Most of us don’t start off jaded. Most of us go into the workforce with optimism and enthusiasm.
What was your tipping point?
Mine was about 15 years ago. I went on a requirements gathering trip with my boss, one of the company owners. This may come across as small potatoes vs other professions’ demands but this did it for me.
It was a short flight from London to Antwerp. My first time on a small propeller plane as opposed to a jet. I had journeyed to London and arrived at my hotel just after midnight, I got up at 5am to catch the flight in the morning. Once in Antwerp, we never left the airport. It was an intense 12 hours of requirements gathering and analysis across a heap of meetings.
My head was pounding as we took off for (the now defunct) London airport. It was made worse by the flight back. Prop planes are noisy.
We get on the tube. I’m going to Paddington and I’m about to take a 3 hour journey home from there. He pulls out his laptop and his DVD drive accidentally springs open revealing a disc with The Wire on it. He waxes lyrical about how good it is and I feel myself relaxing as his whole demeanour slips from professional to normal. He then abruptly stops and starts telling me the work he wants me to do on the train ride home.
That was it. I felt spent but kinda proud of the shift I’d put in. I felt like I’d gone above and beyond but that it was unspoken and understood.
Not a bit of it. He simply wanted more. I was a fool. All I’d done was given him a taste of how far I could be pushed and he wanted more.
Any time I’ve ever gone above and beyond since is because it was a task I was enjoying. I’ve never done it for free either.