A New Outlook? Maybe...

"It doesn't matter how large or even how screwed up an organization is. An individual can still make a difference within that organization. An employer can hinder exceptional performance, choose to ignore it, and not adequately recognize or encourage it. Or, an employer can train employees to achieve exceptional performance and then reward it. But ultimately, only the employee can choose to do his or her job in an extraordinary way, either because of, or in spite of, circumstances" from "The Fred Factor" by Mark Sanborn.

Interestingly enough, this paragraph came to me in the form of a booklet that the group sending out study guide materials for the USPS test sent me. It apparently came just in time, as well. I was (and still am, to a point) completely disenchanted with Splat, Inc. - to a point wherein I felt that no matter what I did, it didn't matter, and that I'd never make a difference. The reinforcing factor of having constant yelling in my ear from unhappy customers didn't help, either.

However, after reading this book, and specifically this paragraph, I realized that no matter what I chose to do, I was still making a difference in someone's life - it was simply whether it was a good difference or a bad difference. Further, it didn't matter whether the company I worked for chose to reward me for those differences or not - I was still going to make them, bad or good. Still further, since I don't enjoy being miserable, and since doing a BAD job (or even a mediocre one) makes me feel miserable and nasty, I've decided to at least make myself feel better by doing the best job I can do - for myself. That in turn is going to make a good difference for my customers.

My company probably still won't recognize it, and frankly at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they fired me for it. HOWEVER - I'm still doing the best job I can do, and I'm making a positive difference. While I won't go in for the "competing against another team for first place at daily/monthly stats", I will totally go for competing against myself (the only person who actually matters that I can actually control) based on what I did the day before. Can I do better than I did yesterday? Of course I can. Can I do better than someone on the 5th floor that I've never met? Possibly, but that's comparing apples and oranges. The only person I can control is ME. Therefore, the only person I should be competing against is myself. And as long as I continue to do better than I did yesterday, that's all that matters.

Do I think that this will have some sort of positive outcome with Splat? No. I'm not so naive. Splat is a multi-level, multi-million dollar corporation, with over 14 call centers across the country... They don't have time to listen to just one person. Even if they should...

~M