HOLY HOMEWORK

9/11 Virtues in the Workplace

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Since the year 2001 the month of September for many Americans and most New Yorkers recalls the fatal attacks and the loved ones who died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pa.

Instead of dwelling on the horrible aspects associated with that day, we can focus instead on the many positive merits that we witnessed. Here are three virtues that come to mind which we can also bring into our daily work environment. If we do this, then we are certainly remembering those who lost loved ones 12 years ago and honoring the innocent lives that were taken away.

Competence

Why do employees who are in the business of rescuing other people wear uniforms? So they don't have to waste time telling bystanders to get out of their way. When lives are in the balance, every second counts. The firefighters' turnout gear, the police officers' badge and the medics' red cross all help to open a direct path between those in need and those who can help. The people in the uniform are the ones who are competent. The rest of us step aside so that they can do their job quickly and without interference.

One way to esteem our fallen heroes is to ask ourselves: when was the last time we brushed up on our own proficiencies? In this age of electronic teleconferencing and computer webinars, we would be hard pressed to find an excuse for not sharpening our competency skills. We don't have to leave town, we don't have to submit an expensive budget, we just have to logon and learn. The virtue of competence summoned the first responders to the front lines. We can treasure their memory this month by deepening this virtue at our own workstation.

Care

An outpouring of care and concern was clearly in evidence on September 11, 2001, and in the many days and months that followed. In fact, this caring continues on an annual basis even today. We still hold fund-raising events for the families of the fallen. We still look upon the heartache they endured and extend a helping hand in any way we can.

Here again, we show respect for those who are no longer with us by carrying this virtue of caring into the workplace. Instead of focusing on ourselves, we can enhance our character by helping the co-workers around us. Instead of presuming idleness or ill will, we can offer assistance to associates who are struggling. Yes, it is possible that a few may take advantage of our generosity, but this doesn't diminish our kindness. On the contrary, it highlights the selfless underpinnings of our motivation. In the end, caring is caring. And mirroring this virtue into the workplace honors those who cared enough to put themselves in harm's way for others.

Clean

When I visited Ground Zero three months after the towers fell, the pit was still a heap of twisted metal exposing cutaway layers of subbasement floors, the giant draglines were still transferring ashes into dump trucks, and the surviving responders were still in shock over the loss of their colleagues. What everyone there encountered and very few talked about was the strange smell. I can't describe it because it was like nothing I had ever experienced before and pray I will never again. To say the area was dirty would be to trivialize what happened there. This was a crater akin to old newsreels of the bombed out war zones in Europe. But this was not Europe. This was America. This was home.

Look around your office today. While the workstations of some folks are impeccably neat, others are cluttered beyond belief. Some claim they have their own filing system, but it looks more like a frightening system. Likewise, employees who flaunt clean desks and paperless environments can have such cluttered computers that it takes them several search terms to locate a single file.

Imagine how difficult it must have been for the crews to come to Ground Zero to begin the enormous task of cleaning up. Their job was especially tough because they knew they were removing more than rubble. Cleanliness is next to godliness as sure as the souls of the bodies jumbled in that debris returned to the spotless purity of God that day.

We owe our boss and ourselves the virtue of keeping our workspace and networks clean and well organized. Time and energy spent searching for misfiled information is time and energy wasted. We can cherish those who were mangled and those who restored the mess to order when we practice the virtue of cleanliness where we work.

For Holy Homework:

This month let's honor all who suffered on 9/11 by learning an online module that upgrades our competency skills, by caring for co-workers with a helping hand, and by cleaning up our desk and computer while keeping the victims in our prayers.

Comments can be sent to: FatherBobPagliari@Yahoo.com