Employee of the Society

One of my favourite professors from IIMB had sent a mail on our last day on campus, wishing us luck for the future. The mail also had a word document attached to it which was titled 'How to be an employee'. I opened it, saw that it ran for 6-7 pages and closed it. I however saved it, for I knew that it would be worth a read in the future. While looking through my old mails over the weekend, I came across the document that I had saved and I began to read it. It is an excerpt from the book 'People and Performance - The Best of Peter Drucker on Management'. Here Peter Drucker has said a lot of things or atleast has tried to say a lot of things about How to be an Employee. And most of them make a lot of sense now. Maybe 5 years later, if I revisit this word document, I would probably be able to relate to it more and probably at a higher level. Who knows.

Among the whole lot of things that Peter Drucker has written in that piece, one thing to me that stands out to me is his two paragraphs on 'Your life off your job'. I am going to quote him here.

"I am not, as you might suspect, thinking of something that will keep you alive and interested during your retirement. I am speaking of keeping yourself alive, interested, and happy during your working life, and of a permanent source of self-respect and standing in the community outside and beyond your job. You will need such an interest when you hit the forties, that period in which most of us come to realize that we will never reach the goals we have set ourselves when younger - whether these are goals of achievement or of wordly success. You will need it because you should have one area in which you yourself impose standards of performance on your own work. Finally, you need it because you will find recognition and acceptance by other people working in the field, whether professional or amateur, as individuals rather than as members of an organization and as employees."

Peter Drucker's choice of words is immaculate. The words seem to convey 'feelings' rather than thoughts and ideas here. Being the eternal optimist, I would want to disagree about 'not reaching goals at forty', but for now I shall give him the benefit of doubt. (* Lucky is trying to show off.. nothing else ;) * )

On a serious note, all of us are employees of an organisation and being good employees we take it upon ourselves to push the organisation forward through our best efforts, thus meeting both organisational goals and personal goals. Additionally, I think what Peter Drucker is trying to convey is that, one should also be an 'employee of the society', contributing to it and demanding the same exacting standards that we ask of ourselves in the professional arena. It is a very interesting perspective, an inspiring thought. I intend to translate the thought into action very soon. Lets hope for the best :)