Originally published in the Unashamedly Ethical newsletter, February 2025.
“I strive to commit to do my work wholeheartedly.”
We do not usually think of half-hearted work as an ethical problem. It feels like a matter of motivation, or perhaps of performance management.
But consider what it means in practice.
When we are paid for a full day and give a fraction of it, we are taking something we have not earned. When we cut corners on work that others rely on, someone else carries the consequences. When we do the minimum because nobody is checking, we are telling ourselves that integrity only applies when we are being watched.
Our seventh commitment asks for something different: to do our work wholeheartedly.
Someone is always on the receiving end
Every piece of work lands somewhere.
The clerk who processes an application carelessly delays a family’s housing for months. The builder who skips a step leaves a hazard in someone’s home. The nurse who is fully present makes a frightened patient feel safe. The teacher who prepares properly changes what a child believes is possible.
In South Africa, we know what it costs when work is not done properly. We see it in failed infrastructure, lost files and services that do not reach the people they were meant for. Some of that is corruption. A great deal of it is simply work that was not done with care.
The reverse is also true. Much of what still works in this country works because ordinary people keep doing their jobs well, often in difficult conditions and without recognition.
What wholehearted means
Wholehearted work is not perfection. It is giving genuine effort and care to what we have taken on.
It means honouring the commitments we make to colleagues and clients. Owning our mistakes rather than hiding them. Doing the parts of the job that nobody will notice as carefully as the parts that everyone will.
And it applies to all work, paid or unpaid: leading a company, running a household, serving customers or volunteering in a community.
What it does not mean
Wholehearted work does not mean working ourselves into the ground.
The employment relationship carries obligations on both sides. Employees owe good faith and genuine effort. Employers owe fair pay, fair treatment and reasonable demands. A workplace that expects wholeheartedness while offering exhaustion and disrespect in return is not living this commitment either.
Rest, boundaries and health are not the enemies of wholehearted work. They are what make it possible over a working life.
The ripple effect
Wholehearted work is contagious. A team takes its cue from the people who care. Standards rise when someone refuses to let them fall.
The opposite is equally contagious. Every time careless work goes unchallenged, it teaches everyone else that care is optional.
Which one we spread is a choice we make every working day, most often when no one is checking.
If you believe your work should reflect your values, make this commitment your own at unashamedlyethical.com/commitment.
Yours in ethics,
Ilene Power