Lesson on integrity from Tim "the Toolman" Taylor
I have not blogged in a while ... and was reading and commenting on a friend's blog and posted this (below) in the comments section ... thought I would repost my own comments here even if the context might not make sense :-)
A couple of days ago I saw an episode (rerun) of one of fav sitcoms (Home Improvement).
Tim had an ethical dilemma as he was asked to promote an inferior tool (new line of Binford tools). His new boss / owner (the founder and Tim's mentor, Binford had already passed away) refused to fix the inferior tool and Tim was given an ultimatum - promote the tool, endorse it on Tool Time or be sacked.
To lose his job at Binford was more than just losing his TV show, drop in income etc but would force him to have to go back to the only other job he was good at - selling tools which meant long weeks away from his family.
This time even Wilson could offer no help - he was left with the question - how important was this to him - the Binford quality / name, his mentor's legacy, his integrity as opposed to the harsh reality of his family's financial security, time with his family etc.
Climax - Tim refuses to endorse the product despite his boss being on set etc. But being a sitcom, he creatively gets out of the mess by making his boss look like a hero on live TV by cornering his boss to discontinue the product ... getting his way and still keeping his job ... and making the company look good by forcing it to fix the poor quality product. Ah, if life were as simple :-)
But I liked the story line and how Tim Taylor decides on integrity (and has the support of his wife)
Wish they would bring back and write such sitcoms!
A couple of days ago I saw an episode (rerun) of one of fav sitcoms (Home Improvement).
Tim had an ethical dilemma as he was asked to promote an inferior tool (new line of Binford tools). His new boss / owner (the founder and Tim's mentor, Binford had already passed away) refused to fix the inferior tool and Tim was given an ultimatum - promote the tool, endorse it on Tool Time or be sacked.
To lose his job at Binford was more than just losing his TV show, drop in income etc but would force him to have to go back to the only other job he was good at - selling tools which meant long weeks away from his family.
This time even Wilson could offer no help - he was left with the question - how important was this to him - the Binford quality / name, his mentor's legacy, his integrity as opposed to the harsh reality of his family's financial security, time with his family etc.
Climax - Tim refuses to endorse the product despite his boss being on set etc. But being a sitcom, he creatively gets out of the mess by making his boss look like a hero on live TV by cornering his boss to discontinue the product ... getting his way and still keeping his job ... and making the company look good by forcing it to fix the poor quality product. Ah, if life were as simple :-)
But I liked the story line and how Tim Taylor decides on integrity (and has the support of his wife)
Wish they would bring back and write such sitcoms!
This is a good one. I'm learning these days that I have far to go.
ReplyDeletegreat story. Do you know the name of this episode?
ReplyDeletesorry. I don't know the episode name. I caught it a while after it started
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteThank you for highlighting the support of Tim's wife. Your highlight reminded me of how I ended my response to John Grisham's The Street Lawyer:
"The vast goodness of Mordecai elicits a life-changing response from Michael. Why doesn’t that sound familiar? How will we, our Claire’s, our families and our peers respond?
[Claire is Michael's wife]