Dignity of Labour

Working in an organization for 3 decades would make one more than a mere employee. The person would view themselves as one of the army of men who build the organization pillar by pillar and brick by brick. There would be no corner of the unit that the person wouldn’t be aware off. And there would be no policy that cannot be measured by the employees’ eyes. Devoting all his youth to the vision of making the unit into something big and known worldwide would be a dream not just the owners would sleep and rise with every new day. And when the day to his retirement seems to be approaching, what would be the ultimate reward he would be looking forward to expectantly?

No it’s not the compensation, nor the farewell gifts. It’s not about sitting in a cabin all to himself, nor having a chauffeur driven car. It’s neither about being a critical member of the team nor smiling with pride seeing the enormous numbers of turn key projects he’s handled, yielding huge profits. These are all secondary points which add on by the by in the experience of life.

One fine morning among these days prior to retirement, one of the top management guys who has been with the organization for equal periods of decades decides to take a walk around and visits this department as well. For some reasons the top guy cannot remember this persons name, and doesn’t give even a minute to his memory for a recollect. Instead tries drawing attention of that employee by making certain sounds and clapping his hand and knocking at the door with a ‘hhuussshhh’, ‘oye’ and a ‘psstttt’, where everybody is an audience.

How would that do the 3 decades of blood and sweat in the name of this organization? How about a lesson on ‘Dignity of Labour’?

Surfing the Internet, I came across several definitions/meanings and essays to these 3 words. The best of which I could choose was:

“Dignity of labour chiefly means respectability of all labour such that one is not viewed as superior to the other”. And we even have a Labour Day marked on the calendar!

However I come up with a very different definition of mine, which says:

Dignity of Labour chiefly means not just bringing equality in work, appreciation of a job well done, time and again; but when one retires after serving the organization the top management knows his name and each one’s who is currently associated with the organization and they are addressed by it, doesn’t matter a blue collar employee or white collared.

This is one feeling of being recognized, which can surpass all materialistic gifts and rewards ever received in the whole career life - cycle of an employee. It’s the sweetest sound to any person’s ear that he/she lives his /her entire life to hear!

So if we really appreciate work done by somebody, and are in all praise for the effort and knowledge, apart from a memento at the rewards & recognition event, the first thing we could do, is call him/her by their name and make them realise they are not a forgotten lot and they will be remembered each passing day for their contribution towards building the organization.