Don’t be a Sandusky

Don’t betray your loyal supporters

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Here I am, doing the business travel thing in December.  One night away from home, in a Hilton Garden Inn in Macon Georgia.  There are three of us in the hotel lobby restaurant, all working on our laptops and having solitary adult beverages.  Fun, right?  Compared to some people, I have life by the balls.

I saw this story about the wife of Jerry Sandusky supporting her husband, and just about flipped out.

The wife of ex-Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky said Thursday her husband is innocent of the child sex abuse allegations made against him and that his accusers are making up their stories, including one suggesting she was home while Sandusky attacked a boy who screamed for help.

Dottie Sandusky’s comments defending her husband were the first she has made since Sandusky was arrested  last month and accused of molesting boys he met through a charity he founded for troubled youth. He faces more than 50 charges and has maintained his innocence.

She released the statement through her husband’s lawyer a day after a grand jury report detailed claims of two new accusers, among them the testimony of one who said he cried out for her help while Sandusky assaulted him in a basement bedroom.

“I am so sad anyone would make such a terrible accusation which is absolutely untrue,” she said. “We don’t know why these young men have made these false accusations, but we want everyone to know they are untrue.”

Dottie Sandusky, who has raised six adopted children, said she has been “shocked and dismayed” by the claims.

Just how loyal can one person be, even a life partner of many years?

I don’t know if Sandusky is innocent or guilty, but the anecdotal evidence would suggest he is a scumbag of epic proportions, single-handedly responsible for betraying the trust of countless people, wrecking the personal lives of many young people, and generally leaving a trail of human wreckage in his wake.  His wife may be the last person left on the planet standing up for him, showing a loyalty that is stunning in the face of the information we have heard in recent weeks.

Loyalty is a quality that requires the greatest risk, and offers some of the greatest rewards when it works out.    I can’t even begin to fathom how Sandusky has earned the level of loyalty shown by people like Dottie Sandusky and Joe Paterno.   Paterno has suffered incredible damage to a cherished legacy.  We won’t know the fate of Mrs. Sandusky for some time.

I have nothing especially profound to say about the Sandusky case, but it does raise a question in my mind related to the workplace.  Many employees in your organization are vesting their loyalty into your organization.  What are you doing to earn it, and even more importantly, what are you doing to maintain and reward it?

Don’t betray your people, people…please.  Don’t be a Sandusky.

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Tagged as: Child sexual abuse, Coach (sport), Dottie Sandusky, Hilton Garden Inn, Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, Pennsylvania State University, Sandusky