{"id":5277,"date":"2010-11-18T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5277"},"modified":"2010-11-13T14:07:48","modified_gmt":"2010-11-13T21:07:48","slug":"4-thai-ke-thyme-what-is-your-work-ethic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5277","title":{"rendered":"4). Thai..ke Thyme: What is your work ethic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Controlled<\/a>From my earlier blogs you will remember that we were in Bangkok and that I hadn\u2019t had great success with the tuk-tuk drive to who knows where. My sister and mom had decided to approach the situation differently.\u00a0I instead took to the streets on my trusty feet. I knew how to put one foot in front of the other \u2013 I was safe!<\/p>\n

I wondered up and down the Chinese market area, initially I did this very conservatively as I didn\u2019t want to lose myself (albeit on my own two feet). I went up and came back down. Finally I got more adventurous and branched to the left and right. You may be wondering why so conservatively \u2013 well it’s literally a rabbit\u2019s warren, small side alley\u2019s going this way and that with people working in the smallest of spaces and even scooters managing to traverse the really narrow alleys laden with goods.<\/p>\n

I allowed my mind to wonder and consider how it would be to work in such a very small space each day, to be doing what may be called repetitive and not hugely challenging work, not to mention the very long hours that the Thai people worked.<\/p>\n

I watched for a while and noticed that they were meticulous in their space, although it was small there was a very specific and designated order about this small space, it was clean and also the manner in which they worked \u2013 this was all very exact. I looked at the faces of these enterprising people, none of them looked disgruntled with their work load or with their \u201clot in life\u201d. They all were very intent on doing the very best that they could and making sure that the way they worked didn\u2019t impact negatively on their neighbour.<\/p>\n

I remembered the previous evening when my sister and I had left the hotel to go exploring while Ant read his Kindle and my mom had a soaking bath.<\/p>\n

We had wondered down the streets and spotted a fellow squeezing fresh lemon juice. Lauren decided that was precisely what she needed; fresh lemon juice. I was keen on fresh pomegranate juice, so we decided to indulge separately.\u00a0 She ordered and paid for her lemon juice. The proprietor carefully chose the lemons, cut them precisely and carefully squeezed the juice into a container. He then delicately poured this into the clean glass, wiping the glass rim after.<\/p>\n

Before handing it to Lauren he pointed to a table and indicated we should both sit. Although this was not a costly purchase, and only she had purchased from him – he provided us with two chairs. When we were seated he proudly put the fresh glass of juice in front of her waiting for her to take a sip and then asked \u201cgood<\/em>?\u201d and she nodded definitely so! Some beggars came past and asked for money. The proprietor gently but firmly shooed them away so that she could enjoy her juice in peace and quiet. All of this was done with precision and pride. While she sipped her juice he meticulously set about cleaning his juicer for the next customer.<\/p>\n

He was hugely proud of the service he was providing to his clients. He had not given us one chair; he had noticed she would enjoy her purchase much better if we were both seated. He also allowed us to do so in peace without being bothered by others who may take our focus away from the goods\/service he had provided.<\/p>\n

I thought back to this moment and considered how western people approach work. We are often irritated by working in small confines, about the menial and or dull or repetitive nature of our work or work environs. We like to have \u201cgrand tasks\u201d that challenge us, that we can be noticed and acknowledged for.<\/p>\n

If the work is not of great stature, we tend to look for short cuts to getting there \u201cquicker\u201d whilst wasting vast amounts of energy mumbling about the dullness of our work. The full ritual of what we need to do often tends to be compressed into a shorter version compromising the quality of the service that one may expect to get.<\/p>\n

Often we\u00a0work harder instead of smarter, we look frantic and busy to be called productive and busy \u2013 yet we take so little pride in what we have done as we often find ourselves running out of time or the deadlines just \u201cran away from us\u201d.<\/p>\n

Do we go the extra mile and provide the “extra chair?”<\/p>\n

Other times people engage their tasks in glazed doughnut mode, the look of someone \u201cnot quite present in the performing of their task\u201d. Their bodies are physically in one place but mentally they are in another, the vacant place to rent stare. Maybe it speaks to thinking one just can\u2019t have a bad day can you, if you are not fully engaged in the day as it is?<\/p>\n

Clients who land up with these types of service providers will look for service somewhere else. In today\u2019s world if you want to keep your clients, no matter what the job, it is essential for us to be fully engaged.<\/p>\n

As for our working ethic, it can often be described as being physically on site on premise. Are we always outcomes based focused considering delivering the best we can all the time? That work model is the ultimate prize. Tackle your work the right way, follow time honoured steps and methods, take the time to be meticulous, be proud no matter how small you may consider your contribution to be!\u00a0 And lastly, ensure that while you do this you are fully present and engaged to all that you need to be, there is nothing worse than dealing with someone who has the glazed doughnut approach to life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From my earlier blogs you will remember that we were in Bangkok and that I hadn\u2019t had great success with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1509,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,855,847],"tags":[872],"class_list":["post-5277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goals","category-priorities-2","category-pmbok-process-executing","category-self-leadership","tag-lessons-learnt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}