Monday, February 19, 2007

Dignity of Labor?

The other day I was chatting with my elder brother who works as Gazetted Officer in a remote town in State Govt., but salary is 11K even after 3 years.
After the usual chat, our discussion went on Job satisfaction vs. compensation. We both are in sync with the opinion that job satisfaction is more important than compensation.
I am currently in a stagnant position where I feel restless and sometimes fear to end up my career as an average person spending hours before a dummy machine, nothing different from an accounts clerk. On my train journey to home during the last Sankranti festival, I found myself in a bogie of 250-300 passengers (the capacity is 90) out of whom almost 200 were youth in the age group of 18-25; but I observed that bulk of them are not SEs like me, but working as small time employees, salesmen,etc., some are unemployed, who have had the privilege of going home twice/thrice a year as against twice a month like me (I enjoy holidays on both Sat and Sun).

That had made me realize that at least I am in a better position, something neither to crib nor become frustrated. I described these views to my brother and our discussion went to ‘Dignity of Labor’. I told I believe in this principle and that as long as some person is doing a moral, ethical and legal job to earn his livelihood that is acceptable.
Then, came the spontaneous remark from my brother that hit my face and shook me up –
I believe in Dignity of Labor. Cooking, sweeping the roads, watchmen and even cleaning the toilets and any job. But I don’t want to become any of them. I will become SE, earn 30K per month and I want somebody to do all this stuff to me when I throw some bucks to them. I still respect their work and believe in Dignity of Labor – So, is this your essence of life?”

p.s.: This is not the word-word translation, but a summary of our discussion.

1 comment:

  1. Hey JB,

    No Comments, is a diplomatic comment we give. Saying having respect is far different from feeling to have respect. My personal opinion people some(many) times are lazy to do simple work like cooking, cleaning, etc. and when they don't feel lazy any longer - EGO plays with us and bingo we end up insulting our very own words - 'I respect Dignity of Labour'.

    -Leela

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