Pete Hanson’s Daily Blog: It’s Not My Job

I stopped in at my office yesterday afternoon to use the bathroom. I was running errands, and needed a little pit-stop. There’s only one stall in our men’s room, so choosing one wasn’t difficult. I walked in, closed the door, and bam…no toilet paper on the roll. There were however two new rolls sitting on top of the toilet. Apparently the last occupant felt as though it was my job to change the roll. Who does that? (I’m afraid of the answer.)

And therein lies my biggest pet peeve, and a whole lot of what’s wrong with the world. I call it the It’s-someone-else’s-job-to-do-what-I-easily-could-have-done-syndrome. (Closely related to the better known, It’s-someone-elses’s-job-to-pick-up-after-me-itis, and the It’s-someone-elses’s-responsibility-to-finish-the-job-I-started-disease.) Seriously, it’s time to stop.

I have a hard time imagining a situation where is it is someone else’s responsibility to clean up after me. I was emptying the kitchen trash a while ago, when I was questioned by a co-worker why I was doing it. (Implying that we have cleaning people for that task.) I replied, “Because it’s full.” Are you kidding me?

Starting today, let’s pledge to do ONE thing every day that is NOT “our job.” Don’t need to spend a lot of time on it. Just commit to one thing, and do it. Do a co-worker’s least favorite task, pick up a piece of trash on the side of the road, push a shopping cart back into the store, or whatever (I know, I have really gone off the deep end). Just make sure you do one thing every day.

Here’s the sad (and fun) part, and the reason I don’t really want to know the answer to my question at the top of the page. People will think you are strange for doing these kind of things. Go out of your way to stop and pick up a plastic cup blowing down Main Street, and your friends will wonder what’s wrong with you. Spend fifteen minutes picking up a bunch of random dog poop in the park, and your neighbors will think you’ve lost your mind.

Now go be all crazy and stuff.