I didn’t know. Nobody told me. Do you ever hear these phrases? Ever hear yourself using them? Almost every time I hear them, they are used as a defensive response or a way to avoid responsibility. Nobody told me, I didn’t know.
When phrases like these are uttered, someone is generally given a free one time use pass. They are forgiven or excused for not knowing. Used more than once in a while, the utterer is not well thought of.
For a few people, these phrases and others like them, are over used excuses. While exceptions occur, exceptions should be the exception and not the rule.
What is your common response when asked why you are or are not doing something? Are you one of the few, guilty of uttering not being told, or not knowing? Do you find yourself uttering these phrases a little too often?
 Not knowing, is a sign or symptom of more going in the background than the few words each phrase contains. No one told me, for example, has hidden meanings other than the obvious one. No matter where you work, no one has a job to make sure you know what you need to know after you are trained.
When something changes in your workplace, some form of communication is used telling you what has changed. If you hear yourself using these phrases more than once in a long while, below are some ideas you can use to ensure you rarely utter them again, if ever.
The key to knowing is to be proactive. Being proactive is a very effective tool you can use in your work and personal life. Being proactive, you always learn or know about changes that are important to you.
One of the best ways to be proactive is to pay attention. Some way, somehow in your place of work, there is a system in place of how information is passed on. Learn how important information is passed on.
Find out if your company uses email, a bulletin board, a formal shift meeting, or the person you relieve is supposed to tell you. Make your first job of the day reading, listening,or asking about: “What is going on, anything new today?”
Asking a simple question like this and actively listening to the answer will save you from ever uttering a hollow excuse again. Once you get used to reading, and asking questions, you will know what you need to know. You will know about any changes, and you will look sharp, and become more valuable at work.
Occasionally something changes and you really had no way of knowing. Instead of reaching for a new way of saying you did not know, or were not told, you can use a much more powerful tool.
You can say: I read, listened to, or checked for changes, and there was nothing posted, sent, or mentioned. I asked ‘somebody’ who I took over from, and they did not mention any changes.
If the power of response escapes you, go back and read the first paragraph of this post and compare the two responses. Which reply would you rather give, and which reply would you rather hear? There is a lot of power in words used correctly.
If you are new on the job, and you truly did not know, be honest about it. Follow up honestly with a good question. “I was not aware of this, how and where do I find out about these changes?” Phrasing your reply like this, you will be way ahead of others, who automatically fall back on those old, worn out, ‘I didn’t know’ type phrases.
Now you know how to be on top of your job and your life, you can identify how important information is not being passed on to you. If you find that there is no formal way information is passed on, suggest a way! Using your new proactive way of being, suggest a new or better way of passing on information or changes. Think of a method that is easy and everyone see, hear, or read and let someone know in a professional manner, who can make it happen. It may get you a raise!
One of the most important things we want from our life is to enjoy it. No matter what we are doing we want to be able to enjoy doing it, have fun while doing it, or receive some sense of accomplishment from doing it. In some jobs doing any of the above things is not possible for any number of reasons. One of the biggest factors in not being able to do something we enjoy is we have to have an income and we can’t earn enough doing what we want to do.
As the old saying goes, beggars can not be choosers. There may not many jobs for you that both pay the bills and give job satisfaction too. You have to choose what is most important; generally paying the bills wins out. What do you do when the job you have is not the best job in the world and you can not leave it?
Disliking your job, and not trying very hard to do your job are common complaints. Promoting that behavior yourself is not a wise choice. Like it or not, the job you have at the moment is a job you need. It is nice to think you will just quit because you are tired of doing it, but for anyone out of school, quitting because you want to is more of a pipe dream than reality. If you feel this way it is time to take control of your thinking and start to see your job in a positive perspective.
 Our job is a large part of us and who we are. If we choose poor behaviors at work, those poor behaviors eventually spill over into the rest of our life. Choose a positive behavior at work, and our life will be better for it.
Your job takes a large portion of your waking life. It may not seem like it, but add up your working time, getting ready for work time, your commute time, and leaving work to get somewhere else time. That time added up is a large part of your awake time each week. Making the most of that time makes you feel better and makes that time go by faster.
Your job is you. Whatever you are doing, what and how you do your job is a reflection of the person you are. If you do sloppy work, and do the minimum, chances are you are treating your life the same way. Life rewards you with what you put into your life.
Your job is everything you own. Whether you own a few changes of clothes and a pair of shoes, or you have a flashy toy filled life, chances are money you earned from your job is responsible for what you own.
Your job keeps you healthy. You get paid money to live on. If you have a higher level job, you receive benefits too. Your job helps keep you healthier than if you did not have money or health benefits.
Your job is your charity. Whether you tithe through your church, occasionally give change to the needy, eat at certain fast foods, or buy certain products, your job is what keeps you on the giving and off the receiving side of charity.
