Some of you may know that I did an internship with the World Health Organization in Beijing this past summer – “something related to the Beijing Olympics”, you might have caught through my rabblings.
Actually, this project was quite an undertaking. It’s a twenty chapter, technical publication that assesses the sustainability of improvements made to public health services, infrastructure, environment, and public awareness on health issues in the seven years leading up to and during the 2008 Olympic Games. There were dozens of Chinese government, WHO, and International Olympic Committee big wigs that authored the chapters, which covered a range of topics such as air quality, tobacco control, food safety, emergency preparedness, among others.
First day on the job, I learnt that this book would become my baby, the centre of all my attention. I nursed and treasured it, and grew prouder with every milestone. I reviewed every sentence of every draft and subsequent drafts, readily providing feedback to the other technical reviewers and editors. Frequently, the technical reviewers were so busy working on other projects that the only feedback they ever provided to the authors were my comments – of course without any reference to me. Eventually, my boss, the main project manager even asked me if I wanted to take a stab at writing the Introduction and Conclusion chapters. (I have yet to find out how much of it made the final version). She specifically warned me from the beginning of the high unlikelihood of my name being listed among the chapter authors. After all, I was just an intern with hardly any letters behind my letter. If a nobody like me (at least within the UN realm) can get published with the best of the WHO PhDs, what does that say about the organization? Either I’m a worthy, top notch writer, or those experts are obviously nothing special. Alas… she said she would try her best to get my name on the book, at least as an editing assistant.
So this morning, I receive a mass email from the project manager to review the draft layout of the book and to check our names in the acknowledgments. My heart skipped a beat. Wonderful! I’m getting acknowledged. But my seconds of initial excitement were swiftly displaced with disappointment and a pang of disgust as I read my name among a long string of names that were praised for “voluntarily contributing” to this project in one manner or another. I DID NOT voluntarily contribute to the project - I was a project manager DARN IT!
I’m not use to not getting validated for my hard work, and I am by no means impressed with the lack of ethical consideration in which my written word so easily got passed off as those of others. At the tender age of 2*, this experience as been inaugural in shedding me of my innocence (or naivety) over professional integrity, which I had previously thought was a given. It has also left me with a new guardedness towards my work peers. I don’t want to think of the workplace as every person for themselves, nor do I don’t want to be scared about being taken advantage of.
I’m trying to remind myself that it’s best to work for the glory of God, not for man’s praise or recognition. Nevertheless, even Jesus told his disciples to be “shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves”. Mind you, he was telling them to be careful while on their journeys to spread the Good News and to be on guard of persecutors. He was not referring to the need to protect themselves from self-serving co-workers. That said, I feel that being a Christian doesn’t mean being ignorant of office politics nor being relegated to that of a professional doormat. There is nothing wrong with having understanding of and being able to effectively navigate through all the power dynamics and office politics. It is also not wrong to thrive for excellence and to advance one’s career. But everything should be carried out with integrity, as well as willingness and readiness to support, equip and encourage others at work. Moreover, God’s main concern is our willingness and readiness to forgive others and to be humble enough to see our own pride. Pride deceives me into believing that I am better than others, and that I am entitled to my sense of entitlement. But God’s love for me and my fellow men move me to leave my pride. As God has overlooked my countless transgressions, I surely can let go of this ever so minor one.
3 comments:
How many hours did you spend into editing/reviewing it? How many hours was put into researching, doing tests, analyzing the data and writing the book?
Anyways, I think it's justified that you're proud of what you accomplished. You worked hard and should be acknowledged for what you have done.
But I do not believe that you need to fret when you don't receive those accolades. People can stand up and applaud you all day. But when the dust settles, they forget about you. Their praise may give you a high but it's only temporary. It's not something worth worrying about.
If it helps, I'm proud of you. I wish you told me more about what you've done so I could be impressed by all your achievements. Or is it my fault for not asking? Or is it your fault for being so interesting that I never care to direct the conversation to find out more about you? I'm going to stop there and leave it as your fault. :P
Another thing is, for the sake of my professional development, it is important to start getting my name on publications. It would've been a good start to have my name listed as a co-author for one of the chapters that I helped to write - then I'd be able to use it in my resume.
Considered that. But you made no mention of that in your original article. I figured it wasn't the point you were trying to make.
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