That’s Not My Job

By Dan Baker

I recall that old story of the guy standing out in his front yard, and a county dump truck is coming down the street with two guys in the back of the dump truck holding shovels.  The truck stops and these two guys with the shovels jump off and one digs a hole and the other one covers it up.

Then, they jump back on the truck, and the truck goes about two hundred feet further, and stops and these guys jump off the truck again and one of them digs a hole and the other one covers it up.

This guy, standing out in his front yard is watching all this and yells out to the guys in the truck, “What are you guys doing, digging a hole and covering it up.?” And one of the guys in the truck yells back, “We’re a county tree planting crew, and the guy that puts the tree in the hole called in sick today!”

As I look around at our new generations today, everybody seems to know what their job is and what their job isn’t.  The idea that a person needs jump in and do whatever needs doing sounds foreign to a lot of young folks.

The old-timers got a job and came on board to do their best and excel, so they could be recognized and advanced within the organization. The idea that someone would refuse to do something because it wasn’t their job was simply unheard of.

And I think that much of this difference between the younger folks and the old timers goes back to the very dramatic changes that took place between the Baby Boomer generation and the Generation X group. The Boomers spoiled their kids, and felt guilty if they weren’t happy. To a Boomer, if your kid was unhappy, it was your fault, and not your kid’s fault.  If your children looked unhappy, there must be something wrong with you.

The Boomers were the givers and the X’ers were the takers. The Boomers tended to think about other people, and how they related to other people, and the X’ers tended to think about themselves.

So, with our Generation X, we find the first generation that we often call the “all-about-me” generation. It became the generation of blame, victimhood and entitlement. Raised permissively, and spoiled by the age of ten, they often cannot conceive that their problems could possibly come from themselves.

How do you remedy that at this stage? How do you get these “all-about-me” folks to grow up and take responsibility for themselves and their feelings?

I think you begin by making certain you have your job descriptions very clearly written down, taught, and incorporated into the mindset of your younger generations. If you don’t, you begin to get into that mindset where they start telling you that “that’s not my job”.

As an old timer, I am amazed at how often I see these younger dispatchers leave at 5:00 PM because it’s 5:00 PM! If I ask them how they could leave with three drivers still not accommodated, or located, or dealt with, they just look at me and innocently tell me that quitting time is at 5:00! Like anyone with any sense would know that!

I know the division of labor goes way back to many earlier generations, but even with jobs defined and work schedules established, there’s still got to be that spirit of doing what needs to be done because it needs to be done. And you do it whether you feel like it or not, no matter what time it is.

Why? Because it’s the right thing to do! For some reason, I cannot accept the fact that it’s ok to dig a hole and cover it up without the tree being planted. Why is that story funny? Because it’s so absurd! Let’s make certain we don’t bring that same absurdity into our workplace.