Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

There are many almost insurmountable jobs out there. Are any of them, however, your job?

I my current search for employment, I talk to people here and there about jobs. Several of the people I have met describe their jobs as the most impossible in the universe. The jobs they describe are truly daunting, yet I have one question for them:

But is that your job?

Let me try to illustrate this with a conversation I have heard:

Mr. A: Gosh, we have so much work to do. We’ll never get it done.

Mr. B: Really?

Mr. A: Yes, our customers are killers. If we don’t do everything they want, why, they’ll, well, you don’t want to know what they’ll do.

Mr. B: What does your contract require you to do for the customer?

Mr. A: The what?

Mr. B: The contract. You have a contract with your customer. What does it require you to do?

Mr. A: Contract? Contract!? You don’t understand our customer.

Mr. B: What does your contract require you to do for the customer? There is a contract. Let’s read it and see what we have to do.

…the two look at the contract and find a list of 12 things do to…

Mr. B: Well, only 12 things to do. Can you do them?

Mr. A: Sure, but, you don’t understand. Our customer wants us to do a lot more than that.

Mr. B: We should do what the contract requires. It was agreed to by us and the customer. It is their wishes.

…end of conversation

Of course this is a simple situation. Of course we can find lots of things our customer wants us to do that is not in the contract. Of course we can find lots of things on planet earth that should be done. Of course many of those things are practically impossible. Of course we can try to do them…

But is that your job?