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!
In two earlier posts on pride in the workplace, I wrote about some obvious reasons why having pride in your work, not only makes you a more valuable employee, but workplace pride also is a reflection of how one’s personal life is managed. If you are managing your personal life well, keeping everything moving the way you want it to move is reflected in how you perform your job. The opposite is also true.
There are other reasons for having pride in your job which many people do not appreciate because they never thought about from a different perspective. The more pride in your job, the more pay attention to the small things. Huge financially devastating lawsuits have happened over neglect of minor details.
 Attention to minor details while you are working is noticed by your boss when they compare the quality of your work to that of your peers. It is the little things that get noticed by your boss as the big things take care of themselves. Your boss may see you cleaning up your work area, or taking care of something that needs to be done others have ignored. It is a good idea to make it a point to be seen doing little extras things others ignore.
What about when you are walking to your job. I have observed an untold number of people who think they are too important to bend over and pick up a piece of paper in their path ten feet from a trash can. I have seen heads of business, who make more in a restroom break than many people make an hour, take the time to stoop over and pick up an errant piece of paper on the ground on their way to the building entrance.
I was taught by a dinner chef, that it is the little things that hurt a business. Someone not paying attention to what they are doing with food could result in a correctly unhappy customer. Or worse, a handful of people become sick as a result of improper food handling procedures. A few unhappy customers can easily destroy years of building a good reputation.
One of the noted restaurants in town who enjoyed the major market share in their specialty, were discovered to be reserving food from picked up plates. This happened not once but twice in a short period. The company almost folded because their reputation lost through greed and neglect. Whatever the person who started reserving food thought they were saving in expenses, was not as much as long term customers who never returned to that establishment.
If you are in sales such as sales in a clothing store, a little pride and two simple things you can improve both your image and increase sales more than you have previously managed. All you need to do is look busy and smile. It does not matter if you redo something you did ten minutes earlier. Your customers appreciate the fact that you stopped doing whatever you were doing to help them a lot more than if you were standing frowning in the corner, and then come striding over to see what they want. As a customer, who are you more likely to ask for help, someone who looks like they are doing something who stopped to see if you need assistance, or someone who is standing in a corner looking bored staring at the floor.
These are only a few ideas of many that are available for you to use in your workplace. The sad truth is most of us think we are worth more than we are being paid, and we try to make up the difference by doing less. Reality is different; doing more has a better chance of balancing the scales of work verses pay than loafing will.
If you work with the public doing more has even higher dividends. It is quite possible that each and every day someone who your wait on or help is looking for an employee. While they can read resumes and listen to self promotion pitches all day long, another saying applies, “Actions speak louder than words”. You never know if the next person who sees you doing something extra will be your next employer. If they are who do you want them to see, you working with pride, or you loafing around, doing as little as possible.
Even when it seems that those little extra things you do are not helping you, they really are. Making it a habit to do those little extra things in your present job, is on the job training for your, “Real Job”. Take advantage of every opportunity to learn how to be effective for the future. While you are practicing, you will start taking more pride in your present job too. You boss will notice too, and perhaps you will be stepping out ahead of your coworkers and winning the next opportunity for advancement or more pay.
Related Posts:
Taking Pride In Your Work
Your Job Is Your Life
I had a unique opportunity to make a number of visits to a hardware store over two days. In that time I was helped by a number of people working at the store and checked out by at least as many before my buying spree was complete. I was humbled by one of those workers in particular. I thought they reflected you and I and those around us.
Watching how the people working acted or reacted as they were helping me with the nuances and intricacies of items I knew little about is worth writing about. My first trip was for a vanity and sink top for a bathroom upgrade.
The first clerk I asked for help pointed me in the general direction of vanities and sink tops before disappearing. I would say helping another customer, but seeing there were only about five of us in the store I believe he went to a new hiding place.
I decided on what pieces I wanted and went to find a cart. A worker in the lighting section pointed me to a corner and told me carts were usually pulled in to that corner (pointing) from the parking lot. Arriving at the appointed corner, there were no carts, but someone was guarding the exit area cum cash register. They told me all the carts were out in the parking lot somewhere.
When I found a cart, loaded it, and went to an open register to check out, the woman who helped me asked the normal questions and seemed to care about my answers. When the transaction was complete she asked if I needed help loading my purchase. I said yes I would like some help getting them into my truck. She paged out an appropriate code and said if no one shows up, she will help me load up.
 I made a joke to the woman about hearing the stampede of feet coming towards the exit to help when a man showed up and said he would be more than happy to help me load up. He pulled my cart out to my truck, helped me load up, and asked if I could manage unloading by myself. I told him thank you for the help, and yes, I could manage the unloading myself.
The next day there were a number of trips back and forth buying, exchanging, and returning. One clerk, on the second trip, looked as if her best friend had recently died while complaining about how long the day was. It was nine am and she had been working two hours. I saw her later in the day at a different register, with the same bored, forlorn look. I chose a different register to check out at.
On one return for correct size trip, the returns clerk told me that doors were the number one exchanged item, and the reasons why. She was upbeat and took me at my word when I told her nothing was used or damaged even though one box looked nothing like it did when it left the store.
I exited the returns section, went back in the store and picked up some more large items. The cashier was friendly as asked if I needed this or that that she knew would be needed for what I bought. She also asked if I needed help, and told me a coworker who was one of the best employees would probably show up to help me. I recognized the name from the night before, the same person who helped load up my truck last night. I agreed and mentioned how he helped me the previous evening. The clerk said yes, that would be him, the others usually hide when paged to help.
One person who really stood out was the first register clerk of the second morning. She was the only register clerk when I got in the line of five at her register. She was a young woman with a large flower in her hair above her right ear, her mouth in a smile, and pleasant manners when checking out the previous customers.
I mentioned how polite and awake she was when the most of the customers and workers alike looked to be half asleep. The young woman told me, “I work somewhere else too, and I worked hard and late last night. I didn’t get much sleep and I am very tired. When I woke up and started getting ready to come here, I had a choice of how I wanted to be today, and I chose to be happy.” I stood looking at her in awe as she checked me out with a smile. The amazing places we learn about life and how to live it!
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.
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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.