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The
future of your job may be in a word The difference doesn’t go unnoticed. A few days
later, the slower of the two employees is gone, replaced by a faster cashier.
While getting the job done right is essential, getting
it done efficiently is just as important. Fail either test, and a new
face appears. There are other clear signs that an employee is on thin
ice. They reflect basic attitudes about work and what’s expected
on the job. When you hear them, you take note because they send the wrong
message: • “But nobody told
me…” This is a classic, with a life of its own as it’s
repeated thousands of times each day. Call it the “I’m not to blame… because
I didn’t know” excuse. Candidly, this is among the worst. There
are many variations. For example, “Gee, I’m just the receptionist….”
Or, “I don’t know what caused it. I’m just the Saturday
serviceman,” as one elevator repairman said. In essence, this is the “anti-responsibility affirmation”
and it reveals how certain employees feel about their relationship to
their work. The “nobody told me” reaches to the heart
of what a job is all about: initiative. Or in this case, a lack of it.
Simply put, “Why not ask?” • “I didn’t think
there was a rush.” This is one of the more revealing responses.
The first three words are the key: “I didn’t think.” Better
yet, “I didn’t give it any thought at all.” There are variations to this particular theme. For example,
“I didn’t know you wanted it done now.” Once again, what
must seem like a perfectly valid excuse for a lack of performance by the
person saying it, comes across to the supervisor or customer quite differently,
as someone who doesn’t think about what they are doing. • “They haven’t
gotten back to me.” Whenever this is used, you can almost
always be sure the individual is disorganized. It’s the “I forgot
to follow up” excuse. Or just as likely, it applies to the person
who just realized that the meeting is either tomorrow morning or a half-hour
from now and dashes off an e-mail or picks up the phone and leaves a hurried
message. “How else have you attempted to make contact? Mail?
E-mail? A personal visit? Have you been as persistent on this task as
you would be in getting scarce concert tickets?” Let’s get real. “They haven’t gotten
back to me” is a lame excuse because it’s simply attempting
to blame someone else for your lack of effort. • “I left messages…”
This is the other side of the same coin as “They haven’t gotten
back to me.” Translated, “I left messages” says, “I
honestly believe that my responsibility begins and ends with leaving a
message. What else can you expect?” Let’s get through this quickly: Leaving
messages doesn’t count. It’s nothing. Zero. It’s
worthless. Only connecting counts. “I left a message” is an
attempt to pass the blame to someone else for your failure to get the
job done. It’s like saying, “That naughty old person didn’t
get back me.” • “I haven’t heard
back from my e-mail….” This is heard so often, it no
longer makes much, if anything, of an impression. Because it’s taken
for granted, it continues to be used. “OK, you haven’t heard.
How long are you going to wait? What other steps might be taken to complete
the communication? It seems that behind many of the excuse phrases is a
failure to understand the nature of work. “In the coming era, jobs
will be tasks you do, not something you have,” wrote author Price
Pritchett, who holds a doctorate in psychology and has written extensively
about merger integration and organizational performance. That era is here;
we live in a tasks-completed world. A word to the awake: If you don’t figure out how
to get the needed results, you may not be around to check your e-mail. • “How can anyone expect
us to….” The demands are increasing. No doubt about it.
And they aren’t about to go away. But if we don’t turn it around
for the customer, either internal or external, someone else will —
and there goes the business. Many times, the demands seem ridiculous and you wonder
how anyone can make such unrealistic requests so casually. It wasn’t
so long ago that someone would preface such a request with something like,
“I’m really sorry to put the pressure on you, but I really need
this….” That’s all gone. It’s now just cut to the
chase. • “I thought [insert
appropriate person’s name here] was going to do it.”
There it is, again. Someone’s always thinking. Not working. Thinking.
Well, not really thinking. Thinking that what they’re thinking is
thinking isn’t really thinking. They just think it is. Thinking involves the processing of information and
evaluating it against objective criteria. So, by anyone’s definition,
making an excuse for yourself by blaming someone else for your lack of
thinking isn’t thinking at all. In fact, it illustrates just the
opposite, an inability to think. And that isn’t a skill that has
value on any job. • “I’ll do it
as soon as I can.” This comment would seem to suggest an interest
in responding positively to a request. Not so. In fact, it’s quite
the contrary. Translated, it might go something like this: “Look,
I’m busy. Don’t bother me now with something else.” It also represents something of an “It’s all
about me” attitude that’s expressed particularly to co-workers,
although it’s used with external customers. A more professional approach would be to ask when the
person needs the request completed, the package sent, the letter written,
the job printed, project delivered. And, if necessary, negotiating an
agreed-upon time or date. “I’ll do it as soon as I can” communicates
the message that your priorities may be all that’s important to you. • “I didn’t have
time.” This is the classic excuse for everything from failing
an exam to not having a job completed by the deadline. How anyone dares
to utter the words is beyond understanding. Why is it no one ever says,
“I didn’t make time to do it”? Why does it seem justifiable
to indicate no time was available for what someone considered important,
critical or essential? Why is it no one seems to recognize that there
was time for lunch, for chatting, for leaving at the end of the day before
the job was done? And then in all seriousness to say, “I didn’t
have time.” Using these words today is entering the danger zone. • “I’m working
on it.” This one is a step up from “I didn’t have
time.” Little translation is needed for this particular response.
It, of course, says, “I haven’t finished the job.” Or more
likely, “I haven’t even thought about it.” And quite possibly,
“I forgot all about it.” Frankly, “I’m working on it” has come
to be synonymous with “I haven’t even touched it.” Not
good. • “I know there was
a deadline, but they held things up.” This is the old college
ploy, proffered to professors. “Can I have an extension on my term
paper? I had to go skiing.” Sound like nonsense? Not really when
you consider that the prof will grant the request. No one gets points today, keeps a customer or a job
by not meeting deadlines. Period. • “I got interrupted
and didn’t get back to it.” Same as “I had computer
trouble and fell behind.” Or “I had to attend a meeting that
was called on short notice and….” The heart of work is managing yourself. This particular
excuse lays bare the fact that the worker is unable to manage tasks effectively.
And since work is totally about tasks today, one’s management skills
are a good indication of an employee’s value. • “I’ll try.”
It’s always best to leave the best for last. And “I’ll
try” is the very best excuse of all. How anyone who uses these two
words could possibly miss their intent is mystifying to say the least.
Work is about doing — not trying. There are no
points for trying. A similar scenario is the employee who believes that
time in grade is, in itself, justification for a pay increase. There is no way to avoid the translation of these two
words: “I’ll give it a shot, but don’t fault me if I don’t
succeed.” Believe it or not, we are accountable, not for what we
attempt, but for what we produce. There they are, a dozen plus one of efficient ways to
terminate your employment. The words we use mean something to us —
or we wouldn’t employ them to express our feelings and attitudes.
Words tell us about who we are and what we believe is important. In a
very practical way, words determine destiny — our own.
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