I just got off the phone with customer service. I’ve worked in customer service. It’s hard work — often times tedious and thankless. So I am not knocking customer service reps. I’ve been there. For years. I know what it’s like to field those always-empty and often-angry calls.
So, it's coming from a place of empathy when I say: it seems to me that most people DO NOT WANT TO DO THEIR JOB. They don’t want to do their job because they don’t want to do the work and they’d rather be doing something else. Ask your grocery checker, nurse, customer service rep or any other shift worker how they’re day is going… many times at the end of the shift you’ll get an answer like “getting there” or “another day in paradise.”
Customer service, I can’t blame you for this: I don’t want to do the work either. That’s right, I DON’T WANT TO WORK.
Pause here a moment. When I say “I don’t want to work,” what do you think? If I heard someone say that I would think “that person is laaazzzzy.” Or entitled. Or something along these lines.
Honestly, do you want to work? OK, yes, there are parts of your job that you like. That’s why you chose it in the first place. I’m not talking about those parts. I like those parts of my job – and past jobs – too. I’m talking about the parts you don’t want to do. The tasks you put off. The tasks you resent and loathe. Most jobs consist entirely of these parts that are heartlessly, gut-wrenchingly boring, frustrating, stressful and worse.
Now, do you want to work at these jobs and tasks?
Ok, mayyyyyybe still some of the time, right? I get it. We all have to work because we all have to make money. (Except for those who don’t have to work because they have already have money … And, still, some of these folks — in fact often these people are the ones who work the most — but that’s another post another time.)
So, when you are at your job, I encourage you: Do your job! That’s what you are being paid to do. Try to do it to the best of your ability. Try to do it with the least resistance. Aspire to be excellent at what you do. It will improve your business, your workplace, your customer’s day and, with this attitude, you will improve your LIFE!
What is the task you are putting off?