Equatorial Musings

I'm sure most of my friends know what's a social contract. Essentially, its a broad class of theories that explain the ways in which people form states and/or maintain social order. The notion of the social contract implies that the people give up some rights to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order. But the question is whether the same applies to relationships. By that, I mean relationships we willingly enter into, i.e., not those of the familial variety. The more I think about it, the more I think it does. Every relationship involves giving up some rights to the other person. By partaking of a friendship, you essentially agree not to disagree with, discourage or diss your friend. Not only that, you've to be supportive and sensitve to him or her. If not, we shouldn't be surprised if he or she stops talking to us. However, if you watch 'House' the series, you'll realise that he doesn't believe in a social contract...

I've recently been reading a fair bit about employee engagement because I'm moving to another job overseeing this for my new employer. I know some people find engagement somewhat fluffy, but there's been enough research to prove that engagement is important. Engaged employees care about the future of the company. They are involved in and are fully enthusiastic about their work. They feel a strong emotional bond to the company and will recommend it to others, thus enhancing employer branding. Committed employees perform better, are more productive and are less likely to leave the organisation. It has also been shown that high employee engagement scores have a positive impact on customer satisfaction results. So does it mean I'm not longer engaged, hence my decision to leave the current job? Well, its not that simple. Suffice it to say that its time to go after more than 13 years with my current company. When I interviewed for my new job, they asked me to do an essay abou...