On professionalism

Society is governed by certain conventions. And following them is tantamount to keeping one’s dignity. Specifically keeping one’s word is an important value to gain trust. It is a value that we hold for others to believe and trust us for future undertakings. But there are just organizations that keep premium on what is written and documented and so future misunderstandings would be avoided. And so goes the line of those in the corporate world, “everything must be documented.” And what if it is just our word keeping us in the working world?

Although there are organizations that keep the inviolability of the written or documented operational matters, despite all these there are still people who would test the integrity of the written texts, and so would resort to interpreting the texts differently. What if there is no written document to refer to and someone wants to assert a point? It is the word that we keep. Such honor and integrity that accompany the word would liberate one from dire unprofessionalism and keep the moral ascendancy.

This is very much true when we are in a situation when we are already in the verge of fulfilling the agreement and all of a sudden a major change has occurred. This creates a major blow to one’s credibility. This for sure would affect future dealings.

Without a doubt, when one would say a word, a promise or a commitment to anyone on anything, fulfilling it would be the next step. And in the event of one’s inability to fulfill it, it means frustration to the other party.

This is one very important lesson we want our children to know and understand. When an adult makes a promise to a child, the child hangs on to that promise until it is fulfilled. An unfulfilled promise will be a major frustration and would form a generalization, which is damaging, that this world is teeming with liars with unfulfilled promises after all. That it is perfectly all right to make promises and fulfilling them is another thing. And we adults would not want this to be the kind of world for them. The best lesson for our young is therefore doing the right thing even when nobody else is looking. Doing those things because they are right, not because you are told to do them or afraid you will get caught if you don’t.

Just recently, I was asked to play a bit role in a feature film with some big names in the local film industry. And to make the long story short, I arrived in the shooting scene, and few minutes later I was told the role had been cancelled without any clear reason. Is this the end of several days of negotiations? I know how volatile situations may become but what makes it extremely frustrating is when people do not value your time and effort.

I do not like to believe that such practice of unprofessionalism is common or otherwise in certain organizations. I do not believe, for instance, that professionalism is highly manifested in a corporate world, and not so much in the creative or artistic world. What I do believe is being professional should be practiced whenever and wherever we are. And so what I would like to believe is that it is the kind of people that govern certain organizations. And no matter who we are dealing with, whether high level officials or the lowest rank and file, professionalism distinguishes neither social status nor academic achievement.