Online Reporter
Rutendo Gwatidzo
Changing Perspectives
Humanity simply means the state of being human. It is that state of being that keeps us together with a common understanding.
It is also the state of being that makes us different from all other animals. I believe that we should always fight the good fight of maintaining our state of being.
I had an encounter this past week that broke my heart and challenged my humanity. I was driving in Harare along Liberation Legacy Road. It was a bit late after the evening peak hour, hence the cars were moving a bit faster on the road.
However, as we were approaching Sam Levy’s Village, there was a bit of traffic, and I wondered what was causing the jam.
I then realised that there was a man who had been hit by a car as he was crossing the road from the shops. Due to the confusion of being hit by a car, the man started talking to himself, walking up and down.
What then broke my heart was the responses from the people around. Instead of checking on the man to see if he was okay, many concentrated on taking pictures and videos, laughing at his confusion.
Instead of probably taking this man to the hospital to check if he had not suffered internal injuries, a lot of those who were present did nothing.
I felt it was a bit inhuman to focus on taking a video to put on social media instead of focusing on assisting the person. I only picked this one example that I witnessed recently, but, I would like to believe that there are many other similar scenarios that we experience on a daily basis. I also know of another accident that happened where a truck that was carrying drinks and beer failed to negotiate a curve and overturned. Instead of helping the three people, including the driver who was stuck in the truck, many people focused on stealing the drinks and beer.
Martin Luther King once said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” I believe that love, compassion, and kindness are necessities of life that we all need in order to survive.
One of the challenges in many organisations is that many employees exercise transactional relationships. They only care for one another as far as work is concerned. In most cases, if someone encounters a challenge, instead of being vulnerable with others or breaking the silence in order to receive help, one is most likely to suffer in silence for fear of judgment. For many, instead of receiving help, they actually receive resentment, judgments, pointing of fingers, and blaming. This is one of the reasons why many employees experience loneliness and depression yet among others.
Emotional or mental support does not require money most of the time. It only requires people who feel for you who can stand with you by offering words of encouragement, prayers, or sharing their similar stories. In my HR experience, I have come across many team members who suffer from mental sickness more than financial lack. Unfortunately, many people tend to think of biological mental disorder when we talk of mental sickness. Yet, in fact, we all go through mental sickness. We all go through things that mess with our mental state.
The things that employees go through at home and with their families significantly affect their work performance. Sadly, there happens to be significant competition, jealousy, and envy in the workplace to the extent that if others hear about the challenges that one might be going through, instead of consoling and assisting to make the situation better, they tend to use the information and the situation to further destroy the person.
Inhumanity can be exercised in so many different ways, and it significantly contributes to poor performance in the workplace. Both management and employees should put efforts together towards building relational relationships instead of transactional relationships. It is often easy to transact when the relationship is good and healthy. Management should invest in offering services like counselling and team-building activities to promote humanity and oneness in the workplace.
Humanity is what keeps us alive. There are different kinds of people on earth, but one thing that still remains, and the reason we can mix, mingle, intermarry, or do business between different continents or races is humanity. Bit by bit, sometimes without realising, we can lose our humanity, and I wonder what the human world will look like in the next one hundred years or so. I believe we need to be intentional about fighting for humanity.
One author once said, “Being human is given, but keeping humanity is a choice.” Be challenged to and be inspired to be deliberate about keeping humanity in everything you do. If we all do this in our different ways, together we achieve much more.
Rutendo Gwatidzo is the managing consultant at The HUB HR Consultancy – as a culture and change management Specialist. She is a multi-award winning leader, Consultant, speaker and coach. She is also an Author of Born to Fight and Breaking the Silence books. Contact detail – 0714575805/ [email protected] / Rutendo Gwatidzo_Official FB public page.
