The Weight of Obligation?

 
Life is not fair, so why do we all live so close to fairness?

Yesterday, I read an article about an infant that died in her car seat when she slumped over and suffocated because she was not strong enough to pick up her head. She didn’t get a fair chance. What a terrible thing to happen to the child, the child’s family and the care taker.

We all have been treated unfairly. Injustice is everywhere, and the world seems upside down at times. What was good has become bad and what was bad has become acceptable.

We all live so very close to fairness and it’s easy to receive based on what is fair. However, receiving based upon what is fair starts a cycle of obligation, resentment, toxic attitudes, emptiness and eventually it can even collapse the relationship.

Recently, a good client called me and needed some advice. An employee left his pay stub in his truck and another person saw it and perceived that he was underpaid. In other words, it was not fair. This installer thought that he was being treated unfairly.

Then the triangulation started (gossip) and the whole team was affected by the negativity. One individual was extremely resentful because that’s what happens when you receive your job based on fairness and you perceive yourself being treated unfairly.

Fairness is simply the measurement of what you think you deserve from or owe another person. The flaw with this thinking is that we all have different thoughts about what is fair.

A different way to think about receiving is to receive and give freely. Receive a job freely without obligation, but with responsibility to perform that job with gratitude. You did not earn the job. The boss chose to give it to you freely. I understand that you agreed to work for an hourly rate or salary, but he chose to give you the job freely. You did not take it from him. He gave it to you. And with an attitude of humility, learn and grow and add value to the team which will lead to contentment and more money.

Give more than you are paid. Work harder than they expect. Go the extra mile without expecting anything back. The universe will give it back. This is the law of the farm. You reap what you sow.

If you have a problem with bad attitudes in you culture, watch this 30 minute video and then bookmark it and show it to your team.

Be Blessed.

Roger