Be Bold or Stay Behind Like Silent Spectators

Every flourishing company takes pride of its senior workers…some who’ve remained loyal since their early start to passing times, some who, like historians, vividly remember company’s beginning, ups and downs and pathways to prosperity and some who have wielded their energies to chisel the corporate culture with their liveliness and enthusiasm. But, of all, you’ll find few who, even after decades of service, remain detached, cling on to their work schedules in a calculated manner and they simply prefer to stay behind like silent spectators.

Oh, these quiet workers care not for employee engagement, they aren’t eager for team spirit or desire not spending time for nontoxic, cheery gossips or enjoyment.

It’s so alarming, but then such typical realities are rampant in companies where corporate culture is missing or employee communications prevails in a disorganized way.

In one different company, at a time when my career was nascent I spoke to my colleague, out of sincerity, about the unjust work atmosphere and confused happenings where I couldn’t find any responsible listener for fair solution.

You know what? My good, honest colleague gave a quick reply, “Forget these trivial issues, don’t bother yourself…it’s better to be silent and mind your own work.”

My colleague’s answer clearly signaled that there’s bad management, there’s boasting of few over others…but the best policy is to be quiet and pretend as if you know nothing.

Well, if this is the case, then you may miscall it by whatever name. Call it timely wisdom, smart politics or uncaring attitude.

It is agreed that bad management will hamper good people’s competence and morale.  On the contrary, to survive in a misfit organization, either you’ve to become nasty as others are or keep your mouth shut. That’s it!

And if you wish to be honest, frankly speaking person you ought to be bold, fastidious and ready enough to take risks. For these causal reasons, perhaps, people prefer to be aloof, flaccid and unwilling to say anything for fear of losing their propitious positions.

I remember very well one typical, hardworking assistant manager who was smart enough to calculate diverse circumstances and act accordingly. He never mingled with others in order to avoid conversations and had tactical command over the production workers…as if he knew the art and science of getting production batches done within the timeframe. 

When there was shift in upper echelon of management, he was fortunate enough to gain rapid promotion and liberal authority for major decisions.

Though, over the next few years, he kept his record well in achieving overall efficiency in terms of production output, but misusing power he adopted favoritism, special hiring, thoughtless firing, biased approval of overtime, unjust performance appraisals and finally became foul-mouthed manager over his subordinates. Instead of bringing in healthy changes and adopting fair means for cordial work environment, he became power hungry and started degrading others to inferior levels.

Alas! With the changes in superior management, instead of firing him, his control and decisions were totally sidelined as if someone has stripped off his authority and thrown him into humiliation. 

Finally, he made his own exit with the sequel of his work contract. Though he was an efficient manager, with remarkable work experience and technical capabilities, but, with sheer hypocrisy, he exploited authority, became corrupted and, at last, he met his own doom.