Love and the Workplace
Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. That was long, long ago! At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn't like Emperor Claudius, and I wasn't the only one! A lot of people shared my feelings.
Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed, not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn't going to support that law!
Did I mention that I was a priest? One of my favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies -- secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.
One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. (Not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, I guess.) I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.
I tried to stay cheerful. And do you know what? Wonderful things happened. Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love.
I wonder how many job seekers or employees or those in-between jobs would take time to think that loving the opportunity in the workplace can make them successful and that almost everything can be done nearly perfectly when they believe in love. Why?
Because loving the opportunity simply fuels your passion to make each and every task a masterpiece—not by working angrily, carelessly, or sadly. No one will ever produce almost perfectly without putting their heart on the task. This can neither help the person nor the company to maximize whatever potential the partnership between the company and the employee.
Like the old celebration of Valentine’s Day, which many of just celebrate without even taking some time to know what this is really about, let us realize that love in the workplace is one key to succeed.
Several times when I was asked to comment on the idea of love in the workplace, I said: I have as many ideas on love in the workplace as there are stars in the heavens. But one thing that stands is the very fact that there’s no substitute for love—putting in whatever you have the best and using all the skills to the most to make the job done and get it done right the first or the second time.
Celebrate love. Celebrate your job. |
