Each Employee Asks Himself - Am I doing good?

Each Employee Asks Himself - Am I Doing Good?

By Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia 

What does an Employee do for an Employer?

I saw in newspapers, the news stating that the Government employees salaries increased and it is burden on the Finance Department and public to meet their expenditure. It is very easy to criticize the benefits generally entitled to each employee working in Government or Companies. The question here is what does an employee do for an employer that he/she is deserved for such benefits?

When we differentiate the time table of an employee and a person who is not employed; we find that an employee is bound with taking limited sleep hours, then wake up and be prepare for the office. For more than 8 hours, an employee spends for doing work for the employer and thereafter, he/she is assigned work to be completed even by sparing time after office hours. Gone are the days, when there was less work burden and jobs were comfortable to perform the assigned work. Twenty to Forty action items are always in the hands of an employee to complete for the employer and the same is ensured with the help of verification of his/her work at regular intervals.

Hidden Contributions of an Employee:

No doubt, an amount i.e. salary is paid for doing the work. The employee put his whole life or the tenure of employment in the job/work. It is time to look into the obligations of an employee towards the assigned work/job. The employers ask to do something extra everyday, without looking the existing burden of the employee. The employee manage time, again manage time, when things becomes beyond control, stress comes to the life and the employee be suffered from a lot of diseases. The employers provide medical facilities so that such diseases can be treated but these benefits are criticized by the people not serving the employers because 'Only the Wearer knows where the show pinches'. 

The happiness at home, depends upon the desire of employer. The time between sunrise and sunset is devoted to the employer with following hidden sacrifices:

(i) Boss is always right:

Even if an employee is doing hard work but the self appraisal of his work is upon the mercy of the employer to accept his performance or point out the drawbacks which can easily be seen in everyone on work. An employee is born to accept it and he cannot say anything against the remarks of an employer because the conflicts which may form due to his representations are added to his personal file for action by the upcoming bosses. An employee has to accept in all conditions that boss is always right. The work pressure which is usually taken, is hidden to others.  

(ii) Devoting 100% efforts to perform duty:

An employee is bound to put 100% efforts to accomplish the targets or the performance expected from him. Each employee should put whole heart in the work/job everyday and the employers are expected to respect for his devotion to work. The methods of work are followed sincerely by an employee and the rules, policies, directions, guidance of the top management is the first priority to compliance.

(iii) Creativity of Employee:

The employees are expected to sort out problems of their workplace and perform with the creative solutions. The employee learn with experience and become a candle to guide juniors with his flame of knowledge and skills to tackle problems at work. Everyday an employee learns something new and he applies his brain and heart in the interest of an employer/organization. The big decisions require more energy to put into, the emotional energy of an employee works round the clock to achieve organizational goals. It is hidden and nobody can measure the quantum of the emotional energy applied in each decision of employee and there are too many examples of employees leaving their job due to more work burden.

(iv) Contribution in team work of organization:

The organization works for its customers and the public sector enterprises work for rendering public services directly or indirectly. The coordination with co-workers, bosses, and subordinates cannot be measured in terms of outcomes and such contribution is always hidden. Whenever an organization allocates the authorities, the employees be responsible and accountable to perform the desired functions; to contribute towards the functions of organization it is must to coordinate with others and manage the relationships. 

(V) Integrity, honesty and ethical values:

 The work is worship and the employees are fully committed to perform their duties with integrity, honesty and ethical values. While doing their work, they don't pick up their personal calls, they don't perform their private household functions at the workplace; such things are expected and also done by each employee and nobody quantify such sacrifices of an employee towards the organization. The employee never complains if he is facing financial hardship in performing the functions requiring spending money out of his own pocket. He is required to travel from one place to another, he is also required to work with ethical values with code of conduct applies upon them for the workplace functions. 

Even if an employee is stressed due to work burden he is not expected to complain about his employer to superior authorities or to the customers/citizens. He has to put a smile on face always.

