mind.
Be careful when you deviate from the SOP. Remember, there is a tragic story behind every entry in the SOP. Some one burnt his/her fingers and a new entry was added to the SOP. Take care to see that you also do not end up contributing to entries in the SOP. You can avoid it by proper application of mind.
Ultimately, it boils down to priorities and time management. Most people get into trouble by wasting time, applying their minds on actions that don’t require attention and getting into time pressure and as a result, failing to apply their minds on actions that really require application of mind.
