Multiplying joy and dividing grief

At this time of the year, with Eid marked by Muslims earlier this week and Christmas to follow in a few days, Tanzanians like many others worldwide have taken and will take some time off to exchange greetings, present gifts and call close ones. 

Holidays, particularly religious ones, do give us an opportunity to express and inculcate love. During holidays we have an opportunity to contribute, not necessarily by way of money but by way of being good to others. When we stop thinking primarily about our own self-preservation, and ourselves we undergo a transformation of consciousness that uplifts our spirits as well as that of others.

Life becomes bankrupt if individuals spend their time with the objective of only yearning for more wealth, increased power and more popularity. Seeking personal success is a normal and noble quality for any person but when the means adopted to pursue such success alienate one from others through greed, pride, cruelty, crude language or lack of compassion and sympathy then the very purpose of seeking such personal glory becomes questionable.

How can one be a successful Managing Director when one does not know the grades of his children in schools, or does not bother to remember his wife’s birthday, or does not take time for a decent holiday with one’s family despite having the means, or does not bother to care about one’s parents, or does not become involved in the welfare of one’s staff, or does not treat his staff with a refined approach, or maltreats one’s domestic workers at home, or does not adopt an attitude of spending some time to contribute financially or physically to society? The true perfection of a person lies not in what he or she has, but in what he or she is, as a person. The strength of a person can best be judged by his or her ability to lift a burden from another’s shoulders rather than on what he or she owns. 

Large organised companies annually address the subject of retaining quality employees. During one such meeting, a lady who was managing a convenience store department was asked as to why she had stayed with the company for so many years despite her wage being average. Her reply, “one telephone call” surprised the questioning panel until she provided further elaboration. 

She said that she first took a clerk job with the company as an interim position while she looked for a better job. On her third day behind the counter she received a phone call from her young son asking for a sports item that he was very keen on but she could not afford paying for. She was a single mother, had plenty of bills to settle and said she intended buying the item her son wanted after two or three months. 

The next morning her immediate manager called her for a special meeting and she wondered if she had done something wrong and was about to be sacked. The manager handed her a box with the sports gift her son had asked for. He had overheard the phone call and said, “this is a gift for your son because he may not understand how important he is to you, even though you have many bills to settle. We can’t pay good people like you as much as we would like to but we do care and I want you to know that you are important to us.”  

The thoughtfulness, empathy and love of the store manager won the heart of the single mother and her decision to stay on with the company shows that people care not only on how much an employer pays but also on how much they care. Quality employees’ normally only stay if the pay is good but at times they stay due to special personal reasons.  Those in managerial positions who cannot put a smile on hard working employees become bankrupt despite their wealth because of their egoism. They become like the man with a billion shillings in a bank who has no cheque book to put a smile on the faces of others! 

During this holiday season we can all get ourselves cheque books to issue blank cheques to multiply joys and divide grief. Eid Mubarak, Merry Christmas and a happy new year to esteemed readers.