3 FUN ACTIVITIES - in triplicate!

Following is my short list of 3 types of employee actions used on the job,


LEAST DAMAGING: INACTIVE

SMALL RISK OF DAMAGE: PRO-ACTIVE

MOST DAMAGING: ACTIVE

You may be thinking: "Huh? We have heard of being inactive and proactive, but tell us how being active on the job is wrong.". I learned today, that by actively "picking up the ball" without first "recognizing the ball type" and "knowing which game is to be played with that ball" and "knowing the rules of that game" can have potentially adverse consequences.

Now we have another short triple list of:

BALL TYPE

GAME TYPE

GAME RULES

WE learn the Ball Type in High School, the Game name in College, and the real "game rules" hopefully in on the job training sessions (hence un-paid internships!). Assuming that we have those three components learned well, then we can perhaps envision that being just plain Active for the sake of looking good to the boss, colleagues, family (or even, altruistically, to one's self - as in my case today) is just plain wrong.

In other words, it feels good just to be active - rather than standing around doing nothing - if for no other reason than the relatively minor physical workout, but rarely does any good come of it. A good example at most jobs in small to medium sized companies is the "wrong package delivery" - this one seems to have everyone in an office area overly concerned for usually no good reason - other than curiosity, which as small children we learn is not always a bad thing, when we take precautions. The errant package thing happened to me today. While casually talking to a co-worker, the coworker mentioned that there was a box in the conference room with t delivery label on it indicating it may have been misdelivered. "Ooh", I thought - and I did actually think, "Oooh", I'm not "doing" anything right now - just standing around and talking about work - I extrapolated, "I'll just make the conscious effort and move this box to its rightful area" How thrilling to me. But, before I do this Samaritan deed, I stop to ask at least one other person from our area as to the packages relevancy. That coworker said, "Oh no, that box is actually [for our area]", well! I was no longer fooled by our first coworkers' curiosity. The damage possible although would have been minimal - just me running back and forth all over looking for the damned box, as I could have accidentally delivered it to someone else who might not have known its true origin or destination. Conceivably, I could have wasted up to 2 hours for one box, but using my proactive nature, I turned that 2 hours into 2 minutes, thereby saving two hours and fifty-eight minutes of the future. I this were to happen to an engineer at NASA, that 2 hours would have been better spent calling a head-hunter!

Being Proactive is when you know what you are doing, how to do it (because of excellent training and your job duties demand it *, and you do it when the time is right and other precursors and dependent jobs have been properly completed (out of breath now, must get water...).

And then there is Inactive. That lone statement is its own proof of the ineffectiveness of inactivity - neither good for mind nor body.

So, to sum up: Know the game and its rules, and above all: "BE THE BALL, Danny, Be The Ball."

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* such as when NASA engineers are given "free reign" in solving a problem when not on Mission Time; Mission Time being as like now during ISS. Only in emergencies would one consider brainstorming, as brainstorming has its proper place and time.