The Hindu Business Line : Coping with `scavenging' jobs

There are always jobs in organisations, or in any field of human enterprise, which are widely perceived as a `dog house', or a `scavenging job'. In the government sector, for instance, being posted to archives, training establishments, social welfare, women's and children's welfare, animal husbandry and veterinary services, and even agriculture is considered to be somewhat of a come-down. It is not the intrinsic worth of the responsibility that counts, but the `snob scale' applied to it by colleagues and outsiders. Even as perceptive and public-spirited a person as C. Subramaniam had told me that when Lal Bahadur Shastri, as Prime Minister, requested him to move from the Ministry of Steel and Heavy Industries to Food and Agriculture, he initially had a feeling of being downgraded, until Shastri explained to him how, in his scheme of priorities, it was of importance for the country to attain food self-sufficiency. The rest is history. It is not unusual for persons in any kind of avocation to be consigned to an uncoveted position. This may happen for any one of several reasons: It may be that they had been tried out in a number of other slots and found to be wanting in efficiency; or that, while they are good and dependable in carrying out the tasks given to them, and, therefore, cannot, in fairness, be given the sack, their inter-personal relations are so poor that it is thought necessary that they should have minimum dealings with stakeholders and others; or that, they are seen as `trouble makers' needing to be `quarantined'.

The answer to the situation in which an employee's performance is not up to the mark is not to take the easy way out and dispatch him out of sight, but to make all out efforts, suited to his personality, calibre and capability, to fit him into the work culture. A crucial part of this exercise is to design the induction and training programmes with great care to help the recruits attain the levels of performance expected of them in whatever positions they may be asked to hold. It should be impressed on people in organisations that all jobs are important in their own way and the so-called `scavenging' jobs also serve an essential purpose, and someone needs to mind them. That is why it is a monumental blunder to look at a trainer's assignment itself as a `dog house'. Actually, it is the most important activity in any organisation, because it is on a good trainer that the health and profitability of the set-up depends.

STIGMATISED?

Apparently, `stigmatised occupations' pose a problem of personal and societal adjustment even in countries such as the US where the dignity of labour and not the superficial impression of a function is normally taken to be the guiding criterion. An article, How to Teach Pride in "Dirty Work", featured in the Online Harvard business Review, refers to interviews held with 54 managers in 18 so-called stigmatised occupations such as exterminator, prison guard, mortician and abortion clinicians to seek their ideas on how to build up selfesteem in such persons. It is interesting to know that "Most of the interviewees believed that society misunderstands their occupations and considered the stigma on their work to be unjust. In fact, when asked if they would recommend their occupations to their children, fewer than 20 per cent said no. That suggests a refreshingly positive view of jobs that....society often `necessitates but then sanctimoniously disavows'."

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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