T
TIK
Guest
I find it to be a self-evident ethical principle: “If you promise the impossible you are not morally bound to deliver”.
eg if you sign a contract that says you promise to hold your breath for 10 minutes, you do not have to deliver because it is impossible to deliver, any attempt to deliver would be futile and in this case, fatal.
There’s a less obvious ethical principle that I’ve been pondering that is relevant to a situation I’ve found myself in recently: “If you promise the unreasonable you are not bound to deliver, but should you choose to do so you merit a reward”. For example, if you sign a contract which requires you to be on call 24x7, you are not morally bound to be on call 24x7 because it is an unreasonable and impolite request, however if you do choose to sacrifice your time and sanity to answer the phone and do work out of hours, you should expect to be rewarded with time and a half compensation (for example), time and a half in lieu (for example) or a bonus.
My question is, is this ethical principle in conflict with Catholic teaching?
Another question I have: I believe that it is a sin to ask/coerce someone to do something impossible or unreasonable. But is it a sin to agree to an impossible or unreasonable request once the request has been made?
A couple of thoughts come to mind which may or may not be relevant:
Somewhere in the gospels or perhaps the epistle of james, it says something along the lines of “let your yes be yes and your no be no”. Which sort of indicates you should not agree to do something if you don’t intend to do it, and once you have agreed to something you should do it even if it is unreasonable/impossible.
Another notion I’ve picked up during my investigations of catholic theology is the idea that “God does not command the impossible”. Not sure if that has any relevance but it does pop into my mind while I’m thinking about this topic.
eg if you sign a contract that says you promise to hold your breath for 10 minutes, you do not have to deliver because it is impossible to deliver, any attempt to deliver would be futile and in this case, fatal.
There’s a less obvious ethical principle that I’ve been pondering that is relevant to a situation I’ve found myself in recently: “If you promise the unreasonable you are not bound to deliver, but should you choose to do so you merit a reward”. For example, if you sign a contract which requires you to be on call 24x7, you are not morally bound to be on call 24x7 because it is an unreasonable and impolite request, however if you do choose to sacrifice your time and sanity to answer the phone and do work out of hours, you should expect to be rewarded with time and a half compensation (for example), time and a half in lieu (for example) or a bonus.
My question is, is this ethical principle in conflict with Catholic teaching?
Another question I have: I believe that it is a sin to ask/coerce someone to do something impossible or unreasonable. But is it a sin to agree to an impossible or unreasonable request once the request has been made?
A couple of thoughts come to mind which may or may not be relevant:
Somewhere in the gospels or perhaps the epistle of james, it says something along the lines of “let your yes be yes and your no be no”. Which sort of indicates you should not agree to do something if you don’t intend to do it, and once you have agreed to something you should do it even if it is unreasonable/impossible.
Another notion I’ve picked up during my investigations of catholic theology is the idea that “God does not command the impossible”. Not sure if that has any relevance but it does pop into my mind while I’m thinking about this topic.