The Career Encouragement Blog

The Blessing of Work

If you have a job, you are blessed.  Consider what these folks had to say about the value of employment:

"A man who has no office to go to - I don't care who he is - is a trial of which you can have no conception."  ~George Bernard Shaw

"I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work.  Work organizes life.  It gives structure and discipline to life."  ~Bill Clinton

"Hunger is not the worst feature of unemployment; idleness is."  ~William E. Barrett

A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun.  ~Thomas Carlyle

If you've ever been through a time in your career when you wanted to work, but didn't have a job, you probably discovered that what you missed about work was more than just the paycheck.  Of course a job is important to our financial health, but for most of us, a job is also important to our psychological and social health.  For more on this topic, check out a prior posting on the importance of work in our lives.  Even if you are not crazy about your job, often it adds an important element of juxtaposition to your life.

So as you wrap up 2007 and perhaps are taking some time to count your blessings, how about taking time to think about what you are grateful for in your job...

• What would you miss if you suddenly lost your job? 
• Who would you miss? 
• What little rituals would you miss (e.g., a stop at a favorite coffee shop, visiting the Farmer's Market downtown on Thursday afternoons, etc.)? 
• How has your job helped you grow this year? 
• Is there anyone at your company whose hard work you rely on (e.g, an assistant who keeps your life sane or a sales person who keeps 4 production people and a customer service rep busy?)?  When was the last time you let them know that their work matters to you?
• How does your job help you appreciate/enjoy the other aspects of your life more?

This year I am grateful for my client work and I am grateful to be a blogger.  I appreciate every single one of you who took time time to read something I wrote and maybe even to comment.  May you have great joy and happiness this holiday season and all throughout 2008!

 

Accept Responsibility for Your Mistakes

My sister-in-law from Denmark visited us last weekend.  When we picked her up at the airport, she was waiting curbside with her small carry-on bag, and a courtesy overnight kit from the airline.  Seems they had accidentally sent her checked baggage to Bombay, India.   Although we were compassionate to her plight, we were not particularly surprised.  The family I have married into tells extraordinary tales of the adventures their luggage has experienced while they have spent entire vacations with only their travel outfit and some borrowed dental floss.

What did surprise us was the response of the airline's Customer Service Department.   They promptly took her claim, ascertained the location of her luggage (the scanning and tracking system they use is mind boggling!), and informed her that her bag would arrive in our city in approximately 48 hours.  They then handed her a claim form and sent her on her way.  It was only out at the curb when we picked her up that she looked closely at her paperwork.  In bold letters at the top it said "Luggage Irregularity Form." 

I beg your pardon?  Luggage Irregularity?  I suppose it is a bit irregular if you want to go to the United States and the airline (to whom you have paid thousands of dollars) ships your luggage the opposite direction.  But whatever happened to the "Lost Luggage Form"?  Clearly, the airlines, like many others, have gone the way of the over-worded, under-responsible apologies so prevalent in our modern culture.  Remember Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction and her use of the classic approach to the non-apology: "I'm sorry if anyone was offended..."?  Or the young Harvard student who plagiarized half of her book from other popular authors then went on TV to say she apologized if readers felt mislead?  Apparently it's become acceptable for wrongdoers in our society to skirt any form of responsibility for their own actions and to pass off blaming their victims for feeling abused as an "apology."

Folks, this "no accountability accepted here" approach may work for the rich and famous who can buy airtime and magazine covers; but for you and me in everyman's workplace, it just isn't going to fly.  Everyone screws up at work at one time or another.  The worst thing you can do when this happens is to avoid the truth.  It's far better for you and your career if you learn how to apologize properly, and you do it often.  It does a world of good to restore trust, build relationships with co-workers and customers, and improve your own outlook on your career.  For more information on how to properly apologize at work, check out this great article on How to Apologize at Work from CareerBuilder.

Do you guarantee your work?

We put a new rosebush in our yard this weekend.  Our friend Ed is a landscape designer and he assured us that a particular spot in our yard was a perfect spot for a "Hope for Humanity" rosebush.  He told us which nursery to go to, and to hurry because he happened to know that they only had one left.

We hastened to the nursery and found the rosebush.  It was indeed a beautiful specimen, and the flowers are the perfect color of red to complement the rest of our plantings.  We purchased it, and packed it in the van.  It was then that I happened to glance at the receipt.   Stamped diagonally in big red letters it said NO GUARANTEE.  Obviously the nursery doesn't want to be liable for enthusiastic do-it-yourselfers who don't properly set a shrub, or protect it from our northern winters.  However, I was still surprised for a couple of reasons.  First, the other main nursery in town guarantees all perennials for one year, and the mail order nursery we have used guarantees all perennials for 3 years.  Second, I was surprised that a business would want to hang a label of "no guarantee" on their work.

It made me think about how I approach my work.  What do my clients see "stamped across the page" when I hand them a report, or re-design their staffing processes for them?  Because my work is collaborative in nature, I can't offer an iron-clad guarantee that what I produce on my own will solve their needs.  But I do endeavor to make contributions that are worthy of my time and talents.  I hope what people see stamped on my work is: "This work reflects my best thinking and effort on this project.  I look forward to your input and working with you to make it great for this company!"

What's stamped across your work each day?