Average work is work that comes after someone says:
- It’s always been done that way
- The boss wants it like that
- It’s good enough
- I don’t have the time to…
- I guess it can be done that way
- I’ll just do it quickly
- Someone else will do it
No one wakes up in the morning hoping to do average work. Most people want to do a great job – no matter what that job is. Whether you’re a factory worker, a teacher, a student, a doctor or an office worker; we all want to do good. But somehow, average work happens.
Why do we do average work?
Average work is work that is OK. It’s work that’s good enough for everyone and doesn’t really stand out. It’s not that people want to do OK work. It might be that the Manager tells them to do OK work. The Manager tells them to do OK work because the VP expects normal results. The VP expects normal results because the CEO doesn’t want to be remembered for the bad performance of the company. The scenario may vary, but that’s the gist of it.
As average work creeps up on us, the challenge is to not let it happen unless you want to be remembered for the bad performances.
(Photo credit: Timothy Tolle)
