Lust in the Workplace: It's Not Always About You Know What | Mary Beth Bonacci
Lust in the Workplace: It's Not Always About You Know What | Mary Beth Bonacci
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/mbbonacci_workplace_july06.asp
Got your attention, didn't I? You thought this
is going to be a steamy article about sexual harassment or something.
Nope.
Those of you who read my last article may recall that we
talked about John Paul II's definition of "lust." He didn't just define
it in sexual terms. Lust, according to the late Holy Father, is "the will
to use another person as means to my own satisfaction, without regard to their
dignity as image and likeness of God." It is a violation of his
"personalistic norm", which states that "the only adequate response to a human
person is love."
Lust is the opposite of love. It is using.
Last time we talked about loving and using in the context of marriage.
This time I want to discuss them in the context of the workplace.
It has long been a frustration of mine that the concept of
"loyalty" has disappeared from corporate America. It used to be that
corporations and other business enterprises felt a certain responsibility to
their employees. Business owners, in lean times, would often forgo their
own paychecks in order to make sure the staff was paid. Layoffs were
avoided unless the very survival of the business was immediately threatened.
And employees were loyal in return, often remaining with one company for their
entire careers and receiving the proverbial "gold watch" upon retirement.
Alas, times have changed. In modern business theory,
employees are frequently regarded as "capital"--no more or less valuable than
machinery. If the bottom line will benefit even slightly from massive
layoffs, the massive layoffs are carried out, regardless of their
impact on countless lives and families.
In other words, employees often become "means to an end"
for the owners or the stockholders, without taking into account their dignity
as image and likeness of God.
These attitudes, of course, trickle down into the
day-to-day operations of the business. "Office politics" rule the 9 to 5
world. Often it seems like everybody is out for himself (or herself),
seeing underlings and co-workers only as stepping stones to personal career
success.
That, my friends, is "lust in the workplace."
Fortunately, the pendulum may be swinging back the other
way. Business leaders are beginning to figure out that impersonal or
hostile work environments negatively impact the "bottom line." Magazines
frequently rank the "best places to work."
And a book promoting respect in the workplace has actually
climbed to the top of a bestseller list.
The book is entitled Leadership and Self-Deception, and it was produced by an organization called the
Arbinger Institute. I won't go into a whole lot of detail about the book
itself, except to say that it is--in my opinion--excellent, and that you can
read more about it at www.arbinger.com.
I attended a business training session based on the book
last week, and it really made me think. The overall idea of the book, and
the training, is that when we see people as "objects" that we can manipulate
for our own benefit, we enter into a mindset of self-deception, rationalizing
our own behavior and distorting our own vision of ourselves, and those around
us. People cease to be "persons" in our eyes, and instead become "problems to
be overcome."
Employees in this sort of environment naturally become
defensive. And all of that defensiveness and conflict eat up what could
otherwise be productive energy, and the business suffers the consequences.
The solution, then, is to change our mindset--to see
employees and co-workers as persons with their own individual needs and
desires. Once we've done that, we no longer have a need for defensiveness
and rationalization. We see situations more clearly. Defensiveness
is no longer necessary, trust increases and conflict is reduced. And all
of that impacts the bottom line.
I know, at first glance it seems a little cynical--respect
for human persons as a means to corporate profit. But the book is pretty
clear in warning that this cannot be "faked." The primary goal must be
respect for the human person. Increased profits are merely a nice
side-benefit--or perhaps a"carrot" to help
encourage wayward executives to do what they should have been doing all
along.
I don't know if the Arbinger Institute is familiar with
John Paul II, but it sure seems that way. What they have done with this
book is to apply the personalistic norm to the business world. Of course,
being a secular business book, the treatment is incomplete. There is no
mention of God, and no mention why, on the deepest level, the human person
is never to be treated as means to an end. But hey--the concept is
there. And in the secular environment of the business world, it's a pretty
big step.
This doesn't just apply to the workplace. It also
applies in our families, among our friends. So many
conflicts can be defused--or avoided all together--by
adjusting our mindset, by making a conscious attempt to see the other person
not as an obstacle to our own goals, but as a person loved and treasured by
God. That of course doesn't always mean the other person is right, but it can
soften our attitude toward them.
Try it at work. Try it at home. See if it
doesn't improve the "bottom line" in your life.
• This article originally appeared on RealLove.net
on June 10, 2006.
Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles:
• Practicing Chastity in an Unchaste Age |
Bishop Joseph F. Martino
• The Truth About Conscience | John F. Kippley | An excerpt from
Sex and the Marriage Covenant
Other IgnatiusInsight.com Articles by Mary Beth
Bonacci:
• The Love Behind the Rules
• The Horrible "H"
Word
• Teens, Sex, and
Real Love | Interview with Mary Beth Bonacci
• There's More to Prayer
Than "Saying Our Prayers"
• Was Pope John
Paul II Anti-Woman?
• JPII, Why Did We
Love You?
• A Hero Goes
to His Reward
• Some Atrocities
are Worse than Others
• Parents
Love the Chastity Girl
• The Attack
on Abstinence
Mary Beth Bonacci is internationally known for her talks
and writings about love, chastity, and sexuality. Since 1986 she has spoken
to tens of thousands of young people, including 75,000 people in 1993 at
World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado. She appears frequently on radio and
television programs, including several appearances on MTV.
Mary Beth has written two books, We're
on a Mission from God and Real
Love, and also writes a regular, syndicated column for various publications.
She has developed numerous videos, including her brand-newest video series,
also entitled Real Love. Her video Sex
and Love: What's a Teenager to Do? was awarded the 1996 Crown Award
for Best Youth Curriculum.
Mary Beth holds a bachelor's degree in Organizational Communication from
the University of San Francisco, and a master's degree in Theology of Marriage
and Family from the John Paul II Institute at Lateran University. She was
also awarded an honorary doctorate in Communications from the Franciscan
University of Steubenville, and is listed in Outstanding Young Women
of America for 1997. Her apostolate, Real
Love Incorporated is dedicated to presenting the truth about the Church's
teaching about sexuality, chastity, and marriage.
Visit
the Insight Scoop Blog and read the latest posts and comments by
IgnatiusInsight.com staff and readers about current events, controversies,
and news in the Church!