Duty in the workplace - 2

[Guest guest]

Conitnued<br><br>Duty in the workplace -

2<br><br>Again once I was asked to conduct an enquiry against

another colleague. At the time of investigation I came to

know that this is a vendetta as the MD wanted to

settle some old scores. The man was innocent. I was

faced with a dilemma. The MD had chosen me for the job

as I was his man and expected that I will do what he

wanted. But how can I find a man guilty when he is

innocent? I decided to write a truthful report and face the

consequences.<br><br>These kinds of problems are faced by most of us in our

everyday job situations. Added to this is the dilemma

about your duty to your country, society. I detected a

fraud once committed by a corporate firm. I threatened

to expose the company and because of my threats the

company settled the matter and we recovered our money. In

this case we were not covered by insurance. I got a

lot of credit for my action. Some years later when a

similar fraud was discovered the Managing Director (the

old MD had left) was very angry with me for setting a

very bad precedent. He was of the opinion that it

should be immediately reported to the authorities even

if that would affect the recovery of the money. He

said as a citizen it is his duty to report any crimes

committed.<br><br>So, you see the different points of view. This is

what the Nuremberg trials were all about<br><br>There

are two ways of dealing with such situations. One is

not to think about it. Many of colleagues have told

me not to think about it. It was their opinion that

I am unnecessarily worrying about these things.

Unfortunately it is not my way. But there is no perfect

solution. No scripture or book can give you an answer. You

may get guidelines. Work with those guidelines and

find a solution.<br><br>Lord Krishna's advise in Gita"

karmanyeva ........" does not seem to apply because the

question is what is the duty or Karma and not about the

results. There were no joint stock companies or minority

share holders then.<br><br>A question may be asked how

this can be considered a spiritual question. I will

point out to an example of a Swamiji who lived about

100 years back. He was a Judge in a High court. He

delivered a Death sentence in a Murder case based on the

evidence placed before him. But in his heart he felt that

the man was innocent. This led him to thinking about

his action. He renounced the world and later on

became an Avadhootha. My Guru belongs to his

lineage.<br><br>Before I close I would like to comment about what is

principle? We talk about one's principle and principled

stand etc. But what we must realise is that every

principle has a cost attached to it. No one is rewarded for

his principle because many principles are against the

prevalent norms of the society. If it is the norm it is no

principle. Society has and always will punish the people who

flout its norms. CEO s expect that their orders are

carried out. You should be prepared to pay for your

principle. What many saints tried and are trying to do is to

make many of the good principles the norm of the

society. This is what Moses tried with His Ten

Commandments and Lord Krishna with Bhagavath Gita.Civilised

society has also incorporated many of these principles in

its norms. Still all your principles may not be

accepted by them. Again the norms depend on your country,

location, religion and other factors. I am only pointing

this because I have seen many people saying I have

done something, which is Good according to such and

such book or religion or creed. Why am I being

punished? This applies to even the universal principles of

Truth and Honesty.<br><br><br>Continued