Have you ever heard the saying “There’s no I in team”? I witnessed that moment when watching an AFL game also known as the Australian Football League. Watching this sport makes me fall in love with the Australian culture even more. During my orientation, here in Australia, we were shown that in the workplace there is an egalitarian system, which means that everyone is treated equally.
My parents always taught me to treat others the way I wanted to be treated and the emphasis that Australian culture has made me adore the philosophy they implement. Everyone in this world deserves to be treated equally and be given the same opportunities as everyone else.
We as a society struggle to treat others as our equal because we are busy trying to compete with one another instead of working together. I am taking back this philosophy with me understanding the complexities of what it takes to be in an egalitarian society. When we work with people as a unit then we will all reach the common goal. However, if we continue to work against each other we fail to see the bigger picture and accomplish the task at hand.
Since I am the eldest of my siblings it is my job as their role model to implement this philosophy into their lives. It’s important for them to understand that everyone should be treated the same no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. At the end of the day, we are all human and need to be considerate of each other’s feelings.
Despite where someone is on the totem pole of their position, everyone should be treated equally which is something that relates to AFL. There are players that are stronger in some areas than others however they do not tear each other down yet encourage one another to always do their best. Although there are many different leaders that lead with their head and heart never excluding anyone but lifting their spirits during the games to let them know if they fail to never give up.
In society today we still struggle with treating others with the same respect and discredit them by excluding them because of the position they hold in this world. In my internship, I am given the opportunity to observe how the players work with each other on and off the field.
This is something I want to emphasize more dominantly into my life from this point on and in my future work environment. I always use the saying, “Teamwork makes the dreamwork” highly because when you work together with people, in the end you create something that is memorable.
You save time working together and giving everyone equal opportunities trying to work towards a common goal. Whether you are a leader of a football team or a big sister it is always important to give people the chance to feel welcome and treat everyone with the amount of respect they deserve. I hope in the future we can work towards implementing this into our everyday lives and truly work as a team instead of against one another.
