It is a sheer pleasure and delight to meet someone extremely dedicated to their work – whatever it might be. It gives a great sense of satisfaction.
As Allah said, God loves those who work with selfless dedication.
I would like to share an experience while returning from London with my wife.
I met a very pleasant person at the Gulf Air lounge of Heathrow Airport.
This charming young lady made travellers comfortable. She was overflowing with warmth and friendliness and took care of us in a way we have never experienced before.
Needless to say, we were floored by the extreme courtesy and got into a conversation with her to perhaps get to know more.
For a moment, I thought she had mistaken me for someone else, but that wasn’t the case. She said she was just doing her job.
It then emerged she was an Indian from Punjab state, and a follower of the Sikh religion. It was as if everything fell into place immediately.
Having studied and lived in India many years ago, it has always been easy for me to relate to anything Indian and it’s been simple to strike up a conversation with anyone from that country.
I asked her how she could be so dedicated to her job and even go that extra mile in courtesy and she said she wasn’t doing anything extraordinary.
She said not only is she a customer services professional, even her religion demands that she gives her best in her job. She said she applies her religious teachings literally in her commitment to work.
Needless to say, we were impressed with her answers and we hoped, and told her as well, that everyone should follow the same principles.
I am sure all religions propagate the same teachings but these are applied in different – and mostly flawed – ways.
I have since written to Gulf Air authorities on this very pleasant encounter, asking them to recognise the exemplary employee and I hope they will do so in some way.
I believe in the importance of conveying messages of gratitude or repentance in many aspects of life and hope this would help in encouraging institutions to do more towards developing a professional work culture, in addition to creating a responsible team that gives them an incentive to do more.
This, of course, in turn, requires the institution to recognise the worth of employees.
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