You are fired: Having the right work attitude

4:08am

Here I am trying to kill this annoying fly without hitting my laptop screen…

Well, as annoying as this fly gets it isn’t the purpose of this article. Getting to the matter at hand –

Do you feel that you are irreplaceable?

I guess you are quick to say Yes, I am unique, I bring something different to the table, I know my worth. If your answer was No, then I am happy for you, you might as well have a good working attitude.

If you were quick to give an answer to the question and it was yes, maybe you read wrong and thought I asked: “Are you unique/are you irreplaceable?” The question was –  Do you feel you are irreplaceable?

There is a huge difference between feeling irreplaceable and being irreplaceable. You must understand that a whole lot of people are doing the same thing that you do. I blog for instance and the statistics of blogging are shocking. Over ten thousands of post are put up daily. With millions of active blogs (The statistics are ever growing – it’s the internet). I hope you can now realize that we have a lot of people that do the same thing that we do.

Can your answer still be a yes to that question?

Are you irreplaceable?

Seems like a better question to ask right?

Despite the statistics in your field, there are some individuals you would love to work with again or at least be friends with them because you enjoyed working for/with them. I have had to work with a whole lot of people (*maybe not so much), allow me to categorize their “work attitude” as the good, the bad and the ugly. Guess the category of the people I won’t be calling back to work with me – the ones that feel they can’t be replaced, that’s right. For me, their  “work attitude” falls under the ugly category.

Oftentimes when I am asked to recommend people in certain areas. I often end up recommending someone you can have a workable relationship with. I don’t want to recommend someone I know will dupe you because my name goes along with each recommendation. I don’t want people to think that I share the same work ethics with him/her.

I do not bother to recommend people that have the “I am irreplaceable” attitude. Don’t forget Saul was replaced by David! So yes you can be replaced. This has nothing to do with knowing your worth as a person or knowing that you offer good services.

In certain instances, it’s not about been the best/over qualified (which I highly recommend) at your workplace or at what you do, which you should strive to be. People often choose to work with teachable/workable people or people who may not have all the knowledge (*you can’t have all the knowledge of course) but have the willingness for self-development.

There are a lot of individuals with great work but the bad attitude that never gets to be seen or heard, so we conclude that the ones we see are the best but they only got to be seen by having the right attitude.

Individuals who have an attitude but are good at the job may be considered as an option but it stops there.  Remember how the saying that “Hard work may take you there but attitude keeps you there” (I hope I haven’t remixed that statement but you get what I mean). Well yes, you do need attitude. Just one referral can set your career rolling.

I realized after listening to one of Jasmine Star’s speech (A top wedding photographer) that people hire you sometimes based on your personality and not what you do. This statement may not necessarily apply every time for a corporate job but I think it is something to be considered – I’ll site a perfect scenario;

Two extremely good individuals go for an interview and the employer notices these two individuals but all the while in his mind he is asking himself who can I work with?

The first individual answers with a boisterous “I too know attitude (also known as ITK)”  and an attitude that says I am the best candidate you will ever have. Whilst that may be true you can do well to keep your attitude to yourself while the second gives his answers confidently.

Many at times the employer goes for the second individual and if they go for the first individual, such an individual ends up being “fired” because he has no work attitude (such people usually lack team spirit).

Am I saying go about pretending to have a great attitude? No! Why not work on that attitude now that you have the chance to (it’s never too late to start but it’s also never too early). We all have something we need to work on. Not accepting you have an attitude is exactly where the challenge lies. Don’t keep saying “People don’t just understand you” if you have issues with 90 percent of the people you work with then maybe it’s time to start looking inwards.

One of the work attitudes you should kick out fast is the “I am irreplaceable” attitude. I know of a man who was seemingly very good at his job, he decided he wasn’t in the right position and also wanted a pay rise and he thought to himself “They can’t do without me here” and decided to “fire” his employer. He thought by his action he would be begged/celebrated with a promotion or increase in pay but to his utmost surprise, his resignation letter was well received with a farewell party organized on his behalf. He never expected it.

Having an “I am irreplaceable attitude” can be presumed to be pride as opposed to exhuming a confident work attitude. These are two extremely different attitudes to have and trust me the difference between the individuals that have this attitude are incomparable.

People will be always going for the individual with confidence. I have seen people who have been in organizations longer than the founder (pun intended)  but aren’t promoted simply because of their attitude. The employers say “We need this individual but let’s contain him/her at this level, we don’t need his/her kind of attitude up there”.

Having the right work attitude cannot be overemphasized. Building up qualities/skills that make you valuable/irreplaceable in the office is important. This is totally different from having the “I’m irreplaceable” mindset. Having the “I/Me” factor is ideally not needed in the workplace.

What can you replace “I am irreplaceable attitude” with? The attitude of I am irreplaceable can be replaced with “Self-development”. This entails you being better than you were yesterday in the different areas of your life and then let people have the “this guy/lady can’t be replaced” feeling on your behalf.

There are other workplace attitudes that limit individuals but this is amongst one of the gravest. Wondering why you are not getting referrals or why you have just been fired you may want to think of work on that attitude!

Disclaimer: I know a lot of people that have put up bad work attitude and have hurt me in the workplace but this is not targeted at you, so feel free to return back and read “Mercy’s Corner” again because this really wasn’t about you. Your secret is safe with me. I believe we are all a work in progress and we are definitely getting better.

Please leave your comments they ginger me to write more. Also, refer my article to others by hitting the share button below.