Integrity of Work Performance: Beyond any Crisis

Judy Ann Pasco Pagtalunan

“Character is like a tree and reputation is like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” —Abraham Lincoln

I really admire these words coming from one of the most influential and principled man the world has known. Every time I get to read it, it reminds and brings me back to the basic essence of humanity---our abstract thinking. This allowed us to understand symbols, make meanings out of them, set rules, mingle different domains of knowledge, develop languages, customs, norms, feelings etc. These and all our actions maketh who we are, our personalities, ---our characters. On the other hand, how we present ourselves to others maketh our reputation, then from them, they create an image of us, which ultimately becomes our integrity.

We cannot deny the fact that the pressing crisis the world is currently facing has pushed us to our boundaries. Economies of countries have faced unprecedented situations, businesses have closed, working conditions have obviously shifted far from the typical set up we used to have. Communication, socialization and working relationships have also dramatically shifted. What we normally and easily could do in person before seem close to impossible now. Assessment and evaluation of our work performance may only be rated through online platforms. Actual performance seemingly became just a part of our “modes of verifications” or evidences. Almost everything is submitted online, on digital forms, stagnant means, frozen actions on printed pictures. Now, the question is, how do we establish our integrity amid all these?

Due to the pandemic Covid-19, we were confronted with the situation of doing our work at home. Suddenly, our resting and comfort place fused with our workplace. Now, we were given the luxury of time to decide on the pacing of how we do our responsibilities, the normal 8-hour shift we spend away from home now became a 24-hour working period. Tasks are already at hand, the deadlines were already set, it’s all up to us on how to flexibly finish them on time.

Work from home could bring the best or the worst in us. Having the flexibility of schedule, we could decide to finish more work if possible, or delay them instead and cram before the deadline. We have the option and the luxury to take advantage of the endless possibilities we could get from the internet. We could just download pictures, orchestrate our performance by supplementing evidences of our work which were all again downloaded from the internet. But again, this will bring us back to the question, have we achieved self-satisfaction? Have we felt the feeling of achievement? Have we established integrity?

Our work accomplishments are the reflections of us. They represent the deep root of our personalities and characters. They establish our integrity. This integrity serves as our legacy not just to others but also to ourselves. Integrity gives us the feeling of rightfulness, trustworthiness and self-pride no matter what the situation is. Personally, I learned to cope up with the crisis by simply following my normal routine. That even if we do our work at home, still we need to draw a fine line with the time we are at “work” and with the time we are at “home”.

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