NOT MY JOB

It has amazed me over the years how folks take a job and and refuse to do things not on the job description.  If I ever said, "NOT MY JOB" to my folks I think I would have been six foot under sniffing dirt.   One thing I learned early on was there was nothing called "NOT MY JOB".  Let me give you an idea of what I mean.

Beth Shumate is in this pic but a t-shirt goes to the first person to name all of these

I thought it was NOT my job to work in the house because I worked outside feeding cattle, cutting hay, bailing hay, hauling hay, plowing fields, discing, planting and then there was cleaning the barns and gardening.  Now just to say gardening is one short explanation for a heck of a lot of work.  Planting was the fun part but getting ready to plant was back breaking.  Then once the harvest was ready there was picking, snapping or cleaning, sometimes boiling then canning.  Canning means you put it in jars and vacuum sealed by cooking in a pressure cooker.  Luckily when I was growing up we moved from canning to what we called "putting up" which is putting it in freezer bags and storing everything in the freezer.  Back to NOT MY JOB.  You see if I ever said it was NOT MY JOB you would be guaranteeing yourself a new job!

I do remember Mom making it clear to me that if something was NOT MY JOB then I would NOT EAT.  You see everything WAS our job but sometimes we got to focus in one area or another.  Another good example was when Beth Shumate, my third, fourth and fifth grade teacher, needed her sewer fixed.  Dad informed me it WAS MY JOB and I was not going to get paid for it because Auntie Beth was good to us and we needed to be good to her.  Now she was not my Aunt but that is how we referred to her most of the time.  That was the nastiest job I think I ever had to do and it was free except that she made me a cherry cobbler.  She was great on cherry cobbler.  She was one of the greatest teachers I ever had and I had her for 3 years in the same room.  All three classes met together.

Here is where I am going with this idea.  When I am being paid by someone else with THEIR MONEY, and I want to be paid, then I believe there is a GOLDEN RULE that applies.  HE WHO MAKES THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES.  It seems logical to me that if I want the job and the owner or boss needs me to adjust to do some special things (like sewer work) that I don't want to do I get to experience FREEDOM.  The freedom to quit or do what I am told.  I know a lot of folks disagree with this but that is ok.

Just today I was pleasantly surprised to hear of a new employee at Wings ( go look up www.wingsok.org) who was willing to do whatever they were asked.  Everyone was excited that she was doing lots of things that were not listed on her job description.  She was labeled as an excellent employee with a great attitude.  That is the characteristic of a person you want to hire and you want to promote and most importantly you want to be around.  They make it pleasant to go to work.

So what do you  learn in the Osage?

• you are not too good for any job
• if you want the job the boss is the boss
• Doing the right thing is more important than the money

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com