Break the barriers

“Arre!! Kya hua Bhaiyya!!” “Enna da aachu” “Emandhi babu” “Yaenri aayithu” “Endhaa aayinnu” and many many more…
We would have all heard this somewhere or the other. Research psychology says that people usually mix and move with people mostly with some commonality- be it language, religion, or whatever other commonalities that appeals to the eye and the brain. We always want to be seen, spoken to, given importance to and to be understood. However, not many realize that the art of being accepted lies in the mere social interaction. Be it a simple wave, a smile or a ‘Heyyyy Sup?’.

Workplace is no different. It is rather way too complicated to be explained, or for that matter, even to be understood. Anything you do or say is always under the radar. The people you talk to, how you talk, how you carry yourself. Well if you’re silent, that gives a completely different picture as well. However the picture, a portrait of your persona it will be.

That’s where workplace ethics comes in. it’s not merely confined to the ‘Ethics and Communication’ we have all read as part of the Curriculum for our various competitive examinations. Hold on. Don’t despise me right away. I see I have been pretty cryptic right from the start, so let me get straight to the point.

Ethics is an ocean. What is right to you, would in all probabilities be wrong or perceived differently by your friend or colleague. For example, You decide to escalate something that you haven’t felt good about which is quite a sensitive issue. However, your friend feels that escalating the issue might not be the right stand to take since it is by nature, sensitive. He suggests you give it time for things to settle. However you opine that if you are unable to take the issue higher, it would probably only get worse. This is a kind of ethical dilemma we are always faced with.

Escalation of issues is a very critical aspect in every employee’s career. Any issue where he/ she feels something isn’t right should be communicated to their superiors or higher authorities. You might have a problem with a co-worker or a peer and you may have differences in work. Why the escalation is important is 1. To give vent to any trouble you have been experiencing to an independent party who will definitely be able to help. 2. If there is a problem, it will be ensured that it is not repeated. That issue will come to light only when you express your problem.

What you talk, when and how is of utmost importance. On the professional front, if something is mis-communicated, it has a profound impact on the rest of your career. As I mentioned earlier, all of us are always under the radar. Every one of us is different from the other. I may enjoy Rock and Jazz more than Classical music or I may enjoy playing outdoor games rather than PC games. That’s just me. We can play ‘spot the differences’ between you and me and we can point out a minimum of 100!!

When you and your friend are in sync with each other, you may just share the same frequency and when you don’t with another colleague or friend, it simply means you are not interested. Of course we all know that! The question is what do we do about the people whom we don’t talk to? In a corporate setup, it is natural to find that sometimes you do feel all alone and left out when you find everyone else having an identity or a group where they belong.  That identity is what is not yours; rather it is what is thrust upon you. A healthy corporate work-balance is initiated and propelled when colleagues treat others with respect and the vicious cycle of condescending behavior and ego are shattered.

Ethics in this current day scenario may be a term highly abused. Though it is in the eyes of the beholder, it applies to individuals for the betterment of themselves. Ultimately, what are rules for? We have an Ethical Standards Board in almost every single professional field and institution. Despite that, why is there an increase in the number of such issues? When a person tries to be sagacious, he does tend to be effervescent and goes a little overboard with his knowledge. Ethical skills should not be confused with the skills a person possesses. They are two worlds entirely. However, ethics while expressing your knowledge falls into the domain where it means “What you say, Say it Ethically and say it Right”. If you are having problems at the work front when you think you have been an unanticipated victim of a lack of ethic sense towards you, then the best way out would be to deal with it. How you deal with it will be how you define ethics to yourself and the others around you. A sketchy outline may never get you things staring right at your face. Drilling down to the core of the issue will always fetch more viable solutions that may plausibly provide long term solutions. Ethical principles are forever dynamic and are always subject to change with the radical changes in human rationale, but the fundamentals always remain intact. There are various literatures across the globe trying to define this one concept. Paper presentations, councils and projects worldwide are continuously striving to derive additional meaning from this one term. I just commenced my search into the depths of this term. It’s a long way to go and hopefully some day we will reach a consensus. Cheers to that!!

Bibliography: www.google.co.in