Movements

Talking of promotion, Mrs. Arora, brings to mind the notion of movement in the life of a construction employee.

There are two kinds of movement - the horizontal and the vertical, one is the physical and the other psychological. The physical movement happens when you relocate from place to place. Though one may have travelled often and to the far corners of the globe, there is very little movement paradoxically for the traveller. It is always a vehicle that moves while you, its occupant, is stationary, simply sitting in a chair or lying on a berth. The vertical movement occurs in the psychological realm as one climbs the ladder of success. Again, here too there is a notion of movement. The promotion of an employee is a vertical movement, while his transfer is a horizontal one. While he covets the former, he abhors the latter which entails much hardship and sometimes may mean separation from the family. The promotion, on the other hand, is the ambrosia of success. It is the only reason why I think most people work, for without a reward what is there to look forward to? To paraphrase Dr. Johnson: nobody but a blockhead ever worked except for money and, ah, promotion. More than the monetary gain, a promotion brings power and elevates one's status. Though it means more responsibility, it removes you from the ranks of those who toil in the sun and the soil. If the promotion did not come in the right time, then you lose face, lose the race and what is worse you may report to men younger than you. If there is anything in the profession that demeans you, it is not a bad name you got for your ill temper or your vulnerability to corruption, but not getting the promotion when it is due. Ingratiating behaviour, humouring the boss, being in their good books, pretending to be working and running errands for the boss or pleasing him with sweets and presents - all these and more happen in the race uphill. The vertical movement while rewarding in itself is fraught with expectation, frustration, loss of self-respect, indignity or impropriety. But it remains the prime mover and binds the employee into a straitjacket of subservience. It promotes (pardon the pun, Mrs. Arora, unintended of course) unhealthy competition and obsequiousness, puts power into the hands of unscrupulous men, corrodes their integrity and belittles their dignity. There are of course exceptions; take any human affair and you will find exceptional men and women who adhere to the lofty and the ideal, who are simple, honest and hard-working, without ever losing their sense of humour or their dignity or their self-worth no matter what the circumstances may be. The vertical movement degrades the human being, Mrs. Arora, while the horizontal movement more often than not makes you a solitary, away from the family. I carry a disturbing vision of an old man in the mess of an evening. He sat alone in the dimly lit room of the mess playing solitaire while his family lived a thousand kilometers away. I find both movements abhorring since both are debilitating in the end.
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