Never Too Good to Dig a Hole

Photo by Steve.Wilson

I once worked with a flash designer who created a site, but refused to develop the ad media that was going to promote that site because it was a “waste of (his) time”. Another former colleague didn’t want to do anything junior because she had “already worked there a year”. Their point-of-view was that once you are regularly doing certain tasks in your job, doing more junior tasks should be assigned to more junior people.

I tend approach work with a different philosophy.

If you have a certain skill and that skill is needed, using it (even if it’s not part of your regular duties) shows that you’re willing to help out in a crunch and that you have a range of valuable skills. Refusing to help when you can could have the opposite effect.

Take a company like FreshBooks who believe that customer service is core to their philosophy. As such, everyone works on basic tech support, even the principles of the company. A company’s mandate can turn a “junior” task into one so important that everyone needs to participate in it.

There’s nothing wrong about a renowned graphic artist laying out a business card. There’s nothing wrong about an Executive Producer responding directly to a question about his TV show on Facebook (true story). And there’s nothing wrong when a landscape architect gets her hands dirty digging a hole in the dirt to lay the foundation of a new project.

In fact, I’d say there’s everything right about keeping your most basic skills polished and helping where help is needed.