The bane of super efficiency – 01 June 2010
The man with a sense of self efficacy feels proud of himself and his talent. He is a man who has worked hard to develop his skills and his abilities rightly. He is intelligent, dedicated, devoted to his work and works with a sense of high achievement. He believes in putting his efforts in the right place to get the right type of results. Another dimension is that he extends himself beyond the narrow confines of his job role and makes efforts to learn the associated skills of the organisation that he works for. He, thus, has not only has an overview of the needs of the organisation but also tries to make himself useful on the job as far as possible. He hence works with a sense of self pride besides a high sense of efficacy.
He thus becomes not only a useful man but also a much needed person – by all and sundry in the work place. He is also happy helping people and loves the idea of being wanted. He enjoys work in general and is ever ready to help. Employees very soon realise that there is one person they can rely on. Reliability! Dependability! These become the defining qualities of such a person. Now comes, the flip side to all this goodness. There are two aspects I can think of at the moment. One is what it means for the super efficient person to be what he is and second is what it could mean for the others on the job. Let’s take the second aspect first.
In a marriage if one partner is efficient the other may tend to get lazy. If one partner handles all the problems at home on all fronts the other may begin to rely heavily on the other. If one spouse is super efficient with multiple skills and can effectively handle multi-tasking we can’t blame the other if he/she gradually sinks into dependency! Perhaps the same psychology applies to people on the job where they may develop a symbiotic relationship with each other especially if they have been working for long years together! Marriage may not be an inappropriate analogy for after all however jokingly we may say it don’t we know people who are married to their jobs! Such super efficient guys or women may be the one’s people look work in times of trouble, help, or need to get a job done on time.
Such a person is also characteristically unselfish by nature as he lives with broader visions of his work role. Hence he loves helping people and being a trouble shooter. He hates on the other hand saying no and denying the other whatever services he is capable of giving. Since he has immense capacity to work with enthusiasm without getting fatigued soon he takes on the extra load. Besides finishing his own specified tasks effectively he does not mind taking on more. Colleagues begin to rely on such persons gradually for even small things which they are capable of doing but may be feeling lazy about. They may develop a tendency to run to him for trivial things. They may look up to him to bail them out in times of difficulty. They may habitually tend to pass on the buck to him whenever convenient! Such habitual buck passers do not want to realise that the surreptitiously growing dependency and ensuing lethargy erodes and retards their own potential and evolution. What a pity!
On the other hand for the super efficient the only bane is the day he realises that his hands are too full and he is had too much!
Published in The Hitavada – Future – 01 June 2010
