Part 2:Doing a job vs completing a job: concept of professionalism and sincerity and how money clouds both.

When I went to pay the Electricity Bill in Trichy, there were four queues. I joined the first outer queue without giving any thought. Then I noticed the queue on the inner two queues moved swiftly and the outer queues did not move as fast as one would expect. The obvious inference anyone would make is that the persons at the desk serving the public are efficient in some counters and may be we joined the wrong queue.

But why should only the outer queues move slowly whereas the inner queues were otherwise. Chances! May be and they were not in this instance. The outer queues had constant disturbances with people getting in front by pushing themselves in. And also many people would simply give their cards and money to someone in the queue already to pay for them. Hence the person at the counter was doing as fast as the other counters but had too many transactions per person to handle.

Why I am elaborating this story so much? This is part two of my previous blog and completing a job. You can complete this job of paying the EB bill in many ways.

1. By properly standing in the queue: Be Sincere

2. You can squeeze in and pay the bill and be efficient in comparison to the one who is following the option 1. : Be Efficient

3. You can find ways to avoid the queue altogether, for example pay someone to pay for you and stand for you or log on to your account online and pay without a sweat, Be Professional.

Be efficient sounds good in option 2 but it is not acceptable to someone who stands in the queue sincerely. But be Professional sounds the best option since you find better way to do a job and acceptable and sounds right as well.

This brings me to the concept of Professionalism and Sincerity.

Though Sincerity sounds right in any thing you do, it may not be the efficient approach in competing a job. That is why Professionalism is much needed to combine sincerity and efficiency. This is why professionals score more and earn more for a given job. But you have to find professionals who show professionalism as opposed to efficiency by short cuts just like our example.

It can be difficult for anyone to differentiate the people who can complete the job efficiently as opposed to completing professionally. The latter approach may sometimes appear to take longer and costlier. I see more people who can complete a job without professionalism but efficently. In fact lots of jobs completed are done efficiently.

The efficient methods of following shortcuts are good if the outcome is for one off use or has a definite end point. For example paying an EB bill as above. But where it really hurts if the outcome has long term use. For example a building or a bridge. Here Efficiency has to give way for Professionalism. Because if you do not follow professionalism, then the lack of quality would show in the long run.

But you have to remember that everyone of us is a professional in what we do if we show professionalism.


Regards Chockalingam

Doing a job vs completing a job: concept of professionalism and sincerity and how money clouds both.

Doing a job is standard practice in almost all our life. Not doing a job is not uncommon in some employed areas. In other words, we do see some people who get paid but actually not doing the job they are meant to do. It can be upsetting to people who do work well and get paid the same money or salary.

But the above scenario is not as frustrating as when someone does not do the job to completeness. It is like trying to fix a broken hinge by a repair man. We do across some scenarios where someone comes to the job but finds that he does not have the necessary tools. he leaves the site without completing the job at hand saying that he would come another day to complete the job.

The above scenario happened at our house when we recently fitted a new air conditioner unit. When the unit was delivered and the installation team came to our house, the installation team asked me to get the electrical wiring sorted out and they will complete the job in one hour after the wiring is sorted. They had inspected the site of the fitting and marked where the holes had to be drilled.

We duly called our trusted electrician who finished the wiring straightaway and no sweats!. We called the AC team back again. They started making the hole, they realised that a more powerful drill is needed as the wall is too thick. We asked them to sort it out. Oops!! there is a problem. they do not know how to get a more powerful drill.

We asked them to contact their office. Oops they do not know either. Then we spent next two days making phone calls to our carpenter and other friends who have done AC installation in their house. At the end we called our electrician back again, he did the hole straightaway and no sweats!

But the AC installation team have wasted our time for good two days. Remember the time is our precious commodity if you have read my previous blog.

Now you begin to understand that doing a job is different to completing a job. But wait, not completing a job is not the worst thing and wastage of our time.

Because completing a job can be achieved with different methods.

Take the above domestic scenario for example. The electrician who helped us for the AC installation not only had to complete the hole which was started by the AC team, but also had to correct the errors the AC team had made when they attempted the job. Now we bring the concept of Professionalism and sincerity.

Please wait for my next blog when it all makes sense.