Sycophancy and Reverence-Two sides of a single coin

Sycophancy and reverence, both can be the ways to achieve a promotion or getting a raise. Sycophancy can be defined as exaggerated reverence. Most of the people feel sycophancy is a much better, effective and less bothersome method to elevations as compared to reverence. There is a thin line between sycophancy and reverence and most of us have blurred this minute difference and almost everyone has crossed this transparent Laxman Rekha. We feel sycophancy, flattery, and buttering will take us a world tour but that tour ends with the change in the position of the person of whom you were licking the shoes till now and so you are back to square one with hopes that the new fellow will be equally venal and corrupt and will be pleased by your acts.


Showing reverence is to a large extent fine but if we go ahead this reverence just does not remain respect but just a route to profits and wealth. Nowadays, Sycophancy has become a part and parcel of any duty and without that you cannot succeed as now nobody wants to work hard and get a promotion, everyone wants a life full of comforts with minimum of effort and what does it take to do flattery- you just need to toe to your boss' proposals every time, perform his errands and give bounty of gifts and enjoy the life as a bed of roses. I know this is also a herculean task to just shut down all your nerves and work like a robot putting a complete lock on brain doors but this appears to the flatterers as a much easier way than working hard. We also know that it needs two to tango. The officials are equally responsible for this attitude of their subalterns as they, with their lax and greedy attitude, enjoy and take use of their nature and even give them a raise, although this happens seldom, yet people continue their herculean tasks in the hope that they will get a "promotion". Sycophancy might kick you upstairs but not promote you because of your lack of hard work and sincerity.   So what needs to be done is that we should revert to our respectful attitude open up our minds, castigate what is wrong, praise what is good and perform productively, actively and with full of dynamism.