When you’re winning, you’re not as good as you think you are. When you’re losing, you’re not as bad as you think you are.”
Patrick David
BY EDISON MARTE SICAD
I SPENT more than a decade working in a small private school. The faculty room, administrative offices, the oratory, and the classrooms (grade 1 to grade 12) are all located in a two-story building. There is only one section of more or less 30 students for each year level. All combined, there are approximately only 35 teachers, administrative officers, and maintenance personnel.
There is less bureaucracy and protocols involved, especially that parents, guests, and guardians have limited involvement in the day-to-day activities.
Then last year, I transferred to one of the three main branches of the government: the judiciary. Office politics is now more complex and work responsibilities and accountabilities are seen in a bigger context.
And if in schools there is such a thing as “hidden curriculum,” in government, there is such a thing as “hidden rules.”
It is interesting to note that in both instances, a person’s true nature gets revealed. Thus, it became more apparent that the nature of my work needed a better “landscaping.”
Allow me to share some redesigning thoughts:
1. “It’s not because you’ve lost your mind, it’s because you have found it.”
I must stop trying to understand why other people behave the way that they do. In general, this is where gossips begin — and continue. Don’t get me wrong. I am not being anti-social. There is nothing wrong in knowing the updates about other people’s lives. But to endlessly critique, diagnose, and give a presumptive conclusion about someone in front of others in the absence of the person concerned, and at most times at the expense of that person, is for me draining and unjust.
But gossiping is fun, entertaining, and addicting. That’s why we are all into it. And that’s why we can also all personally avoid it.
In fact, if a person has set a goal that is mind-boggling, which requires many sacrifices and attention to details like a company’s quarterly report, he or she will not have the time anymore or will avoid this meaningless “group dynamics.”
2. “He who sweats more in training bleeds less in battle.” – George S. Patton, Jr.
Going to work can be boring, especially when there is no aim to improve. To some, the opportunities of work — the mission, vision, goals — can be lost, buried, and forgotten.
I am grateful for the leaders I see everyday at work. Very few of them. Often maligned and ridiculed for their exacting demands. But respected — and feared — for the results they can deliver, the blessings they can bestow, and the power they can exert.
The thing is anyone can be a leader by example. Or a bad influence, unwittingly.
But I learned to always remind myself that anyone can weaponize an opportunity. And each working day is a battle. Mostly, it is a fight against mediocrity and the conformity for convenience.
3. “Smartphone notifications have turned us all into Pavlov’s dogs, training our brains to be in a constant state of fear and stress.” – Robert Lustig
The detrimental effect of social media to work productivity is troublesome. Creativity is affected and depression becomes a serious health concern.
Although there are government programs for employee support about mental health and work policies to somehow avert the intrusion of constant interruption of social media during office hours, still it is a personal call.
A person’s brain, unfortunately, is already hardwired to his or her cellphone. Society has made it so. And we are part of this society.
To know more of the dangers and detrimental effects of smartphones and social media to our cognitive functions, here is a link to a video entitled “How Smartphones Shrink Our Brains” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLD6chdFjA0
Awareness can give us the will to decide how to use a cellphone (and social media) as a tool to improve our lives in aiming for a particular goal. However, some of us spend more time on social media — “the screen-time employees” — believing that this is the opposite of work or complements the pressure of work with the relaxation and simple enjoyment of scrolling, sharing, posting, commenting and clicking. Social media then is a good avenue for employees to unwind, and thus, makes life more fulfilling. Sadly, we could be barking at the wrong tree./PN
