Bring the Alliance Back into Your Workplace!

‘There is no I in TEAM’- We might presume that because someone wants to work with children that they must be empathetic. We then find, this is not always the case. Aashumi gives a few pointers on how to get along with our colleagues.

Each one of us inevitably will encounter people who aren’t on the same wave length as ours. Maybe a colleague who doesn’t like to share resources, one who doesn’t pull their weight or a superior who doesn’t give you credit for the fine work you do. These issues will also have impinged your personal life and play undesirably on your mind. Who hasn’t faced the same dilemma?

Somehow, I refused to believe that anyone who touches young lives wouldn’t be empathetic towards others. But the reality is far from imagined, right? In today’s busy workplaces, we disengage ourselves from the values of getting to know each other and building relationships through alliance and cooperation. There is no need to be going home unhappy and depleted is there? We teach young people; then how can we behave amateur and childish? How could we put other people down, talk behind their backs or just try and be that one up?

I have come to believe recently that the most selfish word in my life is ‘I’. We think about ourselves and forget the importance others play in our lives. We live with extremely high expectations, not just high. Everything is about my needs, my wants, my likes, my dislikes, my way or the high way. I realise that because I am expecting certain things in certain ways doesn’t mean the other person has to follow my path. Even they might have the selfish word in their lives ‘I’. The root cause is ‘I”. the more I am expecting from people the more I am getting frustrated.

‘We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe we shall overcome someday.’ — Martin Luther King.

‘We’ should be the most significant word in your working and personal life. ‘We’ will collaborate, we will indulge in good company, we will overcome obstacles, we will beat those league tables, we will achieve the high scores, we will give the children our best teaching. Once this word enters work life would be and should be most rewarding. Remove ego which is the poison for collaboration. Ego overshadows the ‘We’ and makes work life toxic.

I recently read somewhere I’ll share here- Say sorry, not because you are wrong but because you value the person more than being right. You prefer to save the person or that connection than being right.
Well sometimes, people are unacquainted and need to be made aware, constructively. Research has shown that the more you feel valued within your organisation and the robust your relationships are with your colleagues; the better you will be psychologically.

Make a great group of friends at work which inevitably makes life easier. When you need respite, have people to chat with, make some impromptu lunch plans when you want them. Work will seem more fun when you know you have some friends by your side.

When any of the above fails I follow the teachings of a very modern monk-Gaur Gopal Das. He uses the CAR an acronym in which;

C– stands for Change what is changeable (situations or people)- we can bring the best or worst out of the people by how we treat them

A– stands for Accept the unchangeable – find wisdom to understand what I can change in people or situations and what I can’t change

R– stands for Rise above the unacceptable- rise above the people who bring you down, who cannot work collaboratively, who drain your energy. Rise and keep your sanity!

Hope you all have a fabulous work week!

The author

Aashumi Manazhy

Aashumi is a primary school teacher at A’Soud Global School in Muscat (Oman) and was drawn to teaching by the love of influencing tiny minds and positively contributing to their education from a young age.