(VI) Health of Employee:

It is well said that whatever a person earns up to the age of retirement in his job, he loses his health to a great extent and spend a lot of money to regain the health after retirement. The emotional energy requires more use of brain and the brain cannot function unless the body takes enough rest or sleep. Due to lack of rest, the sufferings come to life and the life is disturbed entirely. To maintain the health, an employee spends a lot on doing exercise, taking adequate diet, and also making expenditure on entertainment to feel relaxed. 

(VII) Work after office hours:

The personal life moments are sacrificed for the office work. A sales professional is required to pick and answer calls of customers after duty hours and a IAS officer also responsible to the citizens 24 hours and 7 days without break. Whatever work is assigned by the employer, even if it is not being covered in office hours, that employee cannot say no. The loyalty of an employee is earned by doing work for the organization and putting hard work continuously. The customers and citizens identify the employee with the name or brand of the organization only if he is putting hard work for that organization. 

In today's work environment, there is lack of trust among the boss and employees. Let us have a look upon this aspect of employee's life:

Lack of Trust among Boss and Employees

The success and failure of an organization depends upon employees, the manpower who is the only active resource using other resources with intellectual power. But in today’s business environment, the trust factor has become most important. The Board of Directors, Promoters, and Government are looking employees with doubt as they are not performing to their full potential, and each employee is bound to ask himself, am I trusted about delivering my best efforts in achievement of the organizational goals.

(a) Doing extra work after office hours:

The needs of each individual make him convinced to think about getting more monetary benefits at work-space. Most of the employees start earning by working in off-hours of their routine job. Those who cannot earn more always think whether he or she is being deprived from monetary benefits or not. The legal structure of a nation, also plays great role in making employees benefited by filing civil suits instead of being victim of deliberately framed rules of the bosses, administrators etc. In service rules or departmental codes, each employee is provided with some rights and in case of infringement of rights, an employee becomes entitled to file a civil suit in the court of civil judge claiming therein the benefits which have not been given to him in violation of some service rules. After receipt of notice issued by civil judge it is duty of the departmental head or boss to examine the case in the light of provisions of service rules or departmental code. In case, under the provisions of service rules the plaintiff is entitled to benefit as claimed by him or her in the suit, a proposal is required to be prepared and put up to the authorities for grant of said benefit followed by bringing the facts in the notice of court that relief claimed by the plaintiff has already been given to the plaintiff.

(b) Conflict and non-performance over workplace

On the other hand, if the claim of the plaintiff is contrary to provisions of service rules or departmental code in that case it is duty of department concerned to examine the civil suit and to prepare reply mentioning therein that the plaintiff is not entitled to the benefit claimed by him in the present civil suit because the claim of the plaintiff is contrary to the provisions of service rules. In such cases, the reply is prepared and then civil suit is disposed off by the civil judge. If a decree is given in favour of plaintiff which is contrary to provision of service rules, in that case Department on the advice of District Attorney and L.R. can file first appeal in the court of District Judge and if the same is dismissed in that event the next Appellate Court is Hon’ble High Court and State Government can approach Hon’ble High Court by way of RSA.  After dismissal of RSA there is only one Appellate Court i.e. Hon’ble Apex Court i.e. Supreme Court of India and Government can approach the Hon’ble Apex Court. 
Apart from the above, Government employee can invoke the jurisdiction of Hon’ble High Court under Art.226 of Constitution of India if some fundamental rights provided under the provisions of Constitution have been infringed by the department.  In this case LPA can be filed against the judgement of Single Judge and SLP can be filed against the judgement of two judges of Hon’ble Court.

*Copyright © 2018 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved. 

This article is written by Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia; a renowned author and trainer. He completed his Doctorate in Commerce from Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra and MBA in Information Technology from GJU, Hisar. He also wrote two books, 15 research papers, and organized more than 200 Training Courses during his working period since 2006 in Haryana Institute of Public Administration, Gurugram. The article was published on 26th December 2017 and last updated on 19^th September 2021. The writer can be contacted on lalitkumarsetia@gmail.com