"How's my driving?"
How many times have you seen a bumper sticker or small sign reading that on the back of a vehicle? You read it but do you ever make a note of the phone number that follows it? I do. And I use those numbers. I tell companies how their drivers are doing - unfortunately most times they're not doing so well.
There are just too many of you in the workforce right now with an "I could care less" attitude. Maybe it's because for your whole life, everything has just been handed to you or you hand it to your kids and expect it should also be handed to you. You think that the company owes you a car, or they owe you for you doing your job or you're entitled to bonuses because you're "special." (Maybe "special" in an Olympic sort of way).
I watch you taking advantage of your employer every day. You sit behind the wheel of a vehicle the company has provided you, you place your materials (brief case, brochures, tools, whatever you got as part of the job) on the seat beside you or on the floor, check the gas gauge of the vehicle to make sure you don't need more (which the company either pays for or reimburses you) then you put the vehicle in "Drive" and drive like an idiot - with the company logo all over everything around you. What's wrong with you? Millions of dollars spent advertising to customers that the company cares about them, and one time being an idiot behind the wheel, one time flipping the bird in traffic, one time making a flippant comment to a customer can undo millions of dollars in advertising and the years of honest and genuine effort from your co-workers.
I sure see more of an "entitlement" mentality today don't you? People think they deserve cars, and to have their expenses paid, and to be catered to and to have everything just handed to them. And when the company hands it all to them to make the job easier for them, they act like a jerk and a prima-donna as though there isn't supposed to be any "work" in going to work. Honestly, most small companies just try to make enough of a buck so they can keep their people around with a job everyday. And then those same people, some of you, go and treat your employers with disrespect because you figure you're owed what you're given. Just because the company gave you something once doesn't mean that they're required to keep giving it to you. Just because someone does something nice for you once doesn't mean you're entitled to have it that way all the time.
Corporations can have values and many do. Most of those values revolve around providing an excellent product at a fair price to solve a problem consumers have and make a profit at the same time. But then there are the jerks that think they are entitled to their jobs and everything that comes with it. It's no longer a privilege to have the job but a right. It's no longer a privilege to serve a customer but instead a customer's privilege to be served by you. It's no longer a privilege to be paid exceptionally well for your work but an expectation. If that's you in any way, then listen up: when the attitude of entitlement runs through the heart of an employee, it's time someone gets a "Gratitude Adjustment."
Gratitude should be not just a personal value, but a corporate value as well. You'd better own that value.
