On Helping People

I once came across a quote here that says about one person drowning while the other person was just standing three feet away screaming to the drowning person to just learn how to swim.

In reality, if you see somebody in need of help and he’s just right there, would you just stare at him and say that he can do it by himself? Wouldn’t you compulsively do something to help him?

I go through so much of this at work recently. I see my colleagues sitting there watching me while I move about doing the things I’m supposed to do. I’m the junior, the bottom of the food chain, the person who get’s most of the tasks, while most of the time, they relax on their chairs waiting for time to go by. During such time, I just go on with my work, most of the time in a hurried pace, so I’d finish everything on time. Within 12 hours, I’ve got so much things to do and I feel like I’m always on the run. And yes, during that time, they’re just watching me.

I simply don’t get it. Is there some sort of wisdom they are trying to instill in me every time I go through this? And if there is a lesson in it, I can only name one and they speak of it too often, it’s like throwing paper on a rock. They always emphasize time management as the key to what ever I’m going through.

I thought I was way past that stage where I have to suffer on my own at work. I thought the people I work with aren’t what I thought of them on the first place. I always thought, whenever I’m “drowning,” they really wouldn’t help me because I have to learn to swim by myself first. I thought that when I actually do learn how to swim, they’d return back to their normal helping selves. But no.

There is a difference between letting somebody get drowned a little so he could learn to swim and a person who do knows how to swim but is actually drowning.