Workplace Philosophy

Sycophancy and Silence

How the author survives the toxicity in his job and why others should do it too

Yoko had 10 years and I had 10 years and I would rather have had the 10 years I had than the ones she did. I had the raw talent and the raw human being, before the sycophants arrived.

— Cynthia Lennon

As my colleague furnished a buttery, boot-licking speech during our farewell, drooling upon the very man who had made our life hell because of his fragile ego, I realized how I could never become like her.

Her obsequious behavior was nauseating at the very least and I just wished I had never met her. I don’t go along with chance-grabbers fawning upon the higher echelons to get their work done. It is strictly against my principles. Praising is one thing, but rubbing off your taste buds to the extent of extinction is outrageous. The strongest muscle of the sycophants is the genioglossus, no doubt, considering all the licking they do.

And then there are people who, when hanging out with colleagues, would backbite against their seniors but in front of the latter, they would not leave a chance to impress them with servitude. It speaks a lot about the person. You would never want to trust such a person who shifts colors more rapidly than a chameleon. Tom Waits has rightly said, “The way you do anything, is the way you do everything”.

I am a strong-headed guy who refuses to bow down in front of the so-called giants. Naturally, I’m often criticized and disliked by them. The only savior on my part becomes my sincerity. I always try to give my best in whatever I do and keep away from bitching sessions. It’s not my nature to go around and blow my own trumpet. I do a work and let it speak for myself. Although it is a real thing with humans that a lie often repeated seems like the truth, I believe in the saying,

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

― Abraham Lincoln

For me, it is beautiful beyond measure when a person emanates an aura of genuineness and boldness beyond measure. To stand up for the truth when the dagger impinges your neck, and the possibility of getting deposed remains an all-time high, is the real beauty of human civilization.

To think that Semmelweis was put in an asylum for claiming that handwashing prevented infections, and Giordano Bruno was convicted with a steel spike piercing his tongue to stop him from talking followed by burning at a stake, because he argued that the Sun was a star and the universe infinite, evokes goosebumps and sets in a sense of thrill in longing for the truth. Even Galileo was threatened with torture and being burned alive, and he had to recant, accepting that the Earth did not revolve around the Sun. Although, he defiantly muttered among the general public “And yet it moves”, as a result of which, he was imprisoned until his death. (Source: ‘A History of the World’ by Andrew Marr)

I don’t believe in mindlessly going against the tide at the cost of one’s life, but a human should not justify against the taxonomists placing him under the subphylum ‘vertebrata’ which basically means that the humans have a vertebrate column aka spine.

Be a man of few words. Don’t tolerate codswallop. Be bold and fierce. Always stand up for the truth. It sets you apart from the sheepish crowd of mind-boggling sycophants who lacquey up the ladder but at the cost of self-respect. The journey is tough and invites reproval, but it weeds out the people who would never stand up for you in times of need and connect yourself with, although few, but true friends.

Agree to disagree, but never ever fawn. Remember,

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis”

— Dante Alighieri

You were not born to please others. Roar!

The Unknown Doctor