I wonder if I owe employer-readers of SaskBusiness an apology. A few months back I wrote of how employers need to value their employees in a manner in which employees “feel” valued. A few weeks later, I noted that employees of one of my clients left this article folded and face up on the staff lunchroom table for over a month…the first of my articles to receive such promotion. While what I wrote remains true, it calls for a balanced perspective within the employer/employee partnership…one of appreciation on the part of the employee.
“People who are raised in North America may have a sense of entitlement simply because they have no idea how lucky they are. If you’ve never been hungry, never wondered where you would sleep, never had to go without shoes, then your sense of what is by rights your due may be askew… ”
“If every winter your family went on vacation to a warmer climate, if every summer you went to camp, if each fall you started the new school year with a fresh wardrobe and all the school supplies you could imagine, why would you think you were entitled to any less as an adult? Even if you haven’t got the income to support it, you have no idea why you can’t have everything you want when you want it. And if you’ve been handed a pile of credit, no doubt you’ll satisfy your sense of entitlement, damn the long-term costs.”
(J.D. Roth, Get Rich Slowly blog)
Check out www.globalrichlist.com. Enter your income, and discover where you rank in relation to the worlds population.
A sense of entitlement robs us of the joy that comes from appreciation. If we do not appreciate what we have now, when will we?
I was raised within this North American society. I have never been in real hunger, lacked shelter, or had to go without shoes. In fact, I have never even truly feared the possibility.
Personally, I have a ways to go in appreciating what I have, but I intend to go deeper…starting today.
