There was a plump girl in the office. One day, while she was sitting, there was a cracking sound coming from beneath her. She was so frightened that she stood up to take a look. It turned out that the office chair had broken.
The chair was completely tilted forward and the stool board was raised. Several colleagues saw this and jokingly told her that she needed to lose some weight. The young girl looked embarrassed and neither smiled nor didn't smile. I shouted beside her: The stool is broken. It's the quality of the stool that's the problem! The clothes don't fit, it's the fault of the store! Throw out the problem! Everyone laughed and said that it was indeed reasonable.
On another occasion, early on Monday morning, my colleague A in charge of the department's affairs informed me that she had taken a day off due to illness. As is the usual practice, the weekly meeting is held on Monday afternoon. But last week, the minutes of the key meeting were still pending and had not been written out! (She always postpones it until Monday morning.) Our department was once scolded by the leader for not having the meeting minutes from the previous week when holding the weekly meeting!
Another colleague, B, who held a higher position than colleague A and was also in charge of the meetings, was very worried. She said, "Oh dear, where did A go last week? How come she couldn't even write a meeting summary for a whole week! Should I help her write it? If she can't do it, she'll be scolded by the leader at the meeting! Half-jokingly, she asked me, 'Sweetie, is it your turn to attend the meeting and report this week?' Anyway, since no meeting summary was provided, it's you who will be in an awkward situation then. So, I won't help her write the meeting summary."
I was a little annoyed upon hearing this and said to her: "Ask yourself in your heart, do you really want to write this meeting summary?" Colleague B replied, "I don't want to. I have to listen to the recording and then write it. It's very time-consuming." I said, "It's very simple. When I attend the meeting, I'll tell the leader that colleague A has taken a sick leave temporarily. We checked her computer but couldn't find the meeting summary from last week. We couldn't get in touch with her either. Next time, I'll remind her to send it out a little earlier - I believe the leader will just scold a few words. The meeting will still have to go on. Each department can report their own key tasks from last week by themselves. If you don't want to take over A's responsibility, don't pass the buck around!"
The colleagues around me also said, "Yes, if you don't want to do it, then don't force yourself to do it. Don't waste energy on it. This is mainly A's job."
As a result, the leader had an emergency on Monday afternoon and the meeting couldn't be held. At 19:00 that night, the leader sent a message to colleague A alone, saying: The regular meeting for the week will be held at 9 o'clock on Tuesday morning!
The next morning at 8 o'clock, colleague A arrived at the office early and quickly drafted the meeting minutes. Neither colleague B nor I had to put in any extra effort, and there was no awkward situation either.
I often feel that we have been conditioned to be overly prone to self-criticism. "Why are all the other kids not like this? It's just you who behaves this way." 。 Everything is always being reminded to "find the reasons within yourself". In fact, when a glass of milk spills, all the forces in the universe are pushing this glass to spill. The part that an individual can truly control is very little. People who habitually waste energy blaming others and looking for external causes! Don't immediately attack yourself!
Even at work, if it's something outside your job responsibilities, never try to take on the responsibility as a good Samaritan. Clearly separate the tasks. Otherwise, there will be a continuous stream of additional work "flowing in" later. There will always be a second time. The leader doesn't care who is in charge of the miscellaneous tasks throughout the process. As long as the results are properly delivered, the leader has no time to worry about such details.