Your job is your contribution to your community. No one lives or works in a vacuum. Your job is your contribution to your community no matter how you define it. How big of a contribution you make in your community depends on how much pride and energy you put into what you do. Whether you run large city, or sweep a sidewalk, you are needed by your community, and you help make your community what it is.
Your job is important because _____. You fill in the rest of this paragraph. Only you know what more personal reasons your job is important. Perhaps it is a social reason, maybe something more personal.
I used to listen to a teacher tell us kids, “Take care of your job, and it will take care of you.” That Teacher I discovered knew what he was talking about. I have a related post here if you wish to read it too.
Keeping your job is not hard to do as long as you do those things in your control with intent. Having worked at over twenty different places myself before I had ten years in the workplace, I saw many people, including myself commit job suicide. I also watched people excel while seemingly doing little actual work, by doing a few important things correctly.
The real key in keeping your current job lies in remembering how you felt when you found out you were going to be hired. Did you arrive at your current position through luck or did you do your homework, and get the needed skills to win your job. Did you feel special when you were hired?
Were you excited and elated over the possibilities of your job, or is it just another job? Many of my early jobs were just another job. Walk out one door and in another door. If your skills are in demand everywhere, there is always someone hiring, because someone like my previous self is always leaving.
Do you appreciate the job you have, do you feel special doing it? Think of the other people you work with as if you were their boss. They are your competition, how do they feel compared to how you feel about yourself. Do your feelings about your job stand out from theirs?
 If you are not doing anything different than everyone else is doing for the same position, whether you keep your job, or someone else does is a roll of the dice. You are really just holding a position, and from the companies perspective, whether it is you, or someone else in that position does not really matter. In other words you are expendable.
Many people are their own worst enemies when it comes to both enjoying and keeping their job. I doubt many of them even are aware that they are doing it. As an extreme example is the work group rebel. Rebels tend to disagree more about their work than any other personality. Dissent is a good thing until the rebel crosses the line and dissents not only about the way the job is done, but the job itself.
Remember why you were hired. What were your initial hiring criteria? You were hired for a specific set of skills that need to be done. Many people after they become comfortable with their work, start rewriting the rules they will work under, deciding that certain areas are part of their job, and other tasks suddenly are not. Essentially they rewrite their job requirements, generally to their detriment.
Taking on and completing an extra task or two is very important, and they do not have to be critical tasks. Find something that needs to be done and do it. Show you are willing to do a little more than everyone else. This shows you care, and you want to be successful. You do want to take on tasks that compliment what you are currently doing. Do not take try to take on tasks outside of your area of influence unless it is of great benefit to the company as a whole and your boss approves.
Your boss or those above your boss are not your enemies. Making your boss an adversary through your attitude, or actions is a sure way to start the process of looking for a new job. You boss and those above your boss need you as much as you need them. They can not be successful without you position being successful. Being abrasive, or difficult to approach is not a character trait you want from your bosses perspective. Your boss has his or her own problems same as you do. They do not want their job to be more difficult than it has to be.
Most people in their daily work, are not mindful of these few indicators of job success. Your boss will focus on what is important, and that changes all the time. They will remember when they have to make decision about you, what type of employee you are. The decisions your boss makes that effect you are your raise, advancement, opportunities, and contributions to the company. You want to be more than a random name drawn from a hat when it comes to your future.
When the economy is good we never think about having a plan B for our income source. We never think about taking college level classes, starting a new job in a new field, or doing something that fits our interests and talents. We go to work, and we do our little job. Some days some of us find great satisfaction in doing our job whatever that is.
When the economy is unhealthy, as it is right now, we start reaching for straws. Suddenly whatever plan B we have, if we have any, does not look too promising. Our current job suddenly increases in value both internally and externally for us. It becomes enjoyable to get out of bed in the morning and have a job to go to. We may realize that we enjoy parts of our job, but we were so busy complaining, and/or thinking how unsatisfied we are to realize just how much our little job means to us.
As time goes on our little job has lost its luster, and soon our little job is back to being as bad as it ever was. Once again we are dissatisfied with what we are ‘forced’ to do for a living. We are starting to dislike getting out of bed in the morning, and heading off to work. We do not care all that much for what we do, and we think about doing something different.
Those key elements that make our work or our job so important in the present moment with a bad economy were also present when the economy was good. I do not think it is that hard to find satisfaction in our present job – if we are lucky enough to have a job right now. I do not think it was too hard to find satisfaction in our work before the economy took a nosedive.
Whatever we do for a living is called work. Work by definition means physical or mental effort in order to achieve a purpose or result. It does not mean we enjoy every moment of our day. The idea that we enjoy even a part of our work is something to be thankful for.
 We need to look back to the day we were hired. What made us excited to be working at the job we now have? What feelings were present which we killed off, or allowed others to kill off in us? What extrinsic things is our work doing for us? Is it paying for our home, and car, and the food we eat? Does our work allow our children to be in college, either presently or someday?
