Heirarchy

As an Indian, I believe Heirarchy is deep-rooted in our system. We are conditioned in a way as to give more respect to certain jobs and certain people as compared to others. We tend to believe that certain jobs are 'more important' than the others. We fail to understand that we live in an ecosystem where all characters play the part and it is team work that wins in the end. A hospital for example is NOT run by doctors. Its efficiency is equally dependent on the administration team, the nursing staff and even the multi-purpose workers. Without any of these, no hospital can run smoothly. Yet we see, there is a wide gap in the pay system. When I was working abroad, I was pleasantly surprised with the equality amongst all classes. For starters, all the people in our department would call each other by name- there was no 'Sir' or 'Madam'. No age heirarchy, no social heirarchy. We all ate at the same table, visited the same restaurants and wore the same OT scrubs. There was no separate colour code for 'Doctors', ' Nurses', 'Technicians' or 'Multi-Purpose Workers'.  All wore the same coloured scrubs. My son went to a public school where all the kids from the hospital would study. Be it the nurses' kids, the painters' kids or the consultants' kids. There were no 'status' schools. We teach our kids that all jobs are equal, all jobs are important, but do we really follow them? Are we treating people equally? In India, yes there is a huge supply of semi-skilled workers, hence cheap labour and hence the pay gap. This will come down eventually.

But we can make certain efforts from our side to lessen the social gap.

RESPECT people. Do not treat them as your subordinates, but as your team members, as your partners. Do not eat at a different table. Wish them on their birthdays, acknowledge them, complement them, do not look past them. It doesnt cost us anything, but it can make someone feel special. That is indeed true power, isnt it?