The Best Work Habits

1. Being on time 2. Showing up at all. Again, to experienced workers these were too obvious to be mentioned. But to our clients, this was a lot of fuss about nothing. So we began by explaining that the reason for most jobs was that the employers really needed the workers they hired. If their workers did not show up on time, someone else had to fill in for them until they came. That person could not do his or her job while they did that, so their job went undone. Or it might mean the business could not open on time. Either one could mean that customers would be unhappy, business would be lost, the business would make less money, then there would be less to pay workers and therefore, fewer jobs. Sooner or later, all that would cause the habitually tardy worker to be fired. As for simply showing up - if they did not show up at all, someone would have to take their place all day. Or the client's job would simply go undone. And the business really needed that job to be done, or they would not be paying someone just to do it. Maybe the client's absence would be an excused absence. Still, if there were too many absences, excused or not, the client would eventually lose the job. That is because the business really needed someone to be there, doing that job. So the first two rules, the rules above all others were: don't be absent and don't be late. Don't be absent and don't be late. The next rule was: 3. Do what you are told. One day at the family shelter, I was asked to deal with a client. When I entered my office, the tall, lanky 17 year old was sprawled in a chair. "Joe," I asked him, "Why did you quit that job we helped you get?" With an angry look on his face, he sat up straight and said, "That man was always tryin' to tell me what to do!" It was an article of faith with many of our clients that no one was supposed to tell them what to do. That made it pretty hard to supervise them! No boss will keep such an employee around long. The next minimal rule was: 4. Dress appropriately for the job. Our clients had problems with this. It was not that they did not have clothing appropriate for work; we saw to it that they did. It was that many rebelled against wearing ordinary business attire. In fact, one client who did not really like to work would use this to get fired. After five or six days on a new job, he would go to work with about six earings in one nostril. If that did not succeed in getting him fired, he would pick a fight or something, until they fired him. Then he would tell us, "See, no one wants me to work for them." The next minimal rule was: 5. Do not insult people. Most of our clients had been on welfare, many all their lives. Many developed a habit some wealthy people have, which is saying anything they want, to anybody, anywhere, any time. Since what they say will not affect their income, they can indulge themselves freely. Many became loud, rude and insulting most of the time. Naturally, if they insulted customers or fellow workers on the job, the boss would start losing customers and workers. So they would be fired pretty quickly. The final rule for being a minimally acceptable worker was: 6. Be clean. Be clean yourself and wear clean clothes. Keep your work area clean. Do not litter! Do not make a mess anywhere at work. If you do, clean it up right away. Not job training, but just learning and habitually using these few work habits were the first step in changing from non-student to student in job training, and from unemployed to employed. With a little luck, these simple steps helped a client to succeed as a student in job training. It also helped the client survive in that first, entry-level job while these minimal work requirements become ingrained work habits. Then the client would be ready to move up from a minimally acceptable, not fired-yet employee to an adequate employee. That is an employee who has adopted some additional work habits. Through time, and through an additional charity, we learned that the next group of work habits starts with: 7. Be reliable. If you say you will do something, do it. Be where you are supposed to be, doing what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it. Your boss should be able to count on that. Then the boss will come to think of you as reliable. That can help you keep your job, even when there are lay-offs. In fact, you could even get promoted. 8. Be industrious. Do not hide. Do not goof off. Do not act busy while trying not to work. Do not use work time to take care of your personal business. Work all the time you are at your job. Try to always do a good job. Your boss will notice. It will make a difference in your job security and your pay. 9. Have a good attitude. That means be cooperative. Cooperate with your boss and your co-workers. It also means be cheerful, not grumpy and grouchy. Also, it means to be positive about things, not negative and always complaining or expecting the worst. You will be surprised at the difference it makes. 10. Be courteous. At the very least, have good manners. Say "please" and "thank you" and "may I help you?" and "Excuse me." Show respect for other people. Wait for your turn; don't push in ahead. Be pleasant, whether you feel like it or not. Do not forget to smile at people. All of this is what is meant by "common courtesy." It is also called "being a professional." You will not move up very far without it. 11. Be neat and orderly. This is more than being clean. A person can be clean but messy. Being neat and orderly means having a place for everything and keeping everything in its place. It means not letting papers or things stack up in piles. It means not only keeping your work area clean, but keeping the things in it neatly arranged. You can work faster and better that way. And your boss will have a higher opinion of you as a worker. An adequate employee is one who is not at risk of being fired and who is doing acceptable work. But the point is to reach the level of becoming a valued employee. These are the ones who are least likely to be laid off and the most likely to be promoted. To reach this more secure and prosperous level, some additional work habits are needed. These include: 12. Being gracious. This goes beyond being courleous. It means showing deep respect for others. It means making people feel welcome. It means being glad to be able to help them. It means showing real concern for others. It means not always insisting on your own way, listening to what others have to say, ignoring slights and overlooking petty offenses. We can sometimes act courteous without feeling courteous, and we should. But it is harder to be gracious without feeling gracious. True