I find it fascinating how we go through life’s journey and have an unique ability to switch roles almost instantly from one moment to another. During a typical work day, you usually rush to work to represent your manager for an early morning board meeting, “acting as a reliable ambassador for your boss”. You then return to your office to communicate with your team — the key action points of the meeting you attended and delegating tasks accordingly, thus acting as a transparent and empowering leader. Later, while driving back home during rush hour, you are still behaving well as a responsible citizen by following the traffic rules, regardless of your frustration.
You finally reach home after an exhausting day at work, and your spouse is pleased to see you back but is waiting for you to cook dinner and do the house chores. In addition, your parents, who live away, expect you to call them regularly to keep in touch and also, your child wants help with his or her homework. Meanwhile, your own neglected self craves for some lone time to relax in a bathtub or finish reading the last chapter of your favourite book, however, this seems rather impossible as there is just not enough time in one day to play all these roles with perfection.
Ask yourself - in the midst of all these overwhelming roles, are you actually aware of your rights or do you just rush to execute your responsibilities?
Knowing your rights in every role you play is very important as it allows you to balance expectations and teaches you where to draw the line in various relationships. In fact, a closer look at your daily activities, will help you identify the role you play in various situations and the associated rights with that specific role.
For example, when you go to fill your car tank and notice a hike in petrol prices: Do you know your rights as a consumer? And when you visit your doctor for a diagnosis and he or she prescribes you all those expensive medicines, do you know your rights as a patient? The point is, whether you are a parent, a child, an employer or an employee, a landlord or a tenant, a teacher or a student, a resident or a tourist - you will always have a role to play.
In our attempt to meet all the expectations associated with our various roles, we tend to end up neglecting our own needs and interests, and one of the main reasons for this is the ignorance of our rights associated with our roles. As a result of not making efforts to educate ourselves about our rights — we feel overused and unappreciated.
For me, I would rather play fewer roles in life, but play them really well than to be everywhere operating on auto-pilot without apparent returns or value.
— The reader is an Emirati director of human resources based in Dubai
