Living Joyfully
Helping Pets & Encouraging People
Are You Seriously Just Sitting There?
What a lazy bum!
Work ethic seems to be lacking these days. It doesn’t seem that people stick with jobs very long, when the going gets tough they are more than happy to leave. Granted when the work environment is toxic and the powers that be don’t seem to want to do anything about it then yes leaving might be a good idea. When the work is hard or even something that no one in particular wants to do that doesn’t mean you give up and go home. Sticking through the hard stuff makes the job more worthwhile. It seems funny for me to say this because my mom and dad used to say it to me and I am sure their parents said it to them but it really feels like “when I was a kid” people cared about doing a good job more. They wanted to be loyal to their bosses, coworkers and their job. Even when it wasn’t about their job and it was projects they did at home or out of the work place they took pride in their work. It really feels like now a days it’s like pulling teeth to get stuff done or even to keep people moving forward. I bring this up probably more out of frustration than anything. So often I look at what is going on around me and how people act when no one seems to be “looking” and it really makes me want to instill more into my kids heads that hard work will pay off.
Picture this if you will. The alarm clock goes off at 6 am because the dog needs a walk. Once back from that kids need to be woken up for school while you get ready for work and the hubby gets coffee going. Once at work, clients start arriving, projects get started and coworkers slowly start to trickle in. This is where it gets tough though. If you’re like me you have certain expectations set in your head as to how your coworkers should work. These expectations are what you would expect of your employees if you were the boss. The problem is, not everyone has those same expectations of themselves or work the way you think they should work so you get frustrated. Since you are not the boss you can’t just go and tell your coworkers to do certain jobs or get off their tushies to get work done and so you let your frustrations grow. You get through your day but you are not sure how because by the time the doors are locked and the lights turned off there may be only one maybe two people that you don’t want to physically ring their necks. In your mind you can’t see how some people you work with still have their jobs and yet they do. So you then hope that the drive home will help calm you down and clear your mind, and it does until, you get home and get told of the ups and downs of your family’s day. It’s not so horrible because you at least know that they are trying to learn and grow and for the most part have better work ethics that some you work with. At last you are able to relax and once the frustration wave has passed you can look back and see that it may only be on certain days or with certain people that you start to feel stressed and can’t fathom why it’s hard for them to embrace hard work.
So what do you do about this? Obviously you can’t keep letting frustration rule and forcing your expectations on others isn’t going to happen. I read somewhere that you can t force people to think the way you do but you can guide them and lead them down the path. When our kids are young we teach them the ways we feel they should act and be when they are older. We talk to them about it, we show them how to do things and in ways we shape how they think and believe about things. Never once are we able to actually make them think like we do though. That is the great thing about being God’s creation, he gave each of us a brain and the freedom to use it how we chose. That is exactly what the people around us do, including our coworkers. It is the choice of each person to prioritize what they feel is important. So as hard as it may be at times we may just have to ask for help. If you see someone just sitting there not doing anything in particular ask if they are available. Don’t assume that they are not doing something, they could have clocked off and are waiting for a coworker to do the same, so you could ask them to wait in the employee lounge. They could have been asked by the boss to pay close attention to something and that is what they are doing. As hard as it may be giving people the benefit of the doubt may surprise you. If you work hard at doing your job/project/skill to the best of your ability, than you can go home knowing you did well. If you are upset at someone you have to talk to them about it, because if they don’t know you are upset, than it can’t get fixed. If you are still upset talking to someone you trust could be helpful. Allowing someone elses lack of meeting up to your expectations, and thus upsetting you just traps you in your own unhappiness and they know nothing about it. Choosing to move forward and except they are who they are and most importantly they are not you can be hard but necessary. Choosing to ask for help can be beneficial. The important thing is that you have to take action, you have to move forward. As I write this I am having to take my own advice, and it is not easy but I don’t want to be stuck in a prison of my own making, do you? Until next time:
Hard work spotlights the character of people: some people turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.
Sam Ewing
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One day Rae woke up and felt different. When she looked at the people around her they seemed to “shine brighter” than she did. When she finally prayed about it and asked her mom for help, she realized she didn’t know her own worth. She didn’t believe in herself and felt dim compared to others. Once she started to see she was talented and worthy her shine came back.
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