GREY MUTTER: Many South Africans still believe that littering is a form of job creation, and this just shows how damaged we are, writes Lance Fredericks.
SO APPARENTLY you are supposed to gently rub some baby powder onto the affected area after washing it with warm water and antibacterial soap and then tenderly patting it dry.
That’s how you treat saddle sore naturally.
I needed that remedy after last week’s column. People have been carrying me on their shoulders all week, after I so eloquently seemingly put their bosses in their place with the little dig I took last week telling the story of the sphincter that was made boss after simply not working.
Now, I am not the fastest bulldog in the greyhound race. And only after the confetti parade had reached its climax did I realise that I also had a boss.
It became clear when he called me this week and told me that he had a speaking engagement later this month in Cape Town, and seeing as I am such a wit, he needed me to send him a few jokes to break the ice.
I explained that I would love to help, but I was unable to help because I was busy working at the time.
The boss roared with laughter and said, “Yes! Yes! Jokes like that. Tell me another one!”
I did … I told him to start his presentation slideshow with a joke, suggesting that he could use my payslip as the first slide. But when he asked exactly how funny I wanted the joke to be, I caught his drift and promised to behave myself.
But we have a good relationship, the boss and I. In fact, he calls me “The computer”. No, not because I am efficient and have a sharp mind, but because I go to sleep when left unattended for 15 minutes.
Anyway …
These days disdain for authority seems to be on the rise. Young people are more vocal than ever about their rights; and they are being swayed by some pretty dodgy reasoning from influencers out there. More than once I have heard young people saying that they are not even interested in being employed because why should they spend their time working themselves to a standstill making a boss or a corporation rich?
Meanwhile, people in the workforce are asking what’s the point of putting in loads of effort if someone, less efficient but more connected, will be promoted above them. They would then have to answer to someone they knew didn’t deserve respect.
This situation was eloquently illustrated in a scene from ‘Band of Brothers’. This series tells the true story of a platoon during World War II led by major Dick Winters. However, before Winters was promoted he was under the authority of a captain Sobel, played by Friends actor David Schwimmer. When Schwimmer read the script, he thought that the way Captain Sobel was portrayed was a bit biassed, and he actually managed to have a conversation with Dick Winters.
Schwimmer asked the retired major if captain Sobel was really as bad as he was portrayed in the series, to which Winters replied, “No. He was much worse!”
Now, besides all the atrocities of war and the horrors of battle, one scene from the series stands out for me. In the scene, major Winters is sitting in a jeep when captain Sobel, walking alongside another soldier, passes by.
The young soldier salutes the major, but Sobel, who had an intense dislike for Winters as he felt the major – who he considered inferior – had been unfairly promoted above him, pretends not to see the major.
However, major Winters was not going to allow it. He rebukes the captain saying: “Captain Sobel! We salute the rank, not the man.”
And a chastised captain Sobel meekly salutes his superior officer.
So though I am not going to return all the chocolate hampers that I received as gifts for apparently putting bosses in their place, I would like to encourage the workforce out there to – for the sake of courtesy, professionalism and a positive work environment – salute ‘the rank’ and keep doing your best.
Here’s why I say this … this past week, I was at a mall when I noticed a young man who had been tasked with scraping gum off the courtyard’s paving. A colleague of his was standing nearby who was obviously less than impressed at her workmate having to do such demeaning work.
“This is really just unnecessarily looking for work,” she complained as her mate hacked away at the dried gum.
I did not, but I wanted to pat the young man on his back. Though the work seemed demeaning, he was doing something extremely important. Scrape by scrape, scuff by scuff, hack by hack, he was returning the sparkle to his corner of the Diamond City.
I found it admirable; rather noble in fact. It’s something we all can do
I realised just how important his job was when I looked at the area he had already cleaned. I could not believe that visitors to our malls – I assume the vast majority would be Kimberlites – could be so disgusting. You could not take more than two steps in any direction without being confronted by hard, dried, discarded gum on the paving stones. It left me wondering what type of household produces people who do this type of thing?
Many South Africans still believe that littering is a form of job creation, and this just shows how damaged we are.
You see, the young man scraping the gum did not have a problem with his bosses … his problem was with the people who thought that by being slobs they were doing him a favour.
So to the embattled workforce out there who may feel as if you are trying to fight a tornado, William James suggests, “Act as if what you do makes a difference … because it does.”
