Work Ethic

First; the new Dishwalla and Switchfoot Albums are totally worth lending your ear to. So check them out.

I come here today to write about fostering a work ethic. It seems rare these days that people actually come to work and try to do their best.

I remember the early days of my advertising agency career and how many times I was raked over the coals for small human mistakes. Like small spelling errors (spelling always counts!) or even the ridiculous 'your facial expressions don't work for us'. I really laughed that day.
Every job since has been this way it seems. Always striving to meet and exceed expectations, always under pressure to do the best possible work and 'live up to my potential'.

I've always had an unparalleled work ethic. My parents instilled this in me from the beginning. It is something I am proud of and something that I strive to maintain everyday. And there were certain managers and executives that appreciated it and rewarded me for it. But for everyone of those (who I can count on one hand) there were ten who didn't really appreciate it and took advantage of it.

That is what I resent at this very moment while I am still sitting here at work at 8PM. Things are in a bit of an upheaval in one of the departments that directly affects mine, since a key person left about a month ago. The replacement is not up to the task, to say the least, and why the manager isn't pressing for this person to step it up is beyond my comprehension. (or providing the proper training)

It infuriates me in fact. Those of us who get the job done, and go above and beyond expectations on a daily basis continually get shafted while those who lazily drift through the day are continually afforded the bottleneck they create. (think Stapleton airport before they built DIA - It was the worst airport in the country and caused the most delays)

It's everything that's wrong with the world.

There is no solution. You can only hope that someone will eventually see through the smoke screen and put these people out to pasture or hold their nose to the grindstone. And those of us doing the work still persevere because we have integrity and the ever more elusive and highly valued work ethic.