Slaves

                                      (photo: cuttingnews.co.uk)

Di ako malooy sa ila! This, if constantly blurted out, is the reality inside a person’s heart. The lack of empathy is always caused by too much considering on the SELF forgetting that OTHERS are present in the spaces of small and big communities.

Empathy (Quist, 2018), derived from the Greek word empatheia, which means ''passion or state of emotion'', is the ability to feel what others are feeling. It is an important part of human interaction that is unfortunately lacking in some people.

When lack of empathy is extreme Quist mentions that severe problems can be the result. There are many disorders related to a lack of empathy. They can be the result of genetics (or the characteristics you inherited from your parents), environment (especially in early childhood), disease, or physical or psychological damage and trauma related to an event.

Since one causal factor on the lack of empathy is the environment and even genes, parents must be in control in the exposure of their children to empathic encounters while they are still young. Value-oriented books are read and videos showing affection to persons and other living things must be viewed by the kids.

A child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may have a difficult time understanding empathy. Children who are overwhelmed with too many emotional feelings from parents and caregivers may also have trouble developing empathy for others, child psychiatrist Dr. Liane Leedom explains. Children with personality disorders such as narcissism, borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder may have a difficult time understanding empathy. Children with addiction issues can also lack empathy for others, according to Leedom.

According to Perkins (2018), lack of empathy in the preteen or teenager can be one warning sign of a psychiatric disorder. Other signs that should lead concerned parents to look for medical help and guidance include cruelty to animals, fire-setting, frequent lying, petty thievery, defiance, bullying others, aggressive behavior, unresponsiveness to punishment and lack of remorse.

These young ones will become the adults who do not consider others. It is not meaningful to them to help others. Yet, there are those who are being hired to be public servants. It is a scary scenario to encounter when people value more the tools rather than the reason why there are tools.

People lacking empathy don’t put themselves in another person’s shoes. Therefore, they disregard others’ feelings, thoughts, and desires. One of the most outstanding characteristics in people who lack empathy is their selfishness.

People who lack empathy can be very selfish. They think about their own well-being first without thinking about others’ needs. Also, they take advantage of situations and people for their own benefit. In addition, they push the boundaries of reciprocity. This means they only give if they get something in return. They don’t do things disinterestedly. They relate to us in almost a standoffish way, making manipulation a way of life.

Therefore, those lacking empathy can be cold. When we experience an unpleasant situation with them, we’ll end up feeling misunderstood or that they don’t care about us. This is because they’re only concerned about their own well-being. These people are unfriendly and have a difficult time connecting with others (exploringyourmind.com).

Going back to the discourse on being people-centered than “systemic or tool-centered”. There are those whose only concentration is to insist on the output not considering the capacities of the human resource.

Employment, in the best case scenario, is a business deal of mutual benefit. But in other instances, the company is expending such minimal resources that they are taking advantage of the employee. In the worst case scenario, through a combination of slave-driving principles and psychological techniques to break you down, such a job can morph into something very similar to actual slavery (Cyrus, 2014).

The Free Dictionary defines a slave driver as (Industrial Relations & HR Terms) an employer who demands excessively hard work from his employees. Without the considerations of the well-being of the people, an absence of empathy is gleaned.

In an organization, those who are tasked to guide people must consider their capacities through profiling than insist on allowing them to be placed in a system they might not have the orientation. Leaders must have empathy for them to see the humane side of everything than drive people to be obedient incidentally concealing such obedience to being slaves.

These are modern times. Slavery is now considered as a crime to humanity.