As a Worker, you spend most of your hours around a work environment. Hence, your place of work is very much a part of your life and a part of what you are becoming. Within the workspace, people have diverse personal backgrounds and understanding of work. Companies, organizations and institutions have diverse work culture, and some specific work ethics differ from sector to sector.
In the name of survival and making ends meet, some workers and self-employed persons are all over the place looking for new ways to make additional income. Not everyone falls in this category, though. Some have settled for just that salary that comes at the end of the month and do not bother to exert themselves towards other sources of income. Self-employed persons are also very often busy at their enterprise to ensure that it remains a source of income and sustainable into the future.
From observation, the work ethics of an average civil servant working for the government within our climes generally differs from that of someone working in the private sector such as a bank, a company or an NGO. Often, this boils down to the culture that has developed there over time. It also has to do with self-discipline, personal growth, personal values and personal principles or an absence of it.
Good Work Ethics and the Lack of It as a Norm
We know that personal work ethics differ from person to person. Some workers simply hang their handbags and/or suits and go somewhere else doing other stuff not relevant to their primary job task for the hours for which they are paid. Some others require that they be given a tip, even for work they are paid to do.
In our Nigeria context, this is very much a norm with many workers, yet it does not make it right. Some others make other demands, beg and oblige clients to give them gifts, money or ‘just anything’. Such workers are not able to see that they have become very beggarly, unashamed and undignified. This is with the excuse that their take-home pay (salary or wage) is not able to take them home. So, clients and the public become their ATM and people they must extort from.
Again, some other workers, have resorted to making diverse demands before or after rendering a service for which they are paid. There is cash for marks, sex for marks, sex for promotion, and exchange of monies or sex for favours. Some others engage in blackmail of colleagues, envy, internal factions, forming of cliques which could be based on tribe, use of language spoken to sideline others, self-interests, personal gains, religious or denominational inclinations and/or just ‘partnerships in crime’.
Yet again, every worker feels the pressure of the power that their position gives to them. This person could be a gardener, a cook, a gatekeeper, or a cleaner. Over time, they too get to realize that they have some power in their hand, and that s/he is a leader within her/his own sphere of influence. Depending on one’s perspective to life and work, self-identity and world-view, this power gets exerted in different ways.
There are workers who want to ensure that their authority is felt by anyone who comes around them. Hence, the idea of servant-leadership is thrown out of the window. For example, a gate-keeper, besides just enforcing basic rules around his work, may make life difficult for persons who come in or leave the premises he or she is guarding. A baby-sitter could begin releasing her stress, frustrations, wicked acts, sexual abuse/violence, and transferred aggression on the child/red she is supposed to mind and nurture. A boss who feels very insecure with himself may begin to clash the heads of upcoming strong leaders in his institutions and ensure that they do not get recognized so that his or her own position is not threatened.
Some Ripple Effects of Work
To give more examples around ethics, some workers have settled for a life of fraud and thievery, such that it has become part of the system and a norm in the operations of that institution. These workers defraud their institutions, steal, share monies and look the other way like nothing happened. Yet, the capital and spiral effects of these actions go beyond one’s imagination. They cripple the basic needs of a child, cripple a home, cripple relationships, cripple livelihoods, cripple basic infrastructure, cripple the fundamental dignity of human beings in that society, and ultimately cripples the economy of a nation, in an ongoing and dilapidating manner, all through the cumulative actions of individuals.
Until workers begin to bring to their consciousness, the effect of what they do or do not do within their workspace, they will not realize the damage they often do or the great contribution they make, to their fellow human beings, to the community, the society and to the nation.
All these come into context, even as we look at safeguarding the mental sanity of workers. Anyone who is engaged in any form of serving others or the public in any capacity needs to watch what they do around their work and indeed intentionally safeguard their mental sanity.
A Good Name and Your Mental Sanity
A colleague recently spoke to me about how important it is to him that he safeguards his good name. He said he has laboured for decades with his work and life for this, and this has meant turning down mouth-watering offers, this has meant personal sacrifices, self-denial, employing personal values and principles, and just keeping that name in good stead and untainted, even to the point of lack in some cases.
For you as a worker, what are you safeguarding in your work? In my opinion, safeguarding a good name is a way of safeguarding your mental sanity. This is how it does that – it helps you check the following:
First, is that you have basic contentment which helps you appreciate that which you already have, rather than focus on all the things you lack or on things your colleagues have, and that you do not have.
Second, you become aware that with your position, knowledge, work, available resources, and belief in yourself, you can strive towards the things you want, at your own pace, without ‘joining a gang to break a bank’.
Third, you become attentive to where and in what situations, circumstances, documents, and contexts to which your name is associated. If you are of a level where you sign documents, you will ensure that things are done in line with policy, both apparently and behind the curtains, such that your name is not part of a messed-up deal. In our climes, many unwholesome and grossly unethical deals continue to be executed with no eyebrows raised and with every impunity possible. Hence, the emphasis here is that you are certain that due diligence, right processes and policies are all being followed through, not just on paper (for the books), but in reality too.
In my work experience, I have seen that persons who are attentive in this way, are far more trusted within the team and seen as persons of integrity who are reliable. If this is the path you choose, you will as a person, find peace and serenity in your work, knowing that you must not intentionally bring your name to disrepute.
(To be continued in – Part 2)
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