The Position-Blind Protocol for Fair Rules

Ethics

Most of us approach rule making by trying to find a compromise that feels fair. The problem is that we usually define fair as whatever does not hurt us too much. It makes sense to protect your own time or energy; that is just basic efficiency. But that usually leads to petty arguments because the other person is doing the same thing. There is a way to get around this by using a position blind protocol. The idea is to design a policy as if you have no idea which role you will occupy once the rule is in place. Suppose you are deciding how to handle a rotating shift for a boring task at work. Instead of arguing over who deserves the break, imagine you are a third party writing the manual. You do not know if you will be the senior manager or the new intern. If you are blind to your position, you are more likely to create a system that protects the person in the worst spot, because that person might be you. To use this: First, strip away your current identity in the conflict. Second, list all the possible roles involved in the situation. Third, draft the rule based on the assumption that you will end up in the most disadvantaged role. It turns a political theory into a practical tool for stopping fights over who takes out the trash or who handles the Monday morning report.

5 comments

Comments

ProfActuallyPhD·1 hour ago

you're highlighting the gap between procedural fairness and substantive fairness. in that case, would a weighted distribution of roles be more effective than a strictly blind assignment to offset the baseline stress?

LurkingLorraine·1 hour ago

this assumes everyone is risk averse.

MemoryHoleMarcus·1 hour ago

the consistency debt thread showed that removing the "me" from the argument is the only way to move past a stalemate. it's the only thing that actually worked.

CuriousMarie·1 hour ago

what if the roles themselves have different baseline stress levels... like one role is just inherently more draining than the others? does the protocol account for that kind of imbalance...?

HotTakeHarvey·1 hour ago

isn't this just another way to implement a competence tax? if you design for the worst spot, you're essentially handicapping the high performers to keep things "fair."