What do you think, what should you prefer ‘Morality’ or ‘Materialism’?
To make the above question easier for you, I will take you through a series of three situations.
So let us start the journey of your imagination through the following situations.
Situation-I
Imagine that you are a Leader or a Manager who manages a team. You have a deadline for a particular project for which your Supervisor wants you to stick to the deadline. But sticking to the deadline means disturbing the work-life balance of your team members. So what would you prefer ‘The Work-Life Balance’ or ‘The Work Load’ that disturbs the work-life balance of your team members?
Imagine a situation that you prefer ‘The Work Load’ then your team members may follow your orders as you are their leader but that will not be a satisfying journey for them because they will not have time for their friends, family, relatives who form the foundation of life for which an individual does his best to earn through a job or business in order to spend quality time with them.
Imagine a situation that you choose ‘The Work-Life Balance’ for your team members and you make efforts to convince your supervisor to give a deadline that considers ‘The Wok-Life Balance’ for your team members, then your team members will perceive you as a Leader who cares for them and would complete the work as per the deadline with all satisfaction.
So tell me now, what would you choose?
If you choose ‘The Work Load’ for your team members in order to prove yourself to be a great performing leader, it will certainly elevate you in front of your supervisor and will lead you towards materialism but at what cost!
But if you choose ‘The Work life Balance’ for your team members, then you need to make efforts to convince your supervisor, it may make you listen to one or two things from your supervisor but finally what you achieve is a ‘Satisfying Experience’ for your team members.
As a leader, you will always be far ahead of your peer Leaders who choose ‘Work Load’ over ‘Work-life balance’ for their team members because they will not be able to bind their team members and will not be able to groom them to build a successful and profitable organisation, as their team members will always be on the lookout for a job-change.
So is it now easier for you to answer that what would be your choice ‘Morality’ or ‘Materialism’!
Situation-II
Imagine that you are a ‘Member’ of some team and not leading or managing people.
In this case, you can work in two ways:
First way is, you just focus on your own work, try to push things to others and do not take any responsibility for the final result.
Second way is, you focus on your own work but you also care for others whenever they need any help, and you also take responsibility for the final result.
What do you think about the first way of working?
First way of working is absolutely fine.
As the modern and most circulated proverbs says,
“You do work what you are paid for”.
But is ‘Morality’ involved in it?!
And what do you think about the second way?
It has ‘Morality’ for sure.
Your organisation is not going to pay you to care for your colleagues, nor it is going to pay you for taking up the responsibility for the final result but you have qualities which are ‘Caring for others’ and ‘Taking up responsibility’, which are two very commendable traits of a ‘Leader’.
In fact, ‘Morality’ will take you far ahead in ‘Materialism’ than others who choose ‘Materialism’ over ‘Morality’ because ‘Materialism’ chases ‘Morality’.
Situation-III
Imagine a situation that you have a very high paying job, which helps you to take care of your spouse and kids.
You are the only child of your parents who are very old and who need your all time presence to feel safe and secured at this age, live in another city which is atleast one thousand kilometres far from the city that you live in.
So you have two options in this case.
First option is that you ignore the requirement of your old parents who need your all time presence and visit them as per your convenience because you need the money that your job gives you in order to take care of your spouse and kids
Second option is that you decide to make some changes in the present arrangement. That is, either you leave your present job and take up a job in the city that your parents live in, even if it pays you less. Or you decide to send your spouse or your kid, who is capable of taking care of your parents to be with them, while you continue with the job to take care of the financial needs of your family.
So what do you think about the first option?
Does it have ‘Morality’ at all? Of course, it has ‘Materialism’ though.
And what do you think about the second option?
The second option involves some sacrifice, either in terms of money or in terms of foregoing a materialistic plan.
So what are your views now?
In this third situation, I have put you in a situation which is a dilemma for many.
Our Globalised economy has put many in such kind of situation.
In case of many, they come to attend the funeral of their parents but missed being a part of their old parents’ life, when their parents really needed them because they chose the first option, which is choosing ‘Materialism’ over ‘Morality’.
The second option is really a tough one because either you or one of your family members needs to sacrifice for your parents as you choose ‘Morality’ over ‘Materialism’ because you really care for your parents.
For obvious reasons, you may ask me that how ‘Materialism’ can chase ‘Morality’ in this case because you have to sacrifice your materialistic plan.
And my simple answer is that you show a great Leadership quality in this case by choosing ‘Morality’ over ‘Materialism’ because you show sincere care for your parents.
Caring sincerely for the team members is the most important trait of a Leader and you will not be able to show sincere care for your team members, if you do not show it for your parents.
Honestly, the modern and most circulated proverb now needs to change from “You do work what you are paid for” to “You show trait what you are paid for”.
You take your own time and do any number of permutations and combinations, and your conclusion will always be that ‘Materialism’ chases ‘Morality’ and not the other way.
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