The Not my Job Syndrome.
How many times have we all come across this attitude? I can bet everyone who reads this has faced it at least once in his lifetime, and if I am not exaggerating, at least once everyone would have shown this attitude to others as well. Now, I am not a preacher of philosophy. But, I am firm believer in trying to give 100 percent in whatever I do. Even if that means I have to do things that are NOT MY JOB; and believe me this attitude has been highly rewarding so far. Off course not in monetary terms but it has made work life simpler for me. Let me explain it a bit with recent work life example.
While working on an recent assignment, I had to deal with few of the QA folks in North America. They needed my help in understanding how to do the initial configuration part of which was not included in my assignment. I could have easily said that it is not my Job, and nobody would have asked a question. I chose a different route. I not only helped them in setting it up, but also helped them understand some possible test cases. Those folks were so impressed that, since then whenever I needed even the slightest of help, they went out of the way to help me. For instance, once I was unable to reproduce a defect on dev environment. Immediately I asked the QA counterpart in NA and she helped me out getting the access to her environment (which I must say was not her Job), using which I was able to reproduce the defect and fix it. Similar thing happened when I worked with the QA folks in India. I helped them out whenever needed and they have reciprocated with the same enthusiasm always. See, how simple things are when you have a positive attitude and you are ready to go slightly out of your way to get others Job done. I have innumerable examples during my entire career that work life and personal life becomes a lot easy if you are ready to help someone. What goes around comes back around. Sounds familiar isn't it? Well, it is the truth of life.
It’s not easy to maintain this as there will be times when you are too busy with your own stuff. But at least you can pass on the person who needs help to someone who can help. Another important point is never do a spoon feeding when someone asks for help. Try to help him or her in such a way, that they would be able to do it on their own, if they want it done again. Even if you are yourself doing the stuff to help them out try to explain it. That way the person would get to learn something new and he would also get a sense of accomplishment. This attitude is very contagious. Just like the Not my Job attitude :). I can bet that the person whom you helped once would be more than happy to help you out if at all you need it.
The best things in life are free. Friends are at the top of that list. Every individual has some unique ability and every one should be given due respect, no matter who he or she is. So, one should never question the abilities of a person before helping him/her out. Life is very easy when lived with friends be it work life or personal life. The only way to make more friends is to get rid of the Not my Job syndrome. I had a very good real life experience to share about people going out of the way to help someone. 3 yrs back when I met with an accident in Mumbai, I was hurt very badly when two pedestrians helped me out and took me to the hospital. Off course that was NOT THEIR JOB. I would be grateful to them for my entire life even when I do not know their name and don’t know how they looked like. The helping attitude also has a spiritual aspect attached to it for those who believe in the Almighty. There are quite a few incidents in our life when we want to thank GOD. Well the best way to thank GOD is to help out any of HIS creations when they need it. So simple isn’t it?
How many of us will wait for the fire brigade when our own house is on fire and our own people caught in it? None, off course. So why then seeing a running tap from which water is being wasted we turn our back and think "This is not my Job"? All it takes is just a minute to close the running tap. Why do we want to wait for a time when there is shortage of water in our own house? I personally feel that this NOT MY JOB attitude can take us no where. I know that there will be people who would disagree and they would have their reasons for that. Help me out with your comments and your experiences on this topic (good or bad). Or would you still say NOT MY JOB? :) Choice is yours.
