The quiet erosion of professional integrity
Many people today remain formally employed in one institution while quietly building small parallel ventures, including freelance work, consultancies, private teaching, online businesses or other income streams. The phenomenon is often defended as entrepreneurship or self-reliance, yet it also raises uncomfortable questions about sincerity, loyalty and the gradual loss of professional efficiency within institutions already under strain.
There was a time when loyalty to an institution was understood as a shared moral contract. An employee gave time, focus and a sense of belonging, and in return the institution offered stability, professional growth and dignity. In the public sector, especially, this relationship carried a social dimension: teaching and service were not merely jobs, but responsibilities toward students and society. Today, however, that old contract has weakened. Short-term thinking, limited resources, delayed incentives and uncertainty have transformed workplaces into transactional spaces rather than communities of purpose.
It would be........
