Blessing Eighteen:
Blameless Work
Blameless Work
D. RELATIONSHIPS IN THE WORKPLACE
Apart from the ethicality of work, a second area of problems in the work we do may come from personal conflicts arising at work. Irrespective of the nature of the work, we need to cultivate good human relationships in the workplace otherwise we might risk blame and undermine our job satisfaction. We have to be able to get along with our colleagues whether they are true friends or false. Our relationship with this group of co-workers (whether they be our boss, employees, servants, inferiors or slaves!) are covered in the fifth grouping of relationships mentioned in the Siṅgalovāda Sutta. From this teaching we find out about the reciprocal relationship between the boss and the employee.
D.1 Duties of an employer
The Buddha laid down five responsibilities of a boss to his employees as follows:
1. Delegating appropriate work: Work given to an employee should be chosen as appropriate to that person’s age and gender and disposition and capability in order that they can work efficiently;
2. Give food and remuneration: A decent wage should be given which is not less than the legal minimum. There should be wage increase with time and bonuses. Employees who live “on site” should be provided with regard to appropriate food — not left hungry! A boss with such caring behaviour will be able to relinquish the effects of both bias and defilements of action;
3. Take care of employees in time of illness: Employees should be allowed to take leave if sick and enquiries should be made about their recovery to show the features of a “true friend” of the boss;
4. From time to time give delicacies: organize celebration for special occasions for the employees etc. — and this will give them the encouragement which will keep the boss-employee relationship an amicable one;
5. Allow holidays on occasion: employees should be allowed holidays according to the usual working calendar and national festivals
Employers and bosses who take responsibility for their employees in these five ways will in such a way cultivate a mind of loving-kindness and compassion instead of simply thinking to take advantage of others. A boss with all the features of a true friend — but such an attitude doesn’t occur by accident — it needs for the boss to have been instilled with such responsibility since an early age, whosoever fulfill their duties to the “nadir” in these ways.
D.2 Duties of an employee
The Buddha also laid down five responsibilities an employee ought to have towards his employee:
1. Start work before him;
2. Finish work after him: If any employee who can practise both of these duties, it shows that they have a strong degree of responsibility towards their employer — a sincere respect, love and gratitude towards their employer — rather than having the hidden intention that their behaviour be conditional on their employer raising their salary;
3. Taking only the things (expressly) given to them by the employer: an employee who can have the control of himself to avoid the defilements of action will not help themselves to the things ‘left lying around’ in the workplace or steal the boss’s belongings;
4. Doing their work better: Means giving their all to fulfill their duties for the greatest benefit — without having conditions to negotiate salary increases from their employer — such behaviour shows that the employee really has the generosity befitting a “wise one”.
5. Maintaining and defending the boss’s good reputation: employees with such behaviour do so because of their loyalty to their employers — they see their boss as similar to the ways they would regard a kindly relative or parent.
In general, it is the employer who controls the benefits and disadvantages coming to an employee. That an employee fulfils these five responsibilities towards an employer means that the employer must have treated the employee well in the first place — to want to show these responsibilities to repay his debt of gratitude.
D.3 Reciprocal Relationship between Boss & Employer
If the boss does not fulfill his duties but the employee does, the boss does not deserve such a good employee — in the end harm will come to that workplace because seeing the boss’s attitude, before long the employees will imitate his example.
If the boss fulfils his duties, but the employee doesn’t — the employee does not deserve such a good employer — the workplace will not prosper because the boss cannot control the employees.
If both boss and employees fail to fulfill their duties, the workplace will go bankrupt because it will become a den of thieves — having dire consequences for society at large.
However if both boss and employee fulfill their responsibilities, the workplace will prosper — both boss and employee will enjoy happiness and peace and society will benefit too.
D.4 Possible Harm coming from unfulfilled duties between boss and employee
1. When employees have no sense of responsibility for their own human dignity — if a boss or employer lacks the self-discipline according to the teaching of the Buddha, the first disaster coming to him is that his employees will have no sense of responsibility for their own human dignity, producing at least the following three character traits:
1) Chronic false view: Mostly employees come from an unwealthy and uneducated background and if they come into contact with an undisciplined boss who is a false friend, the employee will be discontent and will resist against the boss — an emotion which may exacerbate False View in the employee’s mind.
2) Breaks the Five Precepts: Those of False View also tend to break the Five Precepts. Employees might deteriorate into the Four Defilements of Action in order to fight back against the employer, without any fear of the legal consequences
3) Brings disadvantage to the employer: in order to avoid breaking the law, employees band together to strike in order to claim rights and benefits for themselves. Any form of strike will disadvantage the employer.
2. When employees have no sense of responsibility for the human dignity of others — if a boss or employer lacks the self-discipline according to the teaching of the Buddha, the second disaster coming to him is that his employees will have no sense of responsibility for the human dignity of others, producing at least the following three character traits:
1) Looking for ways to take advantage of the employer: When bias arises in the mind of the employee — they will want to put the employer at a disadvantage — something they can do in many ways, e.g. by “going slow” (if paid by the hour) or producing shoddy work (if paid for productivity).
2) Mistreats employer: In order to get revenge for the resentment they feel, they produce shoddy goods or feign quality;
3) Ruin the employer: Sometimes the employee divulges trade secrets to competing companies, etc.
3. When employees have no sense of responsibility for the human dignity of economic fairness — if a boss or employer lacks the self-discipline according to the teaching of the Buddha, the third disaster coming to him is that his employees will have no sense of responsibility for the human dignity for economic fairness, producing at least the following three character traits:
1) Addiction to the ‘Six Roads to Ruin’: because of working to express animosity towards the employer, they will feel insecurity about working in that enterprise and immerse themselves in ‘Roads to Ruin’ to forget their woes by drinking alcohol or gambling;
2) Undisciplined in expenditure: When they are addicted to ‘roads to ruin’, they will lose the intelligence to use their earnings beneficially;
3) Consequent debt problems: The combination of addictions and lack of discipline in expenditure will lead them to indebtedness — producing problems not only for themselves but eventually for the employer too!
Desktop Version
