70.1 Interacting with Powerful Superiors

 70.1 Interacting with Powerful Superiors

Question:

              How to interact with a powerful superior?

Answer:

When moving with a powerful superior, one should

behave like those before the fire. One should go

neither too far nor too near him.                                                  (Couplet – 691)

அகலாது அணுகாது தீக்காய்வார் போல்க

இகல்வேந்தர்ச் சேர்ந்தொழுகு வார்.                         (குறள் – 691)

 

Explanation:

              In Couplet 691, Valluvar offers extremely practical advice regarding how to behave when serving a boss. His advice is more applicable in situations where the boss is not a nice person. In my service, I came across a situation relevant to Couplet 691.

              At one point in my career, I directed a multimillion-dollar contract to manage one of the US Army’s supercomputing facilities. During the 1990s, it was considered one of the world's largest and most powerful supercomputer facilities. An American was responsible for the same supercomputer facility on the government side. In fact, he was my customer. He was a very nice man. Over the years, we have become good friends. We used to meet every Monday morning to discuss the affairs of the supercomputer center. Whenever we met, he was very pleasant and enthusiastic in his discussions. On one Monday morning, when I met with him, he appeared gloomy, disappointed, and not interested in discussing anything. I asked him, “What is wrong? How come you are so unhappy today?” He said,” I had it with my boss. I can’t work with this guy. I am going to retire.”  Being a friend, I was sympathetic to his condition and told him, “There is no specific retirement age for employees in US government service. You are in good health, and you had lots of enthusiasm in your work all these years. What happened now for you to come to this conclusion?”

               He started saying how difficult it was to work with his boss. He said that whenever he was very close to his boss and volunteered to take on additional responsibilities and worked hard, his boss did not appreciate him; instead, he criticized him and dumped more work on him. If he tried to stay away from his boss and confine himself to his work, his boss would not leave him alone. His boss would criticize him and say he was not cooperative and had no enthusiasm to do his job. So, my friend was in a no-win situation. I wanted to help him. I told him,” There was a sage man who lived 2000 years ago, and he has written a book which is really a guide for the art of living. He has a suggestion which may help you.” Although my friend was skeptical, he asked me to go ahead and explain what that wise man had said. I told him, “The wise man has said that when you serve a powerful king, you should maintain an optimal distance from him like the one who tries to warm himself using a fireplace.”

I explained to him that if you go too near the fireplace, you will be hurt and if you stay far away from the fireplace, you will not enjoy the warmth of the fireplace. So also, he should neither be close to his boss nor should he ignore him. My friend understood what I said. He was curious to know who that wise man was. I explained to him about Thiruvalluvar and Thirukkural. He became interested and wanted to get a copy of Thirukkural. I gave him an English translation of Thirukkural. My friend used the advice that I gave him from Thirukkural Couplet 681 and continued to serve his boss and maintain a good working relationship with his boss. After that incident, my friend and I used to have several fruitful discussions about various aspects of Thirukkural.