As Senator Barack Obama is learning, Reverend Jeremiah Wright isn’t going away.  (Click here, here, and here for more.)  I continue to believe that Obama’s speech on race (delivered on March 18, 2008, and precipitated by sound bites from the Reverend’s sermons) was masterful.  One of the striking things about the speech (in addition to dealing directly with issues that are hard to deal with) was that the senator, while disagreeing with Wright, didn’t abandon the Reverend.  He was respectful when it would have been more politically expedient to blast him. 

Obama may wish now he had blasted him.  During the past few days, Jeremiah Wright has gone out of his way to embarrass the senator and damage his campaign.  So, Obama has now said enough is enough.  He denounced Wright for his message of hate, and he says the Reverend isn’t the person he thought he was.

But this resurrects the question that was asked when Wright’s sermons first surfaced.  Why did Obama stay in Wright’s church for 20 years? You don’t stay in any organization for 20 years and not know what the organization stands for, what it’s CEO is saying, what kind of place it fundamentally is.  That’s what makes Obama’s initial response to (and to some extent his continuing contention about) this resurrected question disappointing to some.  But before we’re too hard on the senator, let’s look at this in the workplace/employment law context.

From time to time, you’ll see a paper, report or article that says a high percentage of employees don’t like what they do or don’t agree with their employers’ values or aren’t proud to be affiliated with their companies’ products or services.   They wish they could work somewhere else.   Some people who do finally quit regret it took them so long–wish they had those years back.  Why didn’t I just quit?

Jobs are hard to come by.  Unemployment isn’t any fun.  The devil you know may be better than the devil you don’t.  Everybody has to do something, and there are worse things than this.  Tobacco companies.  Asbestos manufacturers.  Companies that expose workers to toxins or harmful chemicals.  Polluters.  Enron.   WorldCom.

All of us need to ask ourselves the question that won’t go away for Senator Obama.  Why do we stay?  Or, perhaps put another way, when should we quit?  The leaders of any employer should encourage their employees to ask questions like that.  They should also take responsibility for making it possible for their employees to feel good, fulfilled, right about staying.

With the economy in the doldrums, it’s hard to think about quitting.  I suspect the current worry about getting laid off easily supersedes the quitting dilemma.  That’s understandable, at least in the short term.  But if you’ve been somewhere for 20 years and you don’t like what you’re doing or you’re uncomfortable, even miserable, with your employer, you won’t have to run for President to regret having stayed so long.