I run a highly profitable specialist subsidiary of a large bank that has got into difficulty. I've been told to cut costs and fire competent people whom I can still profitably employ. This will cause them hardship, while the former top management of the bank, who got us into this mess, walked away with millions. I find this so unfair I'm tempted to refuse to carry out orders. Would this be pointlessly quixotic – or would it be a comfort to know that at least I had tried to do the right thing?
Manager, male, 50
LUCY'S ANSWER
Refusing to carry out orders would not only be pointlessly quixotic, it would be downright stupid. You would get fired, and so would all the people you are trying to protect. I very much doubt if the glory of moral victory would last more than five minutes in the teeth of practical defeat. Failure in his quests made Don Quixote so melancholy that in the end he abandoned chivalrous deeds altogether.