Every emotion that was present when we found out we are going to be at what will became our job, whether external or internal to us, are reasons we need to be mindful each morning the alarm clock goes off. The mere fact that we hear an alarm clock in the morning is a luxury. Everything our work provides for us, after the shutting off our alarm clock continues through the day and into the night. Bring them back into your life, and reflect on them daily.
Make your job meaningful once again, which is the least it deserves if consider the alternatives. Take a quick check of your situation. If there was better work out there for you to to do, you would already be doing it. Because you are not doing something different than the work you have, it probably does not exist. Or possibly or you are satisfied with your work.
Look at yourself in the mirror and see look at your clothes, you earned them with your job. Your first meal, no matter how simple or elegant was paid for with money from your job. Look at everything in your life that costs money, your job paid for it. Take a little pride in your job, it is the only job you have. Treat your work with respect, whatever it is. Everything you have is likely a result of your job. Be proud of your work, and it will give you many more returns.
We, or maybe I, am one day past Monday today. My work week starts on Sunday, but I find Monday mornings interesting because of what takes place. On Sunday those of us who do the work show up and start doing whatever it is we do for our paychecks. The drive into work is quiet as there is little traffic early on a Sunday morning.
Monday morning is another matter completely. Traffic is heavier and many of the drivers drive as if they are going to be rewarded for setting a new home to work speed record. Most of my drive is in a forty-five mile per hour road, but it is not unusual to be passed by cars or trucks hitting seventy miles per hour on Monday mornings.
Because traffic is still fairly light, I do not see it as dangerous or speeding, but rather a useless waste of energy and effort. There is no extra pay if you arrive at work thirty-three minutes early instead of the normal ten minutes early. Yet the Monday morning crowd breaks all posted speed limits to get to work, act like they knocked off a quart of Joe’s coffee shack strongest house blend with extra sugar, and generally have use up about three days worth of energy by Monday noon accomplishing little.
It is really a waste of energy because no one knows much about what happened since Friday on Monday morning except those of us that started our work week on Sunday. That does not seem to stop anyone though as they go through the morning jockeying for position in the, ‘I knew it before you did, hah hah’ competition.
On Tuesday morning it is apparent that many people overdid Monday, because those people who show up for work are looking tired on their second day. The rest have burned themselves out by Monday afternoon. They call in Tuesday morning with stories of sick children, or plumbing problems. Of course they talk to an answering machine, so a few coughs are sometimes added for effect, along with a promise to come in to work as fast as humanly possible. Except the plumber of course who was vague about what time he would arrive at their house, and it may be late afternoon before that happens.
Maybe it is my personality, but I find that acting overly excited and hyperventilating does not accomplish much in the way doing my job. Neither does chewing coffee beans before work starts for the day. Our bodies imo, are only meant to operate at a certain rhythm and going overboard has consequences later in the week. Having so much caffeine in your blood stream that you can not type out a sentence without steadying your hand by holding it is not only overdoing it, but is very dangerous health wise.
Why not slow down on Monday morning, and enjoy the day? Do not leap out of bed and attack Monday mornings as Mondays are not an enemy unless you make them one. If you act normal, like you do on Friday as you are saving yourself for the weekend, you will find the remainder of your week goes a lot smoother. You will accomplish more with less effort because you do not have to spend Tuesday morning cleaning up any messes you created on Monday – trying to prove to the world that you really are a living breathing work machine.
I want to take time to write about being grateful for everything going on in my life. I am usually grateful for every day that comes along, but verbalizing feelings is something special.
I am grateful for the way I have come to view my work. My job is not that important in the larger scheme of life, but I feel good leaving most days, knowing that I did the best I could. I believe the world will be a better place for what I accomplish each day I work. It took years to arrive at a place of being happy to do my little job every day.
I am grateful for those of you in food service who make my life better. When I buy a cup of coffee, or something to eat, we both are in a unique relationship for those minutes we interact. I appreciate your taking care of me the best you can. Some of you are very good at what you do, and I think it makes my coffee, or meal taste much better because you are happy doing what you do.
I am grateful the new bean and chili crop is here. Living in New Mexico means beans and chili are a staple food. In a few weeks the apple orchards will be harvesting their crop, and I will also have fresh apples to eat.
I am grateful to the folks who make my blog possible. The last programming I was any good at was basic on Radio Shack and Commodore computers. If I had to design my own blogging platform, and themes, I would not be writing this now. I would have given up in frustration. At times as I am update my blog, I think about how creative and talented you coding artists are.
I am grateful that you are taking the time to read what I write. I hope something I write either helps make your life better, gives you a knew perspective, or brings a smile to your face for a moment or two. I know your time is precious, and I try not to waste it by filling space with words. Thank you for your time spent reading. Thank you for sharing what read with your friends, I hope they enjoy it too.
Other posts of possible interest:
Grateful for a bowl oatmeal with coffee or tea
Thank you for reading!
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Not knowing, is a sign or symptom of more going in the background than the few words each phrase contains. No one told me, for example, has hidden meanings other than the obvious one. No matter where you work, no one has a job to make sure you know what you need to know after you are trained.