By Rob Shaul
How often do you see something that needs to be fixed, but instead of fixing it, you respond:
“Not my job”?
This happens at work. You’re getting paid to do a certain job. Someone else is getting paid to do what you see needs fixing – so why should you fix it?
“Not my job.”
At home; your partner cooks, you do dishes. Your partner cleans the bathroom, you chop the firewood. Bathroom’s dirty and your partner’s busy.
“Not my job.”
In society; walking into a business, a piece of garbage on the ground in front of the door, you step over it.
“Not my job.”
Walking into the grocery store, shopping carts all over the parking lot. You ignore them.
“Not my job.”
You complain about the service.
“Not my job.”
At a friend’s house, the toilet paper roll is empty.
“Not my job.”
With every “Not my Job” comes positioning yourself above someone else. At work, every “Not my Job” means making yourself more important than the mission.
Positioning yourself above another or above the mission …. both involve internal conflict and a decision.
Right before you decide to not “fix it,” part of you knows that you should. This is the virtuous part of you, and you must consciously push this part of you aside to arrive at “Not my job.”
This shove wounds you, if even slightly. It’s a self-inflicted wound.
As a business owner and my own boss for over 20 years, at work at least, I’ve never had to make this decision. No matter what the task – super risky financial decision or swabbing the toilet, it is always my job.
Outside work – at home, in society – I’m in the same lot as most. Often not fixing stuff, and justifying it with, “Not my job.”
With age has come humility, or more accurately, an enlightening realization of how damn unimportant I am. More and more, when I see something that needs fixing, I just fix it.
I don’t fix it mad at another because I’m doing his or her job, or because it’s the right thing to do, or to make myself look good.
I fix it to avoid the conflict and the decision and the self-inflicted wound.
Surprisingly and best of all, I’ve discovered that “Fixing It” is powerfully liberating.
No more internal conflict. No more being mad at someone else. No more aggrandizing myself. No more tortured decision.
See something that needs fixing? Fix it.
Clean and crisp with perfect clarity.
So Liberating!
Try it. You’ll see.
You Might Also Like What Does it Mean to be a Quiet Professional?