Jain Spirit 2001 06 No 08

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 49

WORKPLACE
I TRUST YOU, TRUST ME
Atul Shah examines the importance of trust in the workplace
ROBERT RADIN
மUs
3199
LANTS PUT THEIR COMPLETE FAITH IN THE SUN AND THE rain for food and nourishment. The sun cooperates
with the clouds to give unconditionally. The child trusts the mother to nourish and care and in the early stages of life is completely dependent on the parents. Most of the time, parents give their best to the child. But what happens in the workplace? Do we trust each other?
I guarantee that if we conducted an opinion poll today, we would find that a majority of people are experiencing distrust in the workplace. This distrust is not just restricted to employees in large organisations. Even as bosses, we distrust our workers. Instead of trusting people, we trust money. We trust the bank more than we would our colleagues or staff.
Trust carries a risk. What if people take advantage of our trust? It is far easier to put our trust in non-human objects than in people. People are messy, they are emotional, they can fall sick or sometimes even steal. How can we trust them? What if they run away with all our money and demolish everything that we have built? Surely that is a high price to pay for trust.
Modern western society is highly organised and systematised. This is its beauty, but also its fundamental weakness. Systems require rules and standards to function efficiently and have great difficulty in dealing with individuality. With computer technology, we can now monitor performance from a distance. This displaces the need for trust in people - it is much easier to trust the system, and more convenient too. For example, McDonald's hire part-time workers who require a minimum of training and the production is highly mechanised and standardised. From a distance, they can monitor the performance of each branch, even each worker. One wonders how the workers feel in such an environment.
What do we do in our organisations? Do we trust our staff? Do we trust our colleagues? Is the culture one of distrust? There are simple ways to assess this. Trust requires basic qualities like appreciation, respect and responsibility. Do you feel appreciated? Do you appreciate
Trust is a basic human instinct. Mistrust is learnt through socialisation
48 Jain Spirit • June - August 2001 in Education International 2010_03