Doormats and being part of something bigger

I met a man a while ago who delivers doormats from public places to washing. I had a chat with him and he seemed so content with his life. He said that some days he finishes few hours early and got a short day, go to gym and then to beach with his mates. He felt that he had great balance in life and comfortable job, driving around, listening to audiobooks or good music. He was his own master in a way.

I started to think about that journey. Our society is a well-oiled machine and each of us have our little part as gears in that machine. There are so many little things we never pay attention. But we should.

Someone – maybe a cleaner – puts clean mats into their place. After few days or a week of use they are collected by a cleaner and thrown into a bag. On certain day, a person from one company comes with a bag full of clean doormats and takes the bag with dirty doormats and transfers it into his truck. He delivers all the bags with dirty mats from different places into a cleaner company that is specialized to clean doormats. A person from that company takes the mats and delivers them to the team who washes the mats. The team brings clean mats into a warehouse, where another person packs them into bags and gives them to the delivery man.

This is a true story, and you might want to think about it for a second.

This is just one little, tiny, puny part of our everyday lives. We probably never pay attention to the doormats in any place, but if they were missing, we might notice. We just take it for granted.

We seldom think that there is a well-oiled machinery of professionals who do their parts to make sure that the public places stay cleaner because doormats protect places from lots of dirt.

I often hear professionals complain that they do boring job. Many go on and on how the tasks are boring, salary is not so great and they are wasting their time. But they are probably a part of a much bigger picture, picture that keeps together today’s society, ensures we have pretty good life.

When we do our work, most of us are gears (smaller or larger) in a well-oiled machine that keeps our society running. We can be scientists, lawyers, doctors, cleaners or doormat delivery men who all have important role in the intricate network.

Sometimes we hear how important one person can be, like a week ago when a signaller called in sick just before their shift would have started in Sydney. This caused a massive chaos in public transport that took hours and hours before it returned to normal. Most of the time we do not hear that.

Next time you feel like complaining how your job is boring and not at all meaningful or important, think of the doormat guy. Could you change your perception towards your job? Could you find the bigger picture and be proud of being part of something greater? Could you start being proud of your contribution?

One easy way to change your attitude is to think that you are always evolving being. Every task you do has an opportunity to teach you something. If you can improve how you do this task, do it. Do the task as well as you can.

And it will be noticed.

Even if you do not think of advancing your career, it might happen. There are always people who notice that you are doing a great job. If you do even the most mundane jobs with gusto and try to excel – even if you feel it is boring – you get the sense of satisfaction and become happier at work.

And it might lead to promotion.

On the other hand, others always notice if someone is doing the bare minimum and is not happy with their tasks. And when they want to change jobs, they will seldom get excellent references.

Most of our work is dull, boring and menial. When I did lab work, experiments might have takes days or weeks and were not exciting. However, one day when all the data was collected together, analysed and reported, it led to a great achievement; a publication, thesis or successful grant application.

It is worth to do the boring bits well and with enthusiasm. The reward will be there.

This was also the case with the doormat delivery man. His positive attitude and relentless work ethic was noticed and he got promoted, without him even trying to do anything. Now he is a team leader of other doormat delivery men. He would have been happy in his prior job as well, but he did not refuse promotion. He does his current job with the same mentality and he is doing a great job.

Think today how you could turn your boring work tasks into exciting work tasks that you do every day with positivity and with pride. Knowing that you are part of bigger picture and if your bit works well, it leads to something positive.