Your words/behaviour define you….
Recently, media articles on a resignation letter from a Singapore employee, written on toilet paper, caught my eye. The blunt message said: “I felt like toilet paper, used when needed, discarded without a second thought.” It ended with: “I have chosen this type of paper for my resignation as a symbol of how this company has treated me. I quit.”
A female director of the company, shared the letter on LinkedIn, commenting on the “deep impact” it had left on her and said ruefully, “Appreciation isn’t just a tool for retention. It’s a reflection of how much a person is valued — not just for what they do, but for who they are. Make your employees feel so genuinely appreciated that even when they decide to leave, they walk away with gratitude, not resentment.”
This is something all of us — not only employers, managers, supervisors — should reflect on. How do we make people feel by what we say, do or the way we treat them. More often than not, at the workplace the pressure to achieve targets and meet deadlines is so huge, that seniors/superiors show very little tolerance for shoddy work or mistakes. Yes, quality and standards, targets and deadlines are sacrosanct, but not at the cost of crushing somebody’s spirit and self-respect so drastically that he/she has no other option left but to quit.
While this is an all-encompassing topic which can be applied to almost anything in life — workplace, family, friendship — let’s narrow down the discussion to the Rotary world. Leadership and hierarchy are two very important verticals of Rotary, and for the 1.4 million Rotary family, in this rather transparent organisation it is quite easy to observe how the top leaders conduct themselves in their countries, zones and districts. They too have targets, mainly growing membership and ensuring donations to The Rotary Foundation to enable Rotarians across the world use some of these funds to do community welfare projects, continue the formidable battle against Polio, etc. But how do these leaders achieve their goals; how is their demeanour, the way they handle/treat/talk to members of their core and larger teams, determines whether they are remembered by the Rotarians in their circle for decades, or are forgotten the moment the Rotary year ends and their position of power passes on to someone else. Think about it.
That brings us to another important topic for debate… what qualities best define a Rotarian. Kind, considerate and courteous? Generous and helpful? Rich and powerful? Pompous and arrogant? The no brainer is that in such a mammoth group there would be a mix of all kinds. So let me leave you with a comment made by Brian Rusch, one of RI’s founder-members of the DEI Task Force (Pg 28). Asked whether there were complaints on the DEI front from India at dei.inquiries@rotary.org, he said he did not monitor the mails. But more than complaints, there were issues which were most of the time resolved at the club/district level. Then he added: “Honestly, most people do not have bad intentions. Rotarians are not bad people, but there are generational differences. Something that was acceptable to say and do 40 years ago is no more so, but sometimes people don’t realise that.”
This left me thinking… about whether we “think” at all before saying something hurtful or obnoxious to someone. Can “generational” or cultural, regional, religious differences justify behaviour or speech that is offensive to others? Food for thought there…
Rasheeda Bhagat
