What 1 Thing Would Make Your Daily Labor Easier?
In light of the USA celebrating Labor Day on Monday, September 3, I thought I would ask my readers. What is the one thing about your job that is really irritating, annoying, or nerve-wracking that other people could fix easily? Often times there are small things that happen that normally we would not notice. However, when it becomes a frequent or even daily occurance because it is part of your job, the small things can become dreadful things.
I started thinking about this subject when I was in the drive-through at the bank last Friday. I was putting the signed slip in the container and realized the cap was off the pen with the point sticking up, right where the teller has to reach inside. I suddenly wondered if the tellers ever jab a pen tip under a fingernail reaching into the cylinder; or maybe they go home every night and try to scrub off blue ink stains from their knuckles. So I reached in, turned the pen around, and then sent it up the chute. It was a small gesture that took 3 or 4 seconds. Maybe the bank teller didn’t even notice. But she would have noticed if she stuck herself with the pen.
So I am asking you: What 1 thing would make your daily labor easier? What is one small gesture that people could change to make your work more enjoyable. Is it a boss simply saying “thank you” occasionally? Customers taking a few seconds to return an item where it goes? Or if they can’t remember where it goes, giving it to a sales person instead of trying to hide it on a shelf? Would diners picking up their own napkins off the floor make any difference? What are the small things at work that irritate you?
Leave a comment and tell me what your job is, what irritates you, and what people could do to change it. Big changes that in reality can only be made by your workplace are okay, but I am looking for the little things that any person can do. Just a few seconds or minutes to change one behavior could make a big difference in how someone views her job.
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:03 am
I work from home, so I don’t have a traditional jobs, but the little thing that irritate me the most is when people don’t take their shopping cart to either the front porch or the cart return. I mean, come on. When I go to the grocery store, sometimes I have to actually walk to the parking lot to get a cart because the cart return people can’t keep up. Maybe they could if they didn’t have to go on a treasure hunt to retrieve the carts from between cars. Seriously. It only takes three seconds.
September 4th, 2007 at 4:09 am
I work the day job in the circulation department of a metro newspaper where I run several departments.
The number one thing that would make my day easier if people would just show up for work! It is annoying and time wasting to monitor when supposedly fully functioning adults show up for work and to adjust the schedules of everyone else to cover the work of absent people. I’m not talking about the occasional illness. Too many people feel that impromptu sick days are to be used instead of scheduled vacation or personal days (they save those for later) and that showing up for work is an option (and/or a favor to the employer) rather than a requirement to keep the source of their income coming. If you listened to the excuses that I do, you wonder how a business can survive at all.
Thinking about this is making me cranky. Maybe I’ll call out of work sick. (I wish!)