When my Boss told me this is the fifth time I’m late, I smiled and thought to myself, it’s Friday!
My friend was complaining about her maid the other day,
“Can you believe it, the lady had not bothered to pick up the garment lying on the floor for three consecutive days even when she broomed and swept it.” She went on and on till she had vented out her wrath against the domestic help and her half-hearted attempts at cleaning.
“I plan to fire her next month. I can’t waste my precious Sunday dragging my feet behind her, telling her to scrub every nook and cranny of the house. After all, what do I pay her for?” She finally gave her verdict on the burning issue.
I’m sure my amused smile must have irritated her. I asked her, “Didn’t you tell me last week that you and your colleagues went shopping during office hours because the boss was on leave?”
She looked at me quizzically, “What does my shopping have to do with my maid’s goofing up?”
“It’s basic human tendency to slack off when nobody’s watching,” I replied. “The only difference is that her boss caught her while yours didn’t.”
Even as a teacher, I have at times said these words to my children while they were preparing their assignments, “Hurry up and finish writing. As it is, nobody’s going to read it.”
At the red light, many a time, we are the ones who tell the driver, “Jump the red light. Nobody’s watching.”
How many times, when prohibited, we tend to gulp down bites of our favourite snack in a jiffy, when nobody’s watching.
The thing is, we all possess an inherent tendency to cheat when “nobody’s watching”. We all do it— consciously or unconsciously, in small amounts or large chunks, momentarily or continuously.
Somehow, we tend to justify our actions while condemning others’. It’s like the 5 second rule of food which says that if you drop food on the floor and pick it up during the five seconds window, you can eat it safely because it has not yet been contaminated by pollutants on the floor. However, the five second rule was extended to ten seconds during Covid period, keeping in view the sanitation as well as the scarcity.
So basically, it all boils down to the flexibility of human will to justify one’s own actions. In fact, when one goes scot-free after committing a petty crime or after a faux pas at work, one tends to boast of it as an achievement. Yet, when it comes to negligence of work on the part of our employees such as the domestic help, driver, gardener or an itinerant labourer, we not only shower verbal volleys on them but threaten them with dire consequences like salary cuts, termination of job, etc.
Why do we forget the fact that after all, they are human, too? They are also made up of similar frailties as you and me. So next time, your maid turns a blind eye to a dusty corner, close your eyes and recall if you, too, had turned a blind eye to something at work.
Remember, if you are not a perfect employee, don’t act like a perfect boss!
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