Ugandan employees in a rat race competitive struggle
What you need to know:
- The phrase equates humans to rats attempting to earn a reward such as cheese, in vain
Overwhelmingly, a huge majority of employees today are completely stuck in a ‘time for money trap’. We call this trap ‘the rat race’.
Over time employees have become resigned to this way of living believing it’s “just how things are”. Given enough time, regrets take hold, that they never did anything to escape this trap while they could. And so slowly, life loses its joy & fascination. The Oxford Dictionary defines a Rat race as “A way of life in which people are caught up in a fiercely competitive struggle for wealth or power; an exhausting, usually competitive routine.” Rats are absolute individuals, with their own ideas and ego about everything, including the people they own. Thus, a rat race is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. The rat race stems from the primary human mindset of earning more money to sustain an ever-increasingly extravagant lifestyle and money appetite.
The phrase equates humans to rats attempting to earn a reward such as cheese, in vain. It may also refer to a competitive struggle to get ahead financially or routinely. The term is commonly associated with an exhausting, repetitive lifestyle that leaves no time for relaxation or enjoyment. The main aim of this article is to create greater awareness of the rat race subject in both the private and public offices plus highlight the desirability to keep it in view in thinking about development issues, especially in the context of a least developed country like Uganda.
Unfortunately, today people have to live unpleasant lives requiring them to work very hard in order to compete with others for money, power, status, etc. The greed for money has exacerbated the cancer of corruption in many private and public offices. All this is in the guise to amass wealth, raise status and wield power in society, moreover Ugandans suffer from ostentatious acquisitiveness and far beyond the means of their lives not mentioning the showy-off life styles. It’s important to make an axiomatic inference that corruption is universal.
Second, allegations and charges of corruption now play a more central role in politics than at any other time. Governments have fallen, careers of world renowned public and private figures ruined, and reputations of well- respected organizations and business firms badly tarnished on account of it. The rising trend in the use of corruption as a tool to discredit political opponents, the media’s preoccupation with it as a highly marketable commodity, and the general public’s fascination with seeing prominent personalities in embarrassing situations have brought scandalous and corrupt behavior, a common human frailty, into the limelight of international attention.
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In all sectors today, we see the pull-him-down syndrome being orchestrated or to the worst witchcraft practiced. The original morals bequeathed to us by our ancestors have since faded away. There are lots of fights and wars both silent and known in most offices today. Some officers have been reduced to mere office attendants and in the process they have had to conceal the most required information and expertise to take this country to another development level.
This of course has significantly affected the productivity levels in many respects. The spirit of brotherhood/sisterhood has since been suffocated and what we see are strong men/women in both public and private offices who want to yield so much power and status in unprecedented measures. But we need divine interventions and go back to the biblical instructions.
Globalization has ushered in an era of digitalization. The shift from traditional to the digital economy has become widespread. This pace of the shift is now accelerating improved internet access increasing innovation, collaboration and cooperation. This has presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to think out-of-the-box and escape the rat race. We all need this monthly income from non-job sources which exceeds the monthly expenses. This is where we need to be right now, to join a global community of online business students and online business owners, get the tools, resources, learn new people management styles, support and guidance we need, educate and set ourselves free.
One of the most empowering lessons Rich Dad taught in the section of Rich Dad, Poor Dad was to “keep using our brains, work for free, and allow the mind to show us ways of making money far beyond what we could ever pay. Seeing things that other people never see.
Patrick Kagaba Kajuma, MPA Student, Uganda Management Institute
