It’s really important when you’re at work to go out there and really give it your 60%. Maybe 35%.
One time my boss told a whole story about how if a person who made parachutes didn’t give their job 100%, people would die.
I made the point that
- There’s probably a whole quality and compliance process for parachute assembly and it’s not just one bloke in a factory making and distributing them.
- We get a 30 minute lunch break and no company benefits.
- We don’t make parachutes.
I had a disciplinary meeting and then went back to giving them as much as they gave me.
No one died.
There’s something all us old heads tell to new hires: Hard work is rewarded with more work.
Don’t kill yourself for a company that’ll gladly replace you by week’s end
As a newbie in an office environment, I noticed the laser printer was flashing a Low Toner warning message and reported it to my supervisor.
“Oh, we’ll call IT when it fails completely,” I was told.
Thinking that was stupid and knowing where the replacement toner cartridges were stored (in a stack next to the printer) I showed some initiative and did it right then.
Guess what happened next?
I was forever after “toner cartridge guy” and my job duties expanded to replacing the toner when it died.