attitude

Attitude. So much of work is showing up with the right attitude. Either you want to be there or you don't want to be there. And it shows. At work, I decided long ago who wants to be there and who doesn't. To be honest, I would rather the people who don't want to be there not show up at all. In fact, it would be best if they quit right now instead of pretending to care and pretending to work. That way we won't even make plans assuming that they will come but instead know that they're going to be a never show. It would save the people who do want to be there the time and effort that it seems to continuously take to fix all the problems caused by the lack of desire from people who don't really want to work.

The lackadaisical effort turned in by the not-want-to-be-theres is huge drain on the morale of those who really are trying and do genuinely want to work. For starters, it drains morale because it takes even more effort to fix the mistakes of the others. Additionally, it makes some people who are generally good want to turn in similarly lackadaisical efforts because a couple louses are getting away with it. The result is bitterness about why some people get to suck and yet pay no consequence.

It's just best when people go ahead and quit before their dragging starts to drag everyone else down. One guy quit recently and I think any careful observers saw it coming. I can peg a couple other people as probable quit candidates. They tend to fit a certain type. They are relatively new hires so they don't have much seniority at stake in case they do quit. They also generally think that they're underpaid or talk about money a lot. And finally, they act as if they are better than the work they do. What I mean by that is they think the work is beneath them and that they could be doing something more dignified and more appropriate to their skill and experience and education level. Well, by all means, if that's the case, please go find yourself another job because I am certainly tired of all talk and no action.

The departure of the guy who quit recently puts me in the position of being the most senior field engineer at out district. There's no real significance beyond noting what that means for attrition and a couple other benchmark measures of my own.