The DIFFERENCE BTW "JUST DOING YOUR JOB" VERSUS "BEING A JERK"
All of us who have had jobs with specific requirements know that there are things that must be done every time. There's rules & policies that require us to do these things, but also these rules & policies have a higher purpose (hopefully). Knowing the purpose no matter how much you would rather not use your brain & simply go thru the motions, is important, & actually required. Yet u will find those workers who will routinely insist that they are "just doing their job" when enforcing a rule that, in fact, they do have some leeway to work around, as needed, in order to preserve the higher purpose of the rule.
When I worked as a substitute teacher we had attendance requirements..and had to do it for each class on a computer that was connected to the attendance office. The higher purpose of the rule was to keep track of who was or was not there for a variety of reasons. It was important to try to truly keep track of absences & tardies but I also had the leeway to ignore a tardy if I felt it was necessary or simply if I did not have the time to log back in later on to update the attendance because keeping the class going and growing was more important than keeping track of tardies.
Today I'm thinking of my experience at the Tonight Show. I had gotten a standby ticket at 8am...and returned at 2pm. I waited patiently in line and went thru tthe process, final handing my standby ticket to the guy and he told me where to go. A few seconds later, however, they were waving me back and the guy said my ticket was from April.
In my haste I had grabbed an old standby ticket that I hadn't used last month. But what added insult to injury, when I tried to explain he acted as f I was a con man, trying to slip him a counterfeit dollar or something. It was insulting and it was in front of the crowd, some who were a little too self-righteous. So I stopped trying to explain and walked out & got the other ticket & returned.
But the guy showed no class in trying to help me "save face." He said "Great, stand over there" in a monotone voice. He did not offer to put me back up in front where I would have been had I not grabbed the wrong ticket. I thought it was dirty and lacked class (not to mentioned grace & mercy).
