Companies are not charities!

Opinion Monday 23/January/2017 14:50 PM
By: Times News Service
Companies are not charities!

The deliberations at the gathering chaired by His Excellency the Minister of Manpower, as well as the ideas proposed by members of the Shura Council, continued to focus mostly on hunting job opportunities for Omani youngsters, even though it raised a controversy on the social networking sites with both negative and positive comments about what has been discussed.
However, those comments did not pay attention to an important and essential aspect in this equation: the right of the employer to ensure productivity, and employee work ethics. It is most often thought that companies are nothing more than charities that must provide citizens salary as an imposed duty regardless of productivity or even commitment. Unfortunately, these treatises do not provide solutions other than exaggerating the problem. Solutions will require investigating the problem with the three productive parties, not one or two.
At a time when we demand that the private sector must permit young people to work in the sector so as to help them understand the work in those companies and institutions, as a national commitment, however, youngsters must respect the values of work and ethics, both in terms of commitment to the job and avoiding absenteeism and laziness. They must increase productivity, for these companies are not charities that distribute grants to people who have no obligation.
The business enterprises won’t succeed if they are not profitable. They can’t survive only on patriotism. The private sector can’t be expected to hire young people who are not productive, and pamper them as employees. We must not allow our emotions to destroy national economy; this emotional involvement is not for the private sector. New generations need to learn to roll up their sleeves and renounce dependency. Otherwise, the economy will never improve, and we will never get high quality services that we look forward to.
What has been raised by some of the members of the Shura and some tweeters as wellare merely passionate entreaties to some groups to satisfy voters, and they provide nothing apart from blaming others, and throwing the ball in the court of others. This kind of rhetoric does not work in the world of money and business.
Some blame the increase in the number of expatriates in the country, but this reality will not be changed by rejection and imposition.Only hard work, contribution, and going up in the professional hierarchy through commitment to work is the solution; without this any talk is just a delusion and will not have any impact on the economic situation that is based on giving.
Today, some young people at the work place think of themselves as seniors and dignitaries, who shall not be questioned for any reason such as absenteeism or work delays and other shortcomings. Discussing this aspect leads to insults and being kicked out of the company, and filing suits, in addition to defamation on social networking sites and scores of other problems. Meanwhile, the private sector is indispensable. Therefore, it must firstly consider training generations to work, whether at home, school, university or even at mosques; not to mention, stressing the nature of work, its significance, value and companies’ role in building the economy and homeland eventually.
We must not fish for excuses and put the blame on the government and the private sector. Sometimes we do not really pay attention to the other party, the employer, his rights and what obligations youngsters have towards their workplace.
Doubtlessly, challenges and obstacles are a part of any work; however, that must not stand in the way of any young learner. They must overcome them. We must not be perfectionists and consider work as a dream that caresses us in our sleep.
Understanding the demands of the members of the Shura Council is a must, but in return we need to be more realistic in our approach to work in the private sector, which has rights just as it has duties.
We believe that job opportunities exist in any country for those who are serious about work, not only in governmental sectors, but all sectors. We need to strive hard to get jobs, as they are the source of livelihood, and we really must urge children to work at any level and then get promoted, step by step.