Codie behavior can be fatal
I took to a last minute road trip last week with some colleagues of mine to travel about 5 hours to visit our home office. The man who drove and happens to also be my superior, was IMO, irresponsible and spent every few minutes on his phone doing everything from reading to texting to emailing as we trudged along on a high speed roadway. I sat in the back and could feel the car tug each time he looked down and back up again to where he was. We rode alongside massive trucks and well into nightfall.
From the start I found myself extremely uncomfortable and made several comments to him to please look at the road. Thankfully we managed to survive, but I realized afterward that I regretted not being more forceful in asking him to please respect the other lives in the vehicle (myself and a much less anxious man who sat next to him). I started to think about how my lack of boundaries allowed this person to potentially cause a fatal impact to my life simply because I felt powerless to speak up in any real or effective way.
On the way home I insisted I would drive and did so for a few peaceful hours. Since it was his vehicle he decided to drive the rest and I just held on. But how strange it was to see myself risk my own life because of how loose I kept my boundaries. That so many times in life I just "hang on" for the ride instead of saying THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. I have made the decision that I will never drive with this colleague again, but I can't help but feel a bit of shame that I allowed it. There wasn't an incredible amount I could do as I didn't know his habits when I got into the car, and we had already planned the drive, but I still felt I was in a very familiar space of allowing unacceptable and downright dangerous behavior to occur.
What do you feel would have been the right action here?