To feel like a contributing, needed member of society is a basic human need. I've questioned before whether to tell my fellow employees to shove it - that the food they are serving to wealthy people who often waste it isn't going to make any significant impact on anything - but it will. Although it only impacts their own immediate lives, and the lives of the patrons of our restaurant, it's still a small difference. What really grinds my gears is when people get so worked up about the most minute details that they make my blood boil. Who gives a shit if we forgot to offer a black napkin to the gentleman wearing black pants on table 34? But, I can't say anything because I'm afraid of making them feel like their problems aren't important. Because their problem isn't the napkin, it's the experience of the customers who are eating - and ultimately, tipping our servers - who have bills, mortgages, and families. After all, I'm still in school, I don't know what the hell I want to do with me life, and who am I to say to screw the black-pants-man on table 34?
A line that resonated with me in Botton's piece was "The real issue is not whether baking biscuits is meaningful, but the extent to which the activity can seem to be so after it has been continuously stretched and subdivided across five thousand lives and half a dozen manufacturing sites. An endeavor endowed with meaning may appear meaningful only when it proceeds briskly in the hands of a restricted number of actors and therefore where particular workers can make an imaginative connection between what they have done with their woking days and their impact upon others."
What's important is that we try to make each other's lives a little easier. This is what keeps is in a cool, collected mood. This is what sends us home feeling successful, not oppressed, after a long night of work.
In The Happiness Project, Rubin touched on many important aspects of positivity in the workplace. One of which being employees/team members being comfortable asking for help. I feel like this issue isn't discussed in the hiring process because, in the U.S. at least, individualism and independence is valued over what society views as helplessness. But, just because a person has questions, doesn't mean that they're dumb or uninformed. In fact, most of the time, it means that they actually GIVE A CRAP about the work they are doing, and making people's lives easier (including their coworkers).
I'm not sure how long this is supposed to be, or what format we're supposed to follow, but I feel as though I’m starting to go on a tangent. Time for me to say goodnight, whoever will read this, Mr. Z DeP.
Wow, love this editorial. You really had me at, "..grinds my gears..." Your article made me really reflect on my job in a way I had not for a long time. What it means to me, the tasks, failures and accomplishments. How what I do influences those around me in and outside of work-whether directly or indirectly. I loved the baking biscuit analogy-great visual. Illustrating even the seemingly small and mundane can be broad and meaningful. I visualized a small, hungry child in the Appalachians eating that biscuit. I think I should like to read Botton's piece-where might I find that? Coming from the Fortune 100 corporate world I can vouch for Rubin's call for positivity in the workplace-which is almost non-existent, along with civility, and collaboration-none of which are seen as necessary or valued.
ReplyDeleteStay true to who you are, and what your values & gut tell you. Resist the new conformity and lack of engagement. Thank you for the levity and the perspective