There is perhaps no person who dislikes the attention of others. To glow in the spotlight is an innate desire for most. People will perform many clownish acts just to be in the spotlight and though onlookers or spectators might laugh at such a person, many of them would not hesitate to do the same.
There is perhaps no person who dislikes the attention of others. To glow in the spotlight is an innate desire for most. People will perform many clownish acts just to be in the spotlight and though onlookers or spectators might laugh at such a person, many of them would not hesitate to do the same.
Vanity can break like glass shattered at the slightest drop in attention. Individuals who suffer from this ailment invariably end up as despondent and negative managers of resources, including the most important resource: human capital.
Office, whether in the public or the private sector, brings with it a plethora of perks and privileges. These are mostly in addition to monthly emoluments. Perks or additional rewards are used as bait to attract and retain talent, particularly in the private sector. Every organization and institution has different types of perks and privileges.
Public officeholders are largely ignorant of how much respect they lose when they misuse and abuse available perks and benefits. The spectrum of these benefits is far and wide, ranging from the basic automobile facility and health insurance to lavish bonuses, paid vacations and utility reimbursements.
Our otherwise sluggish parliamentarians are known to pass bills relating to their own perks and privileges at an astonishing pace. Politicians sell hope as a perk to the oppressed and downtrodden while depriving them of their basic needs to pay for the frills and luxuries.
In the West, most young professionals who cross the age of 50-55 years prefer to take early retirement to avail for themselves the many awaiting benefits arising from the social welfare system, which, as employees, they would have contributed to for decades. In these countries, the risk of transitioning from powerful perks to ordinary perks is thus very small because there isn’t a wide gap between the two. As a result, leadership in the West is not imprisoned by perks and benefits.
I know of a Pakistani banker who trained in the West and assumed the presidency of a bank here in Pakistan. On his first day, he drove to the head office, parked his car, pulled out his briefcase, hung his jacket over his shoulders and ran like a hare through the staircase and straight to his office. For that institution, his behaviour was almost sacrilegious. The staff were used to receiving his predecessor at the entrance to the building, where each one of them would be eagerly trying to please the president.
The lift would be waiting for him and the senior-most executive would escort him to the office. If the staff had their way, they would attempt to carry him into the office on their shoulders. Upon observing that the new president was somewhat different, they decided to act, fearing that he would ‘spoil’ the environment of flattery. They succeeded. In three months, the new president was carried from his car and delivered to his chair, not office, in a royal and regal manner.
Being dependent upon protocol is akin to a self-inflicted wound, whose scars will haunt one endlessly. The desire to be preferred over others is an ailment of a diseased mind. The journey from being the humblest to being the most arrogant is a consequence of the position obtained. The first task of incoming leaders is to go about re-doing the office they are about to occupy.
The office is given a complete overhaul. Doing this is considered the right or the privilege of the leader/manager. The professionally weak always resort to refurbishments. Having a ‘haute couture’ office serves as a mask with which to conceal professional deficiencies and inadequacies. Even the waiting area is also lavishly redone. Take this privilege away and there would be an uproar.
In our culture, logic is a dodge, not a science or art. It is an inherent weakness to believe all compliments automatically. There is never a demand to find reason or logic for compliments received by public officeholders. My father, a civil servant, took premature retirement aged 57 years. Throughout his career, he denied all the privileges that came with his position and hence he was a man at peace post-retirement. He went on to live to the ripe age of almost 90 years and he did not suffer from any illnesses.
Those who specialize in pleasing their superiors often lose sight of the fact that serving the gullible will soon make them realize what sorrow is. If the superior says the crow is white, the report must not say it is black. Those who have no shame in abusing privileges normally carry within themselves the corpse of a dead conscience.
As a child, I once asked my father why he rushed to greet his staff. He replied with an air of triumph that if they were to wish him first, it would be because he supervised them but that once he left this post, there was a likelihood they may cease to do so and hence he would remain the first to greet them then too. In both situations, he would gain and avoid any heartburn.
The impermanence of benefits, perks and privileges must never be consigned to the backyard of memory. To the contrary, every effort should be made to remind oneself daily that all perks have an ‘expiry date’. It is best to be prepared to receive the arrival of this date with calmness.
The writer is a senior banker and a freelance columnist.
