Are you in love with your Work or should you be? What do you think?
More recently, one of the co-authors had an interesting dilemma. It was about 14th Feb. Not because it being a universal day to celebrate Love by way of Valentine’s Day, but also because it has a very special significance in India, sadly on account of “Pulwama Day” where forty of our brave soldiers were martyred.
The origins of Valentine’s Day are obscure. It is possible that the holiday is based on a combination of two men: two Valentines executed on February 14 (albeit in different years) by Roman Emperor Claudius II. It is believed that the Catholic Church may have set up St Valentine’s Day to honour these men, who they believed to be martyrs.
It may also be possible that one of these men, Saint Valentine of Terni, had been secretly officiating weddings for Roman soldiers against the emperor’s wishes, making him, in some eyes, a proponent of love. Another story involves the practice of writing love letters to your valentine. It’s said that St Valentine wrote the first “valentine” greeting to a young girl he tutored and fell in love with while he was imprisoned for the crimes outlined above. According to The History Channel, before his death, he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” which remains a commonly used phrase to this day. There are other stories as well, one of them with a pagan origin as well.
Let us stop digressing and get back to the dilemma. Valentine’s day is celebrating Love with our loved ones who are a part of our known ecosystem and with whom we want to create a future for ourselves. Pulwama day is the day when our soldiers sacrificed their life in love for the country to create a safe future for many lives unknown to them. Both events are anchored in love.
When we celebrate Love, keeping in mind our loved ones, that is a challenge as well. In reality, the relationship with loved ones is not easy. There is sacrifice, trust, and ‘letting go’ of egos, across all the highs and lows of the relationship, and the bumpiness in the journey. In these situations, the sacrifice(s) is mostly at the individual or at the level of the couple.
Yet, for our soldiers, they provide the ultimate sacrifice: their life. And while they sacrifice their lives, their families too, have to sacrifice everything who are dependent on them.
In our personal lives, there is a choice to leave or quit our loved ones if we believe it doesn’t work. We could constantly think about the pros and cons to continue while we evaluate what’s in it for me?
However, for our soldiers who face the enemy: they have just one goal to defend the country they love. They do have an option to quit but they don’t. When the bullet flies around them, fast and furious, and the cacophony of whizzing bullets, acrid smoke, rises up in the air, at that moment they are not thinking about their lives and what happens next. All they know is, focussing on doing their duty, serving with honour and offering the greatest prize – their own life, in serving their nation and then nothing else matters.
In the ultimate analysis, be it our personal lives or in the defence forces, both are about Love.
Let’s plunge into Corporate Life now. Interestingly we often say a company loves its employees and employees love their work. We refer to our employees as family, Parivar, Kutumbh. Yet, the doubt remains. So what is true in today’s world? Today organisations are embracing insecurity of competition, existence which forces them to take action through unexplained layoffs and the way they are executed and employees take steps like moonlighting.
We wonder, Love is Love. In the simplest manner, Faith is Love. In Love we feel abundant, fulfilled and complete. Hence, the question is, how might we enable both employer and employee to create a relationship where both thrive.
Currently organisations are not set up to generate Love either from employer or employee if they are not driven by the purpose of making a difference to the world rather than just focusing on P&L and the value of embracing sacrifice in most difficult situations to find solutions that work for everyone. The way organisations are set today is broadly to inspire commitment, energy, accountability to deliver, teamwork and loyalty at only a point in time.
Companies are legal entities and cannot have emotions in the same way that individuals do.
What we mean is people within companies have positive feelings toward one another and their own selves. Leaders are expected to deal with their people with fair principles and transparency, respect and decency, but there are startling incidents where this is breached. Companies can show their love for employees by offering fair compensation benchmarked with the market, providing benefits such as healthcare and retirement plans, creating a positive work culture, and offering opportunities for career development and advancement. Also, to create policies and practices that show they value and care for their employees, ultimately, it’s the people within the company who feel and express emotions.
Employees can show their love for their employers by working hard, being productive, and showing loyalty to the company. They can also demonstrate appreciation by offering positive feedback, expressing gratitude, and supporting the company’s mission and goals. This should finally help create positivity about their own self that individuals can thrive and meet their personal purpose as they engage with the organisations.
With the above, at the most difficult time, employers and employees should participate together to solve the problem and make decisions rather than one sided decisions.
So, how do we check if the employees feel the love for themselves and the work they do? Ask your employees – Do you feel Alive everyday at work?
(Steve Correa is an Executive Coach and HR Consultant, who has had over three decades of corporate experience. He is author of, The Indian Boss at Work: Thinking Global Acting Indian.
Sonal Jain works as APAC Head of People Coursera. Her views express her own personal point of view and not of her organisation)
