Red!: Responsibility, Part VII: Workplace Behaviors

Back in January, I wrote a series of blog posts about responsibility, the first of which can be found here. However, over the past couple of weeks, I have realized that I forgot about something that is a major aspect in the lives of most of the people I know: work.

Most of the people I know are not wealthy enough to stop working, not old enough to retire, and not lucky enough to have a spouse who can/will work 3 jobs simultaneously so they can sit on their fat rumps at home all day. And so, most of the people I know work. And for these same reasons, I work too.

But before I launch into a post centered around responsibility in the workplace, let me first share a bit of my own employment history. I have had enough jobs to create a resume several pages long, and those jobs were a bit random and totally varied in their types. Some of those jobs are experiences I look back at with fond memories. Others are places in my past that I'd rather not spend much time thinking about. Among the latter, you will actually find the highest paying job I've ever had. During my 2nd stint working at Waffle House (most people working there have worked there more than once), during which I did double duty as cook and waitress, I brought in more income than I ever have with any other job I've held. When I waited tables, I was good at what I did and brought home fistfuls of tips. When I cooked, I was good at what I did and earned a grill bonus nearly every shift. In fact, that one single year, I claimed more on my income taxes than most teachers at my school will be claiming on their 2011 taxes this April.

Yes, you read that right: Many of the people whose job it is to serve you double and triple mountains of greasy, Scattered, Smothered, Covered, Chunked, Diced, Peppered, Capped, Bitted, Spiced, Country, & Topped hash browns are bringing in MORE income than the teachers who work in our public schools providing students with the education necessary to keep them from lifetimes of serving double and triple mountains of greasy, Scattered, Smothered, Covered, Chunked, Diced, Peppered, Capped, Bitted, Spiced, Country, & Topped hash browns.

And while I may miss those days of healthy income, small bills, and no dependents occasionally, I can't honestly say I'd ever want to go back to that point in my life. I'm happier now that I ever was then, even though I'm flat broke most of the time. Not only that, but my social connections have improved drastically. Most every single person I ever met while working at Waffle House was certainly not the type of person I'd want to be closely associated with now. Worse still, the running-ragged schedule I kept back then—work, nap, party, work, work overtime, party, crash, repeat—is a schedule I'm all too happy to leave in my past forever.

But while I always knew that job wasn't forever, it didn't stop me from being a hard-working, responsible employee for the time I was there.

Maintaining Responsible Workplace Behaviors

In today's economy, it's always important to remember that there are millions of unemployed people across the country, many who are local to you and who are capable of doing your exact job and willing to step in and take over if you don't appreciate being employed. Don't believe me, go visit a job fair or an employment office in your spare time and view the hordes of downtrodden people there searching day after day for any hint of a job available in their field of expertise.

And if you have a job, be thankful. Remember those hordes of unemployed whenever you find yourself wishing you could be anyplace but work. Remember them when your boss aggravates you, your co-workers irritate you, or your clients infuriate you.

If your job is important to you, then you will want to approach it responsibly as you would anything else you considered to be important.

Responsible employees come to work on time.
Responsible employees notify their bosses well in advance when they're going to be absent.
Responsible employees are honest when they need to be out of work without advance warning. And they are genuinely apologetic.
Responsible employees don't lie or make untruthful excuses to get out of work.
Responsible employees work together, as adults, to solve problems and finish projects.
Responsible employees put the Golden Rule into practice in their work lives every day.
Responsible employees strive to produce their best quality of work output every time, every project, every assignment.
Responsible employees take the blame for their own mistakes.
Responsible employees never take credit for the work done by someone else.
Responsible employees remember to separate their business lives from their personal problems.
Responsible employees do not abuse privileges afforded them during their work day.
Responsible employees find solutions rather than making excuses.
Responsible employees do as much as they can with the available tools and equipment. Then they find creative solutions to get the work done even when the available tools and equipment are inadequate.

In a world where more people seem to agree with Homer Simpson ["If you don't like your job you don't strike. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way."] than with Henry Ford ["There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something."], most work environments are populated by irresponsible employees.

I am firm in my resolve not to become a member of the useless masses. I get paid scant little, but the knowledge that my job is important will have to make up the difference. I cannot speak for my co-workers, but I will be responsible.

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Responsibility Series, January 2012

► An Introduction to Responsibility ◄

► Responsibility, Part I: Friendships ◄

► Responsibility, Part II: Love & Marriage ◄

► Responsibility, Part III: Parenting (for non-parents too) ◄

► Responsibility, Part IV: Personal Life ◄

► Responsibility, Part V: Citizen of the World ◄