Pandemic Pangs: Penchant For Restoring Plundered Job Pleasure At Workplace! Dr. Jagdish Chandra Rout.

It all seems that the shocking and surprising as well as unprecedented advent of the Covid-19 pandemic since last year (2020) till date has not only thrust a never-ending flow of uncertainties on us all worldwide, but has also hijacked our mental peace and pleasure both at home and office.

It is because, an employee/professional doesn’t merely work for eking out a living, but also gets emotionally attached to the entrusted job and assignment for which the outcome results in accomplishment and productivity.

Thus, the fruit of success is savoured by both the doer and the organization. Needless to mention that, the outer world/society also reaps the benefits from the performance and produce.

On the contrary, the apocalyptic Coronavirous has sprung up a topsy turvy way of life in which everyone is chiefly concerned with social distancing and keeping oneself safe at the cost of our jolted joy, be it at home or out of home.

The sole aim and objective is to remain alive keeping the deadly virus at bay at any cost.

Even though working from home online or at the worst case risking oneself at the workplace, joy derived from one’s work has got queerly vanished. Devotion, dedication, sincerity and wholeheartedness appear to have become mere obscure and obsolete words in the lexicon of our work culture.

Besides, the premature and sad demise of our near and dear afflicted with the pandemic has also taken a heavy toll on our performance level as well as snapped up our joy at work.

We have all simply slipped into a survival mode as we are apprehensive of dying at any point of time from the dreadful disease.

It is true that death is inevitable and we all have to die today or tomorrow. Still, we had been least bothered about the harsh reality of life prior to this pandemic. The most scared of ‘death’ is lurking in our faces every moment for which joy at work is undergoing a famine like scenario at present.

Human being is a social animal and by instinct longs for being near his/her fellow beings. But, pandemic protocols, like social-distancing, have ferociously flung an aura of excommunication, social boycott and above all a trust deficit.

Also, mask has muzzled the congenial fellow belongingness. It has become synonymous with suffocation instead of being a safety and preventive body gear.

It is obvious that pain and pleasure (joy) are poles apart.

Neither are we sadists or saints so that we could be an aberration to derive pleasure despite tasting a piquant appetizer.

Notwithstanding that, God-the Great Creator has bestowed us with certain virtues and qualities to transform and nurture positivity psychologically from our inherent negative capabilities. Undoubtedly, it is a Herculean task to practise and come off with flying colours, but not impossible.
Instances galore in forms of sage Balmiki (bandit Ratnakar to hermitage & penance), Ashoka the Great (Chandashoka to Dharmashoka), revered Shree Aurobindo (radical freedom fighter to sainthood), even Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi (My Experiment with Truth & Non-Violence).

It may sound here wise and apt to quote the great English bard and romantic poet Percy Bysshe (PB) Shelly.

In one of his magnum opus he has rightly poured out his heart saying:

“We look before and after,

And pine for what is not;

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are

those that tell of saddest thought.”