One the first jobs I ever had, when I was 17 years old, was working on a ‘line’ survey for the Dempster Highway, in Yukon territory, Canada. A line survey is one that actually establishes where the road is going to be, so the question arises: if there’s no road, how do you get to work? Well, in our case, it was by helicopter.
Each day, the work crews would pile into a small chopper and be taken to their section of road — at the time just open muskeg. At the end of the day, they’d be flown back to camp. If it was too cloudy or windy, the choppers couldn’t fly, so we’d be unable to go. The novelty of going to work by chopper wore off quickly, and it was hard work, slogging through mosquito-infested muskeg for 10 hours.
Every morning I would look up at the sky, praying that the cloud cover would drop, or torrential rain would begin, or a howling wind would blow. This occasionally happened, but rarely. When it failed to occur, I was always depressed. I felt cheated — the respite I’d been hoping for hadn’t come.
I’m not sure exactly how long I spent making myself miserable in this way, but one day it finally occurred to me that I was putting more energy into trying to get out of work than I would actually spend working. I concluded that I would be a lot happier if I did one simple thing: accept, even enjoy, my job.
The camp where we lived consisted of a small group of trailers in the middle of nowhere. There was nowhere to go, and nothing to do. By far the most interesting activity open to us was going to work. And as a bonus we saw wolves, bears — several times I saw massive herds of thousands of caribou. I made up my mind to assume I was working every day, not to expect, or even want, the chopper to be grounded, and to do my job to the best of my ability.
From that moment on, I was much happier, and the time went much more quickly. I maintained that attitude for the rest of my career, even in some jobs that I didn’t particularly enjoy.
Through the years, I’ve met and worked with people who were preoccupied with avoiding work, as I once was. They’d take off every sick day even if they weren’t sick, do the minimum while on the job, and slack off whenever they had the chance. That actually seems to be a prevailing attitude now. There’s even a sort of smugness that somehow slackers are ‘smart’ because they’re ‘getting out of’ doing something.
I honestly feel sorry for these people. Not only are they ripping off their employer, they’re ripping off themselves. Doing a job well (or anything, for that matter), is one of the most fulfilling accomplishments in life. To waste the chance to excel, no matter what you’re working at, in order to sit and do nothing, or the cell-phone equivalent, is just sad. I’m not suggesting you should volunteer for massive hours of overtime, or allow your employer to take advantage of you. I’m only suggesting that, for the time you’re at work, you should take your job seriously, and perform it to the best of your ability.
There’s a wonderful film, Ikiru, by Akira Kurasawa, where a man who works as a lazy cog in the Japanese bureaucracy finds out he’s terminally ill. He quits work and goes through a series of failed attempts to come to terms with the news, drinking, partying, and trying to reconcile with his grown children, but finds that nothing works.
Until he hits on an idea — he decides to simply do his job. He goes back to work. Instead of brushing off people who need help, he becomes their champion, and finally, after battling colleagues and even his own bosses, accomplishes one simple task — converting a stinking, polluted, dangerous, empty lot into a playground for children. Having completed this task, he dies, fulfilled.
Imagine if everyone in the world was like that — imagine if their goal was to excel at their job. When you called the help line or went to customer service at the store, your contact would always be on the ball, because doing their job was important to them. When a carpenter did work on your home, he’d refuse to accept payment until he’d fixed one small flaw he’d missed. Paving on the street in front of your house would always be done quickly and well. When you went to the hospital, the nurses would all be competent and efficient, having devoted themselves to their profession.
I truly believe that having the ultimate goal to excel benefits not only your boss, your co-workers, and your clients, but you as well. With this attitude, you will not only have a more fulfilling and enjoyable life, but you will probably be far more popular and successful.
So anyone out there who believes they’re ‘clever’, because they got out of doing their job, should take a good look at themselves. Anyone can be a slacker — it takes someone special to excel at something.
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