Week 8- Power
Power… the way I see it, is the essence behind enabling us to perform an activity or a set of them. Now I’m not looking at it from a motivational point of view, but very simply the existence of it in our day to day lives. What interests me most about power is the fluidity of it, and how it has a tendency of its own to change hands over time. I believe all we can do is learn to use its fluid nature to the best of our ability, rather than controlling it to the benefit of a selected few.
My experiences of power play at work were during my 11 month job at a Spanish restaurant in my hometown, Bangalore, India. I don’t know if this is the case with restaurants around the world, but in India most hospitality graduates move on to big 5 star hotels to pursue a career. I had chosen Caperberry. I held a good amount of say in every task that was carried out. What I did realise was, all the other staff members were beginning to assume that I hold a huge advantage over the rest as college student, and were not particularly comfortable with me. This was not something not in my control, nor did I see any benefit in making use of it at the moment. What was to follow was literally an up- down-up curve of power in my hands. It took a week or so for the other waiters to realize that my fancy degree meant nothing in front of their pace, efficiency and work experience, and so it started. I wasn’t bullied unlike my earlier internship programs. As I got accustomed to the restaurant