It’s the first day of work for the new year and the first thing that struck me about the new year was when I went to the toilet. As I was washing my hands, I noticed the guy who was paid to pick waste paper out of the bin to be placed into another bin.
It struck me that this guy, who probably worked longer hours
and for less money than me, as a “working professional,” was the guy who
cleaned up crap that people like me created. This was a guy who was doing
something very important – he was making sure that my work environment was
clean and pleasant. I, by contrast, added utterly no value to his life (unless
he eats at a restaurant I’m serving at or if his employer gets liquidated – in which
case he’d probably be at the wrong end of whatever I do.”)
Yet, despite the fact that his existence involved adding
value to my life and my existence added f**all to his, I was the one in the
position of being able to simply not notice his existence while he had a social
obligation to look at smile at people like me.
Sure, I appreciate that the guy in an office has always
earned more than the guy doing physical work. I also appreciate the fact that
some jobs will always earn more both in terms of recognition and prestige. In
the medicine, everyone loves doctors. These are the heroes that save us when we
are sick and Dr. Susan Lim aside, nobody bats an eye-lid when doctors earn big bucks,
because, well they save us when we’re sick. By contrast, nobody notices the
nurses who do the grunt work like clean up after you puke or shit all over the
place so that you are vaguely presentable when the doctor looks at you. Nurses
have to study hard and know things. They have to be understanding to all sorts of
lousy people in lousy modes. Yet, the only time one really appreciates a nurse
is well….in some sort of sexual fantasy.
The disparity between the guys whom everyone lavishes praise
and money upon and the guys who do the grunt work, was best summed up by one of
our high court judges at a trial that I was working on. The lawyer introduced
himself, then tried to introduce his paralegal and the judge barked “Your paralegals
are not part of the bar, as far as I’m concerned, they don’t exist.”
Sure, the paralegals are not part of the bar and perhaps the
judge in question didn’t want to “waste time” on certain formalities for the
trial. However, the way she said what she said, summed up the attitude that our
society. Certain forms of life don’t exist. As far as we’re concerned, only doctors exist in hospitals and lawyers in courts. As far as the powers
that be are concerned, the military consists only of generals.
I get that there is a reason for the pay disparity between a
doctor and a nurse in as much as the doctor has had to go through certain
training and is responsible for certain things that nurses cannot be held
accountable for. The same is true between lawyers and paralegals or generals
and foot soldiers. So, one shouldn’t begrudge the proverbial higher ups what
they are getting.
However, for us as a society to lavish everything on the
guys in the limelight and simply not recognize the existence of the people
behind them is also a mistake. Nurses do the ground work that make it possible
for doctors to shine. The star lawyer in court could only be a star because
there was a team of junior lawyers and paralegals to support him. While the generals
come up with beautiful plans, it’s the NCOs who get the men to fight.
Look at what happened in Covid-19. We were doing fine and
were being praised by the world for conducting a master class in disease management
and then there was a wild outbreak in the dormitories. Contrary to conspiracy
theorist, there was probably no ill intention to our migrant workers. In the
words of that high court judge “they simply didn’t exist,” and our government,
which is so famous for good planning simply didn't include them in part of the plans. They didn't exist.
Our education system has to stop stigmatizing certain
people. Think of the number of times kids are told “better study hard or else
you become a street cleaner.” We got to change that. The role of the forgotten
people helps those of us at the front of the stage to shine. At the very least,
we need to acknowledge that they exist. Perhaps, we should follow what the
Japanese do and make our kids clean up after themselves so that they learn to appreciate
the most basic of task and the people who have to do the said task for a living.
Remember, they wouldn’t be making the big bucks:
Copyright Law.com
If it wasn’t for:
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