More (Five Minute Friday)

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The prompt this week is more. Everyone wants more. More of your time, more effort, even more of your money. Hardly ever do we have someone asking us for less. What we need to do is put forth more effort with less of the “I showed up so I deserve a paycheck” mentality. I have to admit until recently, my knowledge of the work ethic (or the lack thereof) of fellow employees has been limited. I spent almost twelve years as the youngest and newest hire in a very small company with two aging owners, one part-time employee that had been with the company over thirty years that could be called in on short notice to pitch-in when needed, and then there were the two of us that worked full-time and then some, every day of every week, doing whatever was asked of us because that was our job. We could take the job as it was or go find something that suited us better elsewhere. If we didn’t work, we didn’t get paid.

In the past six months, I have worked in a much, much larger company with a much more diverse workforce. While it appears that most of the employees who actually work for the company do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, the same cannot be said for all of those who are temporary employees like myself. Now make no mistake, we knew going into this assignment that we were being hired to be temporary employees, not direct-hire and not temp-to-hire. I went into the assignment determined to learn all I could and add the experience and new knowledge to my resume along with some potential new references. I try to look at every new task as an opportunity to learn more, add new skills to my repertoire, and expand my horizons. A few of my fellow temps have the same work ethic I do, and not surprisingly, those folks are also “of a certain age” or older. A few of the younger temps I have run across as well as some who were also of said certain age or beyond seem to think if you are asked to be at work from 8 in the morning until 5 at night that means you need to be signed in by 8 and out the door by 5. I was raised to be at my desk, logged into my computer and actually working or ready to begin at 8, and that I would work until 5 before logging off and leaving for the day. Many of the more relaxed temps sign in on time but then take their coat off, go to the restroom, say hello to everyone, get the morning coffee and finally make it to their seat and begin booting up or logging in about fifteen minutes after they were supposed to report to work. The process is reversed at the end of their shift, with them starting to get ready to go about fifteen minutes before their day is supposed to end. This was a shock to me. Especially from those folks, I assumed were old enough to know better and to have been raised to do better.

Now I also noticed that some people are very lax about when they show up for work and about finding one excuse after another to leave early. I guess even noticing this means my age is showing. For example, today, a temp was going to leave early, at two for an appointment. When we went to the breakroom to eat lunch at about 12:30, she tagged along though she wasn’t planning to eat since she was leaving early. When we asked her why she was taking lunch but not eating she said she needed a break. She sat there chatting until one then announced that she needs to go as it was time for her to leave. She signed out at one with no mention of the lunch break she had taken.

Really? How do you sleep at night? This is the same as stealing. The same people who wouldn’t dream of stealing office supplies or a computer from the company they work for think nothing of wasting hours each day checking their cell phones, taking personal calls or deciding 4:45 is close enough to five so they are leaving for the day. They steal time and thus money from their employers! I see this sort of thing happening more and more, and it needs to be addressed. Nobody likes a tattle-tale, and I have no intention of being one. I assume that with all the tech people the company has on staff that they are tracking every move we make on the computers. I work as though they are logging every keystroke we make while logged into the company’s virtual desktop environment. Maybe they do and maybe they don’t. Since this particular temp is still there, maybe they track it but don’t really check it unless they need it to go to trial or something. Who knows? I realize more than ever that good help is hard to find and that employers must be having a terrible time finding decent help if this sort of behavior is being overlooked.

I pray those who lack decent work ethic will learn the lesson before it is too late. Do more, be more. Stop squandering your potential! When I leave work each day, I may be tired, but I know I am doing an honest day’s work for my pay and am thankful to have the job. It is awesome to have a job working for people who appreciate the work you do for them and thank you for putting in the effort it takes to do a good job. A little praise goes a long way. I may have gone into the job knowing it was only temporary, but I told them I was going to do my best to make them want to find a way to keep me when my contract was up or at least keep me in mind the next time they had an opening. How did that work? So far so good, they found a way to extend my contract and keep me twice as long as they initially hired me for and I am still there. With any luck, this will be the job I retire from in fifteen or twenty years.

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: More
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

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