Can you appraise your boss?
Can you replace your boss because he's not working good enough? Sounds stupid, doesn't it? Well let me tell you guys a secret: In a few months you will be selecting the Prime minister of the Republic of India and you will be judging him based on whether his term has been good enough or not. You have the power to choose who governs the country why can't you have the power to select your own boss?
Sounds very socialist and liberal, doesn't it? but it's more practical than you think. You see, the people of this planet have always been ruled by tyrants. Sometimes benevolent, though tyrants. If you study history impartially, without any judgement and look at things the way they were, without romanticizing the wars and regimes, you will find out that this is one of the best times to exist on this wonderful piece of rock travelling purposelessly in the cosmos. The system of having a figurehead who was always right did not work for us and in often cases resulted in suffering. So we did away with this type of system and introduced a beautiful concept where things didn't flow from top to bottom, but bottom to top, where government worked for the people and not the other way round, where the state was more important than a mortal figurehead leading it. We proudly called it democracy. Of course, people have used expedient means to achieve their goals but they've always been doing it. The collective suffering and pain are much less in this system compared to any other system.
What's beyond my understanding then is that if we fought so hard to have a democratic and republic country why did we give in to totalitarian autocrats when it came to working in an office? When people living in democratic countries proudly proclaim on independence days that they are independent on social media while they are completing their deliverables in the office, I really really wonder! A friend of mine puts it beautifully: Your degree of freedom can be measured by how conveniently you can take leave without permission.
A very good point that people make when I talk about this is that: people are generally lazy and will not work if not supervised. Fair point maybe, but where does the lack of trust come from? Let me counter by stating that the whole point of delegating work is so that you don't have to sweat the small stuff and focus your attention elsewhere. The whole point of delegating is not so that you end up having sleepless nights worrying if your subordinate will get a particular work done. The whole point of being a boss is not being condescending and bashing your authority on your subordinates but using your experience and knowledge to lead the team in a prosperous direction.
Lao Tzu puts it in Tao te ching beautifully :
57
If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself. The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be. Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass
I'd like to end by saying.
Can you decide if you'll work from home or office without asking your boss for permission?
Can you not go to the office as you have no deliverables and all you'll have to do at the office is warm the chair for 9 hours?
Can you select your own boss?
Sounds idiotic, doesn't it? But if you had spoken about democracy to a farmer a few centuries ago he would have had convulsive laughter on your joke.
