Concernedthoughts's Blog

By Savaira Kawish

There is very little consideration in Pakistan for fellow human begins. Consideration, tolerance, patience and selflessness are commodities that are fast disappearing from society, wounding our image of basic human nature.

Inconsideration just drains my sprits. I encounter inconsiderate behavior on a daily basis which leaves me feeling irritable and cranky. And surprisingly, majority of these inconsiderable people are my co-workers!

I have the liberty with whom I spend my leisure time with, unfortunately I don’t have the liberty with whom I get to work with. All of my co-workers are generally from good homes, having good educational backgrounds and are also financially sound.

I work in a male dominated organization. Apart from me there are just a handful of other females, scattered in different departments, so I rarely meet them. My association on a daily basis is with the males. Not that I mind, of course. They just exhibit inconsiderate behaviour and don’t care for the so-called delicate female sensitivities!

Though we all have our own different work stations, but we are still crammed together in a room where there is hardly enough space to even stretch the legs. Inconsideration steps in through the following situations:

Situation 1: All of them like to listen to loud music. I know legally listening to music at work  is simply inconceivable but this is PAKISTAN! You can literally bring a drum and start beating it in my office and no one is going to complain to the management. The reason? The person beating the blasted drum is a close buddy of the man on the top. He might even have paid for the drum! Coming back to my thread. So they listen to loud music, which affects my concentration. Even though I have my headphones on, I can’t block the music coming from different PCs. Yes, I do say to turn the volume down, and it does get turned down, but not for long. Besides, how many people do you request to? On the other hand, if another person, who rarely listens to music, does so at less than normal volume level he is berated  and even ordered to turn it off.

Situation 2: All like to use curse words and foul language while talking to each other. Instead of observing proper decorum they have the audacity to say that I move to another room!

Situation 3: When they are having lunch or share snacks they do so with everyone. I am not included in that EVERYONE. I do not exist.  If I am having my lunch, there are always some snide comments, making me feel on the edge and even guilty for eating!

Situation 4: There is this guy who got my number from an employment site where we both happen to be registered. I have not met him even though we live in the same city. He is forever sending me text messages. Nothing obnoxious. I had requested that he should not text me in the evenings, especially at night. But no; my request fell on deaf ears. In the middle of the night my cell buzz’s with some worthless SMS from him! My husband gets disturbed. Thank God he is not of the suspicious nature! I never out my cell on silent or just switch it off at night. But now this person has forced me to put my phone on silent. I just can’t understand why he does this? It’s not as if I reply to his messages. I always reply to SMS but not his and yet he keeps on disturbing me.

I am really disappointed by all the selfishness and rudeness I encounter everyday. By nature I am not rude or unfriendly; now I shy away from pursuing friendship.