What type of worker are you?
Doing as much as you can in the time allowed, is the hallmark of a great employee. As Mike Rowe of the Mike Rowe Foundation, put it in his SWEAT Pledge, #7 “I believe the best way to distinguish myself at work is to show up early, stay late, and cheerfully volunteer for every crappy task there is.”
Taking on those less than desirable responsibilities, shows fellow employees that a worker has passion, which leads to learning and working more diligently. Productive workers have positive attitudes that can be contagious in a positive way, resulting in a motivated workforce.
Average workers put in the hours, do the job, no more and no less. They may be satisfied with whatever level they achieve. They are the personification of “if you don’t expect much, you won’t be disappointed.” Great leadership can propel them to excel if given the training and tools. Too often the average employees are overlooked and not encouraged to improve. A pleasant work area along with supportive supervisors, takes the average to outstanding. Conversely, supplying barely the necessary tools, and throwing in a negative, complaining boss, is not conducive to workers hustling for the company.
Quiet quitting is doing as little as possible in the time allowed, and even padding the hours. Some people believe they are indispensable, but no one is. When an individual is asked by supervisors to do something and the person agrees, but then does not follow through, is it defiance or indifference? Could it be that the worker is involved with more than can be handled so the path is to under perform, believing there could be no repercussions? Or perhaps they don’t adhere to the adage that your word is your bond.
These employees are the ones who should get the closest scrutiny because they are not “all in” for the job, and can actually cost the organization monetarily. Not getting around to performing tasks agreed on shows a person is not reliable, and therefore may be a detriment to the position. This type of employee often tries to deflect blame onto others, sometimes saying an action was assigned to someone else. When the activity didn’t get done, the employee concludes it was the fault of another person. A productive team member would have checked to see if the task was performed, whereas a quiet quitter wouldn’t have.
When hiring, clear expectations should be set out, discussed, and acknowledged. That way when it is time for an evaluation, there are no surprises as to whether or not the work was done as outlined.
All of these point to two words: work ethic. If you don’t have it, you can learn it. The keys are integrity and reliability — doing what you say you will do; accurate time management — performing actions when you say you will; and productivity — coming to work with clear goals in mind and accomplishing the details, not putting them on hold for an indefinite time, if ever.
As C.S, Lewis put it, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”
Sanders can be reached through peggy@peggysanders.com.
