In the previous episode we had witnessed an important discussion with regards to how a king / leader should take care of servants, workers and employee’s in a way that they are satisfied with whatever they do and whatever they get. This is also a part of Sage Naarada’s advice on “Raaja-Dharma” to Yudishtra. Sage Naarada explains that compensation (Salary) is not the only one that makes employee’s happy. Of course, salary is important and there’s no denying that. However, employee’s should like the work that is assigned to them, should like the work environment in which they are working, and many more factors as well. Hence, “Job-Satisfaction” or “Work-Satisfaction” is something that a leader should take care of amongst all his people and in today’s scenario too, this is being widely spoken about in almost all sectors of the corporate / industry. Once employee’s are satisfied, profits and revenue would automatically start flowing in. This is where sadly many employers aren’t understanding. Just to get work done, employers go to any extent today to harass people. This should not be done. Leaders should understand that employee’s too have families and children at home. Leaders should have empathy towards people and understand their problems and grievances and try to accommodate them in the best way possible.
Moving on further, Sage Naarada explains yet another important point here, with regards to treating workers / employee’s. Sage Naarada asks thus, “Oh Yudishtra! Are you feeding your employee’s / servants every day properly before you take your meal? Are you following the “Dharma” of ensuring that your workers are happily satisfied with whatever you give them? Are you motivating them constantly by appreciating their contributions to your kingdom’s welfare?” These are extremely important golden words of advice from Sage Naarada isn’t it? Even today we have this practice – If someone visits our home as a guest, it is important that we serve them with the best possible food variety first, and only then consume food for the day (“Atithi Devo Bhava”). This exactly applies to our servants and workers as well. This is why in large manufacturing setups, we still have this practice of offering free food to all the hundreds and thousands of workers who slog every day in the shop floor. Even in corporate organizations, we have something called “Cafeterias” which provide a good variety of food at a very subsidized rate, so that all the employee’s can easily afford it every day. All these practices pertain to what Sage Naarada explains here – As a leader / CEO / General Manager or whatever we might be, it is our duty to look after our workers / servants in the best possible way. Food is one important way through which we can take care of people nicely.
More than the food aspect, the organization should also take care of other employee needs such as medical, counseling, mental conditioning, etc. as well. Due to the current stressful work pressures that we have today in many organizations, there are always possibilities that employee’s might get overwhelmed with enormous work in their hands. As a result, they might get stressed out / burnt out! Such kinds of problems are addressed through proper recreation activities like Yoga, Meditation, some indoor sports / games, etc. Thus, it is the duty of the leader to ensure that such facilities are created and well-maintained so that employee’s can make use of them to relieve their stress. Moreover, there might be some employee’s who might have some acute family issues, which would in turn affect their productivity at office. Such employee’s should be adequately taken care of by providing them with some counselling services. Many organizations today have in-house counselors and mental conditioners, whose main job is to help such employee’s to come out of their problems. Organizations today even have gym facilities for employee’s within their premises, or they might even have contracts with some outside gyms for their employee’s on subsidized rates. All these are some measures with which employee’s can be taken care of, apart from just the salary part.
Moreover, a token of appreciation for what employee’s do for the organization is of paramount importance. Employee’s should always be “motivated” to perform and achieve more. The leader should encourage employee’s to come forward and take proactive steps to ensure better productivity. If employee’s do so, they should be appreciated in the public forum in front of everybody. This would boost the morale of employee’s and they would feel that belongingness with our organization for a long time. Such measures would also ensure that our organization doesn’t lose talented employee’s to the competitor ones. This is exactly what Sage Naarada is explaining here too – He says to Yudishtra that if a king doesn’t pat his servants / ministers on their shoulders constantly, chances are very high that these people would switch ships! In other words, they would easily be grabbed by other kings and through these people, the kingdom’s secrets (“Raajya-Rahasyam”) would be leaked out to the enemy! This is where the leader should be very careful.
So for today, let us understand these points clearly and in the next episode, we shall continue this discussion forward. Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 