To start, here is my friend’s comment: “People used to be so proud of their work. When a tradesperson came out to fix something, one used to be impressed with their interest in solving a problem and skill at finding a solution. Now, everyone is just interested in blaming something or someone else for the problem and transferring the work to solve the problem.”

Excuses, excuses …

I see the problem from two different angles: aptitude and attitude.

Certainly, it was easier to know “everything” many years ago when there was less to learn; there was a single scenario with no variants and it was easy to deal with.  Today there is too much to learn, so people tend to specialize in a single task; if they do not know the answer or cannot resolve the issue, their only option is to direct us to another ‘specialist’.

On the other hand, the predominant behavior these days is to only do what you are paid for, or what you have been trained to do. So, if after installing a dishwasher by following the instructions and it doesn’t work properly, it becomes “somebody else’s problem”.  In the case of my friend, the technician was hired to install the dishwasher; if in his job description it isn’t explicitly written that he is to install the machine and make sure it works properly, why should he care if he already did his job?

The other day, another friend pointed out a different angle: people are so busy that they would rather send you to deal with somebody else instead of helping you, even if they know how to help.

What is important?

Maybe we need to ask ourselves how important it is to care about how we impact our co-workers and our customers when performing our job.  We can choose to do the same job taking into consideration who we deal with.  It doesn’t mean that we need to know everything, and it doesn’t mean that we need to do everything for everybody, but a little consideration can make our customers happy and will also make us feel more satisfied when performing our job.

Let’s go back to the dishwasher installer:  he decided not to do anything for the customer; but if he had taken ownership of the problem and made a couple of phone calls, given the customer a follow up call, or had simply used the proper language (instead of blaming others), my friend would definitely have had a different impression of the technician and probably he would feel better for having done a good job by making his customer happy.

The bottom line is that if we go the “extra mile” the outcome is much more satisfactory for both sides; no matter which job we do, it is important not only to do a good job, but to do a little extra to benefit everyone.

I know it is hard because sometimes we are measured by quantity and not by quality; but I have consistently found that doing a little more will always help to avoid problems in the future.  It is not deciding between quality and quantity, it is maintaining a balance between keeping our customer happy and our manager satisfied with our work.  Having a happy customer as well as a happy boss will definitely make you smile at the end of the day.

Resources

Sometimes the reason for not helping is because we feel overwhelmed, given the fact that we don’t know everything.  But what gives us better credibility is to accept that we don’t know the answer when faced with a challenge; instead we can use the many resources available everywhere to look for answers.  This has two effects: we learn new things all the time, and we feel the satisfaction of solving a problem or helping somebody.

Co-workers, friends, the web, and even books are resources that can help us make a difference as people and as workers.  Asking questions to help somebody indicates that we care and that we want to help.  As I said, we aren’t expected to know everything or to have every answer; it is a matter of having the attitude to look for answers to everyday problems.

Why not?

It might be a personal choice, but I guess my parents taught me that it is better to give more than less.  Why not?  It makes us better people and, in my case, it makes me feel good with what I do.