Our Work Ethic - A Critical Look

It was interesting to come across profound philosophy with such practical overtones from two diverse streams of thought from two very different civilisations, so to say, and yet be so similar.

As I reflected on this, it dawned on me that this knowledge needs to be spread far and wide as we in India suffer from a very poor work ethic.

Those of you who need to interact with municipal authorities or any government agency or department , on a regular or one-off basis, will have borne the brunt of a callous and inefficient administration. Things just do not move. Let us take a peek into the minds of the officialdom and see this problem at close quarters. Go back and remember when you applied for a passport, driving license, birth or death certificate or had to apply for your parents' pension or withdraw your provident fund on retirement. The malaise runs deeper and applies  even to departments which have no interaction with outsiders.

This is a subject that has no end and one can keep waxing eloquent about our shortcomings. In this post, I will steer clear of all discussion on corruption and focus on a widely prevalent poor or absent work ethic seen in most government / municipal departments.

We see this affliction manifest in many ways. I have listed some that are easily visible for anyone to see.

• Procrastinating,
• Not attending to work at all and keep it pending,
• Poor punctuality,
  
• Spend much time in gossip, office politics, back-biting and frequent refreshment breaks,
• Wherever there is interaction with members of public - be surly, do not co-operate, mislead or keep raising new doubts or queries every time the person comes to get work done, expect monetary benefits are just some of the few qualities on display,
• Antiquated administrative rules and proceedures and lack of basic housekeeping and poor hygiene factors, and many others that my blogger friends could point out based on their personal experience.
  

Is this lack of motivation only attributable to salaries / benefits? or is there more to it?

I sense a complete lack of pride in the job they are supposed to do. There is complete abdication of responsibility and duty is considered as a burden. If one complains or higher authority seeks to discipline then there is a revolt and a "devil-may-care" attitude. Fresh blood infused also catches on and become part of the system.

Negativity spreads fast, becomes a habit and soon becomes a way of life.

What could possibly have contributed to this state of affairs??

Eternal India - Secret of Work

A while ago, before embarking on the trip to Kailash-Mansarovar, I had written two posts based on some inspired writings and sayings of Swami Vivekanand. The first one - "I am a Voice without a Form" and the next "Eternal India - A Woman's Place in our Society".

My last post was on Khalil Gibran's piece on Rest and Passion. This talks about the need to balance reason and caution on one hand with passion on the other. Both are seen as necessary in appropriate proportion to be of use to any person. Gibran was a Lebanese-American and was influenced by Syrian (his native) and American (adopted) cultures.

I happened to chance Swami Vivekananda's thoughts, amongst others, on "Secret of Work". Let us see how the Orient sees this. Is it in contrast to what the Occidental believes or do they mean the same thing?

Swamiji was always asked about the presence of passion in work. Let us see his view and then understand it.

"I find it is not true. The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are, better is it for us, and more the amount of work we can do.When we let loose our feelings, we waste so much energy, shatter our nerves, disturb our minds and accomplish very little work."

"The energy which ought to have gone out as work is spent as mere feeling, which counts for nothing. It is only when the mind is calm and collected that the whole of its energy is spent doing good work."

This view puts a lots of emphasis on a cool and collected mind. This state, if and when achieved, is a superior state and best output is achieved then. The conflict that arises is whether the "western" view is the right way or this thought prevails. Are they different, or, both mean the same thing, but say it differently.

On reflection it was clear. Passion in Swamiji's context meant feverishness, restlessness, anger, hatred or something done with an intention to take revenge, and, these had to be rightly rejected. They had no place at all in our thought process. A cool and collected mind inclued a pleasant outlook, interest, enthusiasm and a positive approach. A sort of energy without the negative attachments. A calm and a collected mind has all these qualities and any work done with this turns out to be superlative.

There is no difference in the two thought streams.

I can vouch for this having observed that the day we are relaxed and calm we have a great day at office and the day we are irritable (whatever be the cause) or overly excited, we come a complete cropper. I never imagined that our ancient wise men had thought of such practical philosophy applicable in this day and age.