How to Be a Grateful Bastard At Your Job and Get the Goods
Yes. Even if your job sucks, gratitude helps more than a sour face will
Photo/ Everett Collection/ Shutterstock
We’ve all met the ungrateful bastard at work. Maybe that’s your boss, co-worker, or customer. Do we love their lack of positives?
No. We do not love their ungrateful forays into our airspace. We want them to go. We like grateful people. Because we know they appreciate us.
“Don’t let the door hit you in the backside on your way out, you ungrateful bastard,” we think (or something like that, right?)
And yet, I used to be one of those ungrateful fools who refused to play the game.
Someone once told me, “I never kiss anyone’s arse. I’m here to make money, not friends.”
Unfortunately, I thought this dude was cool. So I took his words and ran with them.
My Ungrateful Attitude at Work Got Me Nowhere
The only one surprised at my lack of work success was me. But it took me years, a DECADE, to figure out that I was the problem, not the world.
What was I doing wrong?
I thought that work quality and perfectionism were what mattered, and I deserved recognition for these qualities first and foremost.
I imagined that networking and thinking about the needs of others was sucking up, weenie work, uncool.
I was an ungrateful bastard.
And I was always either on the layoff list or wasting my time doing dumb jobs.
Meanwhile, Others Bumped Up The Ladder Without Even Trying
Sometimes, I’d get into a conversation like this.
“Well, Jeff moved up to that lead position. Figures.”
“You’re right about that. He sure knows how to kiss ass.”
“Yup. It’s not who you know. It’s who you blow.”
I struggled for years, never making it anywhere. That was until I worked for a supervisor named Dwayne.
Watching this guy in action changed my life. Not right away. I didn’t understand what he was about at first. But it was impossible for me to ignore his results.
Dwayne seemed to have the touch. Everyone wanted to talk to him. That was because he was paying attention to them. He put the clients and his co-workers first. And he made people feel special. So, of course, they flocked to him like ducks to bread.
Dwayne remembered names and treated everyone well. He was happy to meet people and get the chance to know them. He made the whole experience about them. Dwayne memorized names and asked them about their families. He brought them free stuff from the cafeteria (it didn’t cost him a dime.) He spent his time doing little extra things like holding doors open or offering the guys a piece of gum. He asked our opinions on work steps.
Dwayne had a big smile when he saw you, showing you how much he appreciated your presence, no matter what was happening.
After a few weeks of this, when Dwayne entered the area, it was like the universe bent to his will. He got stuff done.
You might say, “Well, that’s all fine, but MY JOB is different. It wouldn’t help where I work.” And I get that. It doesn’t always seem like there’s a point to it, does it?
Where you sow your seed doesn’t have to be where you harvest your crop.
But let me tell you something about the terrible shithole where I met Dwayne. They cared nothing about us. We were unimportant to them. We were just numbers, and we could tell. Dwayne didn’t get ahead there. In fact, the management barely noticed how much extra money he was making them.
Our jobs were soul-sucking, menial, thankless, and dangerous. That particular industry didn’t have much going for it. Our possible daily hazards included explosions, poisonous gas exposure, and chemical burns. But we didn’t get extra money or danger pay. We were paid bottom dollar, and the turnover rate was high.
Dwayne didn’t care about that. While working there, he developed his people skills, made contacts, was grateful for the chance, and then moved on.
Afterward, he got fantastic, better-paying jobs. He used his experiences there to bootstrap himself into sales in a similar industry at a famous, worldwide company.
The last time I talked to Dwayne, he was working from home while tending to his tomatoes, utilizing all those skills and making the big bucks. He was literally doing work meetings from the greenhouse in his backyard and loving life. He told me how grateful he was for all the things that led him to that point.
You put gratitude out into the universe, and it pays you back.
Where you sow your seed doesn’t have to be where you harvest your crop.
How To Do It
This is what Dwayne did.
Because Dwayne greeted and treated us all every day in a personable and appreciative fashion, we were more engaged and did our best for him.
His grateful attitude rubbed off on others, making the workplace more positive and fun.
We tried not to let Dwayne down, so we gave a little extra. That meant projects got completed on time and with better quality.
The clients loved our work. Dwayne passed good feedback down to his team, and it became a feedback loop that helped all of us.
But How Gratituding at Work, Tho?
Do you want to give it a try in your life? It works in many environments.
No worries, even if you don’t immediately see positive results, rest assured that what goes around comes around.
Sometimes, you get the goods back from a different source later on. That’s how the Law of Attraction works, you know.
Try these:
Express Appreciation For Your Co-workers— simple things like a thank-you email, a sticky more with a smiley face, or a two-sentence “thank you” conversation make such a difference to the other person’s day.
Celebrate Team Achievements: When you hit a milestone, acknowledge it with the group.
When You Get Feedback: Positive or negative, thank people for their feedback. Show some gratitude for their insights shared. This appreciation for their opinion can change the dynamic entirely.
Learn about the people you work with, and show them some compassion. Everyone has a story. If you find out what they lived through to get to this point, you will see them in a different light. Maybe you’ll even be grateful for them.
Gratitude can be your secret weapon. It can create a more positive work environment even when you work in a dangerous place with possible poisonous gas leaks, like where I met Dwayne. Gratitude positions you as a professional with the values of collaboration and leadership. That’s what shot Dwayne to the top.
Have you seen gratitude pay off at work? Let me know about it!