JOIN USMy school civics teacher, Vatsala Seshadri, had once asked us, her Std IX students, a very pertinent question: “Why do people work?” We, starry-eyed, impressionable high school students waxed eloquently on the idealism of work and how it is therapeutic, and induces keenness, creativity and productivity.
While Seshadri did not dispute these “peripheral reasons”, she was quick to point out, “Let’s get down to brass tacks, and clear the fancy frills. We work, first and foremost, to earn a livelihood and for money. No one can sustain one’s self for long without a regular income coming in, in the form of a monthly salary cheque.” In the years to come, we realised how true Seshadri’s words were, for she had seen the ways and whims of the bitter-sweet world!
Philosopher Voltaire once said, “Work prevents three maladies – vices, boredom and poverty.” Work keeps the body active and by doing so engages the mind fruitfully.
Without being absorbed in work, boredom and ennui set in, and as we all know, “An idle mind is a devil’s workshop.” One who keeps one’s mind vacant and unused is more likely to develop deleterious and vicious vices, like smoking, taking drugs and drinking. It is any day better to be a workaholic than an alcoholic! Indeed, there is no substitute for hard, sincere work. Additionally, one cannot always take shortcuts nor can one continuously look for the “easy way out”. One just has to sweat it out diligently and earnestly.
Housewives and several working women devise their own methods of intelligent multi-tasking in order to get the household chores done to optimum satisfaction in the stipulated time. It is crucial that both men and women practically plan, schedule and pan out their tasks at work for the day by noting each task’s priority and time allotted to do it competently. It is important one doesn’t do work just to appear “busy”, but that one does it with results in mind. Otherwise, though one seems “hard working”, one doesn’t really garner “success”, which may be due to faulty work priority decisions or warped time management strategies. Unplanned, unorganised work is usually devoid of insight and strategy. Let these words ring in your mind, “Work like a clock. Don’t sit like a rock.”