Wednesday, November 12, 2008

How are human beings valued ?

Two separate incidents that happenned over the last few days have got me thinking..How are human beings being valued ? Is it purely on their utility value or is there a respect for age, emotions, relations , bond, past achievements ? The incidents by themselves cannot be compared as we are looking at oranges and apples here, but they tell a common story.

The first one was narrated to me by X. In their office, a top management personnel who was once responsible for putting in strategies and systems in place was probably asked to leave as he was now redundant. In the days of recession, his CTC was not working out. He was probably a mentor to a few, but now there was no use for him in the organization. That apart, he had burnt bridges and could not handle politics.

Being in the corporate world, we have always learnt that everything comes with an expiry date and we are as good as our last assignment and we must learn to look at the writing on the wall, long before it is too late. So, for most of us, this is just another day in the corridors of power and another casualty on the block. And the survival is always about the fittest, recession or otherwise.

The other incident was much closer home and was straight out of a saas bahu serial, except that it does not refer to the women folk. A recent marriage ceremony threw enough light on who is wanted, who is respected, who is of use (the word being " help") and who is redundant . Respect and redundancy go hand in hand. You are given respect if you are not redundant and are of use to the families . A senior couple, well past their 60s and a bit unfit health wise due to certain ailments found themselves cold shouldered in a wedding they had attended in a city as they could not be of much use to the wedding party. They were not from the city and the reason attributed to the indifference was many - many people to look after ,there was "family" to take care of the couple and the couple themselves were part of the wedding party and they should probably take care of themselves .

I will not go into details here , but the long and short of it was that the two stories brought out one common thought..how are human beings being valued ? Is there an emotional bond, respect for seniority and a value for your past achievements and success or is it the sheer usefulness of an individual that is being taken into account. In corporate life, it is probably taken for granted...but in families too ... ?

I think I can read the writing on the wall..what do you say ?

11 comments:

~vagabond~ said...

Another really good post.
There is no doubt which side the coin falls when it comes to the corporate world. To the corporate world, human beings are simply resources that need to be efficiently utilized. When it comes to personal relationships however, I think how you value other human beings says a lot about you. Sadly enough, there are people to whom relationships are founded purely on "give and take" and who see no purpose to valuing a relationship where they arent being "given" anything back. But I think there is a certain beauty to simply appreciating a person purely for who they are and what they mean to you. Regardless of all else.

Bhargavi said...

chanced upon your space while blog-hopping .. i do agree that both in the corporate world and our daily lives, unfortunately a human being is valued by what he/she brings to the table ..and these days its all about survive or get eaten for breakfast.. we r truly reverting back to the ways of our ancestors..

dharmabum said...

it is the truth of us humans. very few people rise beyond the paltry, to evolve while going beyond our essential crass nature...thanks for dropping by, i got to read thie one and liked it!

Just call me 'A' said...

hi, i chance upon your blog. don't remember how i got here now. I was so engross in your post.
unfortunately, in todays world irrespective of all factors, if you can make yourself useful and bring value, then you are valued. we live in a pretty intolerant society nowadays. here today gone tomorrow. no one cares.


i will come back :)
A

Anonymous said...

I can so very much relate to first incidence. I have witnessed it from very near.

I am not surprised. well fortunately and smtimes unfortunately everything comes with an expiry date.

it is true not only for seniors for every relationship even at this moment we might be losing out shelf life with respect to someone. :)

Got to live with that !!

broca's area said...

thats the one reason i didn't choose engnrng and mba....!!...people just want results..no value for friendship!!...

Vishesh said...

well we are valued and we keep valuing.It is not possible for us to be without valuing,because we after all have the power to judge and draw our own conclusions..

Phivos Nicolaides said...

What an excellent text!

Prashant Sree said...

My answer to the question "How are human beings valued" will be " - "It depends"...

Instead of asking and wondering what will make people value others,(it could be for any number of reasons),what will be more useful is to muse about "the consequences" of treating a human being.

Putting it simply,The World is round, so you GET What you GIVE. People will have hundreds of reason to value a person, ranging from Mentor Needs,financial needs,emotional support etc.

What we must focus is on How we want to value others.,. Whether to allow our Heart/Mind to decide how to value others.,. Accordingly you will be valued.,. :)

smilie said...

So far I have seen, both in families and the corporate world or wherever it is, human beings are evaluated on many insignificant parameters like use out of them, money, qualification etc.
As you rightly said its taken for granted in a corporate world.Because its driven by the market and its business where values for employees become negligible.
On the other side, when it comes to families, people forget to understand the importance of anyone based on their good character.
Its painful to know about how people are, but that's how most of them are.

lookingwithin said...

Very thought provoking...sometimes so many things that we take for granted turn out to be so important...

One more thought...not too tangential...sometimes in thick of things we often tend to hand out the treatment as was meted to the old couple in ur narrative maybe in our rush to get things done...but in hindsight guilt catches up...well sometimes...