Professionals should ALSO PERCEIVED TO BE GOOD.

Posted on April 26, 2013
Location: London
Professionals should ALSO PERCEIVED TO BE GOOD.

BORYS, man who sells flower outside the underground station I use regularly to go to the city. I know him since 2007, when he ran away from his mum’s house in Poland and started this stop outside the train station. I remember asking him, why did he run away, which he replied saying with his European accent “My mum is too much…she is a computer scientist and she expects me to be like her…Nooooooo I don’t like to be like her…I want to be free….I want freedom…I want my business.”. He was quite a teenager then, bulky, sulky and full of attitudes, smoking, drinking beer. In past 6 years, he has grown up to be a responsible young man, talking good health, exercise, a good evening at home, good rest, fine wine and a good life. Time my friend, only time!

Yes – so Borys (That’s the spelling of his name, he told me – I am not making it up). Yes Borys asked me told, what did I think of her colleague who fills in for him during the weekend. Borys does not work during the weekend, so he has a staff (an elderly lady must be in her mid fifties) who works for those two days at the flower shop. I asked; why you ask? To which he replied, that he has been receiving many complaints about this lady and he is thinking of terminating her job.

I do flowering of my deities at home on a Saturday. So at time, I buy flower from this shop on Saturday morning, if I returned home late on Friday. Borys closes his shop at 19:30PM everyday. So at times I had to interact with this lady. And I had noticed each and everything; that others complained about her that: she is a racist, always on the phone, away from the shop, rude and disinterested in her job. I have noticed everything thing since she was employed 2-3 years ago, but never told Borys.

I was trying to map this scenario with an abstract from my CA studies these days, which says that a professional should NOT ONLY BE GOOD, BUT ALSO PERCEIVED TO BE GOOD.

How true is that? The lady was probably doing her job OK but she was not perceived to be good in her job by many.

Often we come across some strong personalities (I am being polite here) – who think we just need to be good. Why we need to be perceived as good? Who has time? Why I have to spend time on perception building separately? Is it not good enough to be good, when there are plenty of bad out there?

So the answer, I THINK IS: we are part of society BECAUSE we want to be part of society, NOT OTHER WAY ROUND. Think about it, we do so many things in life, NOT BECAUSE we LOVE IT/ENJOY IT/NEED IT – NO, but because we want us to be counted, known, or respected in the society (Example: Too much of money, More than one house, more than one car, attire, lavish expenses, and all such material possessions). So to remain sustainable in a society as an individual, as a professional, or as part society, WE HAVE to be good, remain good, do good and appear (perceived to be) good to the other stakeholders in the society. And that is what, the statement refers to: NOT ONLY BE GOOD, BUT ALSO PERCEIVED TO BE GOOD. Not a big ask, NO – I don’t think so. Absolutely fare. And THOSE who have a problem with such approach may rather choose to live in a jungle, away from the society, no?

Can you guess from the pictures of the sky, whether it was morning or night? Beautiful isn’t it?

Hope we all had a HAPPY Friday? We’ll catch up tomorrow and until then….Take care. Goodnight

Bikash MohantyBikash Mohanty"Welcome to my website!
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