If I may dare to call a SPADE a SPADE

Statutory warning ⚠️: This blog might hurt the feelings of some who can't take the truth on their face. So don't bother reading if your EGOs are sensitive. Read at your own risk. The author disowns any responsibility if you get second degree burns after reading this

A senior once told me " The various hierarchies of the society (social, political professional, familial, cultural, religious etc) are like rows of wires, on which pigeons are seated one above the other. The one's below sees the one's above as a** holes, and the one's above sees the one's below as s***t." 

While being absolutely beneficent to one's subordinate translates to indiscipline, anarchy, laziness and inefficiency; to forget empathy in being stringent translates to tyranny. There is a need to find a balance in between, but to find it is difficult and requires an enormous patience.Be it the relationship between a mother in law & a daughter in law, a boss & an employee, or..... in the contexts that I am about to write in this blog.

When those below in the hierarchy complain to the one's above in the hierarchy, about their difficulties, often you tend to hear a sigh following which the words 'Even we have gone through much worse' are heard. Of course they have! It's called the "Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi" logic ! To those with this attitude, I question, if tomorrow you are not able to pay your loan and your child is enslaved for that, citing past incidents, would you be ok with that? Isn't it your duty as a social being to put efforts to make the conditions better. Of course the current situations are much better than it was during your time. But does that justify that your subordinates must suffer whatever more or less than you did. How sick is this mentality?

Being a medico & if I may dare to call a spade a spade, let me point out the hypocrisies running behind the closed doors of hospitals in this profession which wears a facade of nobelity. It amazes me as to why many of us including me choose this profession & are constantly trying to take up new courses despite of knowing it's nature. But despite of that, our competitive drive and ambition allows us to sacrifice, what we advice to our patients. Good food, hygiene & sleep. Yeppers! The basics actually. Dignity is also a human right FYI, which is often  taken in jest, among the medico peers.  Relieving your frustrations on your subordinate & indignifying them is unfair. Be human in understanding why your subordinate was unable to do a task you expected to be done. You don't have any right to disturb him/her mentally, if I may put you in your place. Those firey words you spewed at your subordinate might actually ruin his day. I know at times, you may slip and say stuff you later regret, but have you been humble enough to ask him/her an apology, just the way you expect that person to apologise when he errs? Or has your ego not allowed you to do so? Or do you expect God to be merciful to you, while you haven't been merciful to those under you? Or do you think of yourself as a flawless being?

And perhaps these things can be made better if an effort is actually put. You know....to actually let them have their human rights! It would be unfair of me to say, that no efforts are being made to curb these issues. Yes they are, but not enough. For a person to really treat his patients well, he needs to be well first. I am not gonna act 'Holier than thou', and I would acknowledge here that I might have slipped a couple of times as well in the way I dealt with my juniors. And I do repent that I could have handled it better.

But let me give  myself & you O reader a sincere advice - ' Let us make an attempt to make our work place much better as much as we can ' I know it's not gonna happen overnight. It'll take it's time. But let us be that change that we want to see. Let us have hope. Let us be that senior we always expected our seniors to be!!! It's hard, but not impossible!!

Yours sincerely