By Tony Samson
THE PHRASE “low maintenance” is usually applied to landscaping gardens. It is an option offered to a homeowner who can’t be bothered with too much work tending the greenery. It is ideal for some to have a garden that can be left pretty much alone for long periods and requiring little attention. Such daily chores as watering, pruning, and spraying of insecticides are seldom required if at all.
Low maintenance plants include cacti, succulents, and, yes, olive trees that practically just need to be planted and then left alone. Pebbles and rocks need even less attention, ready to be trampled on and otherwise buffeted by the elements without losing their aesthetic appeal. Rock gardens then typify the low-maintenance landscape. They can even be brought indoors as they don’t attract bugs with more than two legs.
The garden as metaphor for relationships is often invoked. How many wedding homilies have alluded to this imagery — that love requires constant care like a garden, that one cannot leave it alone for weeds (temptations) and caterpillars (more temptations) to choke and slowly destroy? The daily care applied to plants must characterize a relationship. Pruning is not mentioned in this context.
The parable of the sower tossing seeds that fall on rocky or fertile ground is a variation of the garden image. In this parable though, we are the recipients of divine teachings and counsel. The one doing the pruning and eventually consigning the weeds to eternal fire is the Constant Gardener.
In the corporate world, those who require little maintenance (or direction) tend to be overlooked. The rule that “the squeaky wheel gets the oil” prevails. So, a non-squeaker tends to be bypassed for promotion and often becomes the victim of credit grabbers. It is the high flyer who advertises all his (and other people’s) achievements that gets noticed and moved up.
The team player and low-maintenance worker is considered dependable. He stays to finish his work and even comes to work on Saturdays. When his name comes up for a possible promotion the usual comments revolve around his being, well, boring. Does he have the star power for big-time presentations with major clients? Is he passionate about his job? Does he bring charisma to his team and push it to surpass its goals?
A low profile that does not scream for applause is often confused with someone lacking passion. Isn’t the ability to deliver within the deadline and the quiet acceptance of limits of budget, time, resources, and manpower attention-grabbing enough? Just because a person is not whining doesn’t mean he is not facing challenges.
The low-maintenance lifestyle depends on the proper start-up investment. The buyer of a second-hand car appreciates the rule that low cost at the start doesn’t really mean long-term savings. The cheap car may in fact require higher maintenance costs later on and longer downtimes with frequent breakdown.
Low maintenance sometimes entails an initially higher investment. The expensive car leads to fewer headaches in the future. The low-maintenance worker has already invested experience and hard work in previous jobs so that his expectations are more realistic and his ability to handle crisis already well-honed.
Going back to our garden metaphor, isn’t the low maintenance landscape as appealing as the care-thirsty orchid corner? The rock garden with its natural pebbles promotes serenity and beauty in the Zen culture. One can gaze at the lone tree (or driftwood) sending ripples of stone to achieve tranquility of spirit. There is the need to arrange the stones, making sure they are always properly aligned and moss free, and that no mud seeps too much between them. They exude the flow of yin and yang and invite the urge to write a haiku.
Low maintenance is not the same as no maintenance, which is absolute neglect. Even stable relationships exhibit moments of passion, only not part of a job description or routinely expected.
Ideally, the garden (or person) that does not need to be constantly stroked and watered (metaphorically speaking) grows quietly to provide tranquility even in a crisis.
Still, keeping a low profile and going about one’s business under the radar doesn’t always ensure being left alone. There is always the unexpected typhoon coming out of the sky wreaking havoc. Afterwards, dead leaves and debris must be cleaned up and the plants replaced… by a new gardener.
Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda.
