Collegues

In an office, in reality, all persons are colleagues. The work is before them, they have to do their respective duties to deliver the goods jointly. The master and the servant, the superior and the subordinate may have bureaucratic differences but actually such differences are meaninglebs. As a colleague in the working force in an office, a person should treat another colleague with dignity and politeness. There is no room for snobbishness or for complexes. Noble birth, good education, possession of wealth have no value if a person is unable to perform the work allotted to him. His working efficiency is the first and foremost requirement in the office and he has to be respectful to all those who are engaged in bringing out efficiency in full to the surface.

Colleagues should not be placed on the same footing as friends. Certainly colleagues may become, in course of time, the greatest of friends but a behaviour proper to a friend may not be ordinarily proper to a colleague. Friends may be normally of the same age and status, but this is not the case with colleagues who may be of different ages and come from different strata of society. In the office if there is any difference, it may exist only in respect of work and nothing else. An old gentleman has to show appropriate respect to a young person if the latter happens to be doing the same work as himself. Pride, aloofness and indifference are to be absolutely cast off among colleagues, or the work of the organisation will suffer. In proper coexistence and fellow-feeling, one should learn the art of working together with one's colleagues. The office is not the place for giving vent to'one's emotions. People may laugh and talk and joke and even discuss family matters but work should have priority. As long as a colleague is capable, he is entitled to all the respect and attention, irrespective of other conditions such as his appearance, his status, his finances and so on.