It just occurred to me today. Running your own business, you try to optimize the hell out of everything to make as much use of your time as possible. Employees on the other hand, wish to be as unproductive as possible.
But i have to say, I still don’t understand how people think. Its one thing to have a lazy day, but to turn laziness into a habit is just plain wrong. Recently, I’ve been observing this behavior and wondering why do the employees act as if they don’t care anymore. And it just dawned on me. Its very simple; They never did care.
When your compensation is relative to how much time you spend sitting in a chair looking busy instead of how much units of “output” you generate, for whatever output means in your situation, then its obvious that the loophole is to just stretch everything out. The task that is supposed to take 5 mins now takes 15. The task that should take a week now takes a minimum of 3. Why? “Oh, because its how we do things around here.”
Instead of trying to analyze the hell out of the situation, I’ll instead ask a few questions. What ever happened to people doing their jobs to make a difference? What ever happened to taking pride in your work? When did it become alright for people to stop caring? When did it become unusual if you wanted to make a difference in this world?
I used to have a low tolerate rate towards lazy people. Now i have none.
Let me share a little story with you. Once i was in the hospital for some medical exam. And i needed to have it approved for coverage by the insurance company. No biggie, they have an office there for such cases. So in i went with my usually nice attitude and a hearty “Good Morning”. Only to find the insurance guy angry and yelling at everybody. So i asked him why he was angry. He said that he has been working since 8am. Hospital shifts start at 8 and end at 5, so i really couldn’t quite reply with anything except “So am I”. I couldn’t really tell him that it was his job to work from 8 till 5. I couldn’t tell him that since he works directly with people, he should at least remain civil if not nice. I couldn’t tell him that i work for 16 hours a day. I also couldn’t tell him that if he minds working from 8 till 5, to quit and let any of the thousands of other qualified but unemployed graduates take his place. I usually don’t hold back, but he had “the power to push a button”. And i needed that button pushed.
Don’t understand what this blog post is about? Don’t worry, I’ll explain more later.