If the Smart Workers were "authentically" smart!

The trigger for this post is this story that my Boss shared in a company wide email. It's a long story so I've put it as a different blog post but it's definitely worth a read.

Read the story?

Now, if you agree with the "moral" of the story, you've learned your lesson. You must be inspired and pepped up if you relate yourself as "Anil" or must be feeling happy to be one of the "Mukesh" of your company.

Either ways, then there is no point of reading this post further as I have a different view on the "moral" that the story states. It would have been futile to discuss it with my Boss or peers , everyone have their own opinions and they are right at their own place. So I thought of sharing my opinion here.

The story is nice and practical. There are hard workers and there are smart workers. And the smart workers indisputably steal the show. I feel hard work and smart work both have their own respective places. Hard work exhibits sincerity and commitment but at the same time it also depicts lack of intelligence or awareness to get the best out of a situation. Smartness exudes presence of mind and knack of getting your things done , by hook or by crook.

I strongly support that one must work smart and not merely work hard. But sadly in today's world (Kalyug), the definition of "smart worker" no longer justifies its true meaning. Blame it on the mad race of this wily competitive world. Now people believe that to become a "smart worker", we must find such Anils or hard workers and manipulate them to do all the hard work and  very smartly take the credit. And this is the prime reason that I do not agree with lesson of the story.

An employer is concerned with the success of the company. Fair enough. But the success of the company should not be seen just from a short term perspective of yearly profits. Loyalty and confidentiality are often the neglected assets. And they both pay well in the longer run. 

Smart workers think only from their mind.They are always looking to get the best out of a deal and also from a job. So if they find a better job, the tata bye bye will happen very soon. And all the "rewards" given to them by the employer will also be gone. While a hard worker gets his mind and heart involved. A very dangerous deal but that's how hard workers are. And if they are committed to the organization, they will never take it as a 9 to 6 job.

Smart workers are good at lying or distorting facts. Ok! the term used for this these days is "skillful". They are "skillful". They also tend to make the hard workers as the scapegoat. Poor hard workers, they are not "skillful". They believe in working hard and being honest and sincere. But in today's world, play of words is the I N thing!

So when we say "hard worker" or 'smart worker", we are essentially labelling certain traits as more desirable which are given a higher rank. And the ones who imbibe these traits will be ranked higher and thus rewarded more. Simple maths.

I would have had no issue with this mathematics if the smart workers were also expected to be a bit of hard workers. I am still a propagator of smart work BUT of the right kind. Be tactful but taking undue advantage of others for your own selfish interests is no smartness in my eyes.

May be I am naive and yet to learn the ways of the world but I still believe that sincerity and hardwork pays if you combine it with the "right" skills and smartness.

- Swati