graciousness is a habit that must be worked at awhile before you truly feel it. But it will be one of the best assets to your career that you can have. It will also make you a better person, with a better life. 13, Great dependability. Your word should be your bond. If you say you will do something, everyone who works with you should know that you absolutely will do it, because you will have shown that you will, over and over. Your boss should be able to count on your being there, on time, doing what you are supposed to do, and doing it well. 14. Honesty Your boss should have learned that you can be trusted never to steal, even small things. That you do not cheat. That you do not say you have worked more hours than you have. That you do not just pretend to do your job. Your boss should have learned that you can be trusted with cash. In fact, that you can be trusted with the entire bank deposit. That you can be trusted to open up the place of business and close it. That you can be trusted with the keys to the place. Workers who prove, over and over, that they can be trusted this much will be valued by their bosses almost more than any other employee. 15. Truthfulness This may seem small, but it can be big. Trust has a lot to do with never being lied to. If you do not ever lie to your boss, it will cause uncomfortable situations for you sometimes. But over time, you will gain much trust, and much respect, from always telling the truth. Truthfulness will cause your boss to appreciate, trust and value you. So will everyone else who knows you. 16. Loyalty You should be loyal to your boss. Your boss has given you a job. Your boss makes it possible for you and your co-workers to make a living. To do this, your boss has to work harder and take more responsibility than just about anyone else there. Your boss takes big risks, worries hard and sacrifices a lot to keep that business going. If there were no bosses, there would be no businesses and no jobs. You owe a lot to your boss. The best way to show your appreciation is through loyalty. For one thing, loyalty means making your boss look good. It means not giving your boss bad publicity, inside or outside the business. It also means treating the boss's business as if it were your own business. It means looking out for the whole business as if it belonged to you. It means watching out for it, protecting it, helping it succeed and promoting it. It also means looking out for your boss, watching out for the boss's interests. it means understanding that bosses are not perfect, and allowing for that. And it means appreciating the good things about the boss. If you are a truly loyal employee, there is no way you can keep from getting promoted. Your boss will insist on it. 17. Not being a resentful person. This one can take a lot of work, for a long time. But it will help you, not only to be more prosperous, but also to have better physical and emotional health. When people hang on to resentment, it can actually make them have various illnesses, such as ulcers and high blood pressure. It can give us a sour, bitter attitude. It can make us always angry, always with a chip on our shoulder. It is almost certain to make us a worse employee, which can keep us from being prosperous. A resentful person can have a lot of trouble being gracious, or even courteous. Resentful people may feel cheated, so they feel it is fine to cheat others. They may feel unfairly treated, so they may feel justified in treating others unfairly. They may feel taken advantage of, so they may feel justified in taking advantage of customers, co-workers, the boss or the company. Any of these things will get in the way of getting ahead in the work world. They can make it hard to get up and out of poverty. Even when we feel we have every right to feel resentful, it is best to let it go. Resentment hurts us more than it hurts anyone else! It never made anybody happy yet. 18. Being well-organized. Being neat and orderly is more than just being clean. In the same way, being well-organized is more than just being neat and orderly. Being well organized means ordering how we use our time, planning ahead and being self-disciplined. Planning ahead means setting goals for ourselves, planning how we are going to reach them, then working out long-range and daily plans to reach them. It also means putting these plans into writing. That usually involves using some type of daily list or notebook or day planner. Getting ahead at work, getting promotions and moving up, will mean taking on more leadership responsibilities. It is hard to lead well without being well organized. This means planning ahead. It means having the self-discipline to carry out the plans we make. It takes awhile to learn to be well organized. So the best time to start is when we first start to work. Then by the time we have earned a position of leadership, we will already have developed the work habit of being well organized. These work habits are basic to success in the work world. They are not all developed at once, of course. But it is good to teach new clients about all of them at first, anyhow, at least in an introductory way. That way, at least they see what will be involved in working for success. But after such an introduction, the workers need to focus the clients on the first group. Most of them may struggle just to achieve that much. Many of them may have to go through more one job, and more than one firing, just to master the first set of good work habits. Then as the training continues, the more advanced work habits are emphasized. One of the reasons the training should continue for at least a few months after the client finds a job is to help the client develop as many of these good work habits as possible. At the LIFT Project, we taught these concepts from the Bible. That way, the clients not only understood them better, but also had less trouble accepting them as the right way to go. (The great majority of poor people have no objection to religion. There are very few atheists among them. They believe what Christians believe, and accept the Bible as authoritative. They just have somewhat more difficulty in practicing what they believe.) It may seem odd, but when clients were asked what help they needed to get ahead, they never mentioned good work habits. They often mentioned childcare, transportation and job skills. But they did not know they lacked good work habits, much less what they were. That is why any good program to help the poor needs to go beyond just those things the clients already know they need. That is one of the main reasons to base programs on experience rather than just on ideas and opinions.