Working hard at being incompetent
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| Image: All Rights Reserved, |
| Philadelphia: Quirk Books |
| c2011 |
I spent the last afternoon of Before constructing a 1/10,000-scale replica of the Empire State Building from boxes of adult diapers. It was a thing of beauty, really, spanning five feet at its base and towering above the cosmetics aisle, with jumbos for the foundation, lites for the observation deck, and meticulously stacked trial sizes for its iconic spire. It was almost perfect, minus one crucial detail.
“You used Neverleak,” Shelley said, eyeing my craftsmanship with a skeptical frown. “The sale’s on Stay-Tite.” Shelley was the store manager, and her slumped shoulders and dour expression were as much a part of her uniform as the blue polo shirts we all had to wear.
“I thought you said Neverleak,” I said, because she had.
“Stay-Tite,” she insisted, shaking her head regretfully, as if my tower were a crippled racehorse and she was the bearer of the pearl-handled pistol. There was a brief but awkward silence in which she continued to shake her head and shift her eyes from me to the tower and back to me again. I stared at her, as if completely failing to grasp what she was passive-aggressively implying.
“Ohhhhhh,” I said finally. “You mean you want me to do it over?”
“It’s just that you used Neverleak,” she repeated.
“No problem. I’ll get started right away.” With the toe of my regulation black sneaker I nudged a single box from the tower’s foundation. In an instant the whole magnificent structure was cascading down around us, sending a tidal wave of diapers crashing across the floor, boxes caroming off the legs of startled customers, skidding as far as the automatic door, which slid open, letting in a rush of August heat.
Shelley’s face turned the color of ripe pomegranate. She should’ve fired me on the spot, but I knew I’d never be so lucky. I’d been trying to get fired from Smart Aid all summer, and it had proved next to impossible. I came in late, repeatedly and with the flimsiest of excuses; made shockingly incorrect change; even misshelved things on purpose, stocking lotions among laxatives and birth control with baby shampoo. Rarely had I worked so hard at anything, and yet no matter how incompetent I pretended to be, Shelley stubbornly kept me on the payroll.
Let me qualify my previous statement: It was next to impossible for me to get fired from Smart Aid. Any other employee would’ve been out the door a dozen minor infractions ago. It was my first lesson in politics. There are three Smart Aids in Englewood, the small, somnolent beach town where I live. There are twenty-seven in Sarasota County, and one hundred and fifteen in all of Florida, spreading across the state like some untreatable rash. The reason I couldn’t be fired was that my uncles owned every single one of them. The reason I couldn’t quit was that working at Smart Aid as your first job had long been a hallowed family tradition. All my campaign of self-sabotage had earned me was an unwinnable feud with Shelley and the deep and abiding resentment of my co-workers—who, let’s face it, were going to resent me anyway, because no matter how many displays I knocked over or customers I short-changed, one day I was going to inherit a sizable chunk of the company, and they were not.
Extract from the book Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
By Ransom Riggs
All Rights Reserved.
Philadelphia: Quirk Books, c 2011.
Call No.: Y English RIG
Extract contributed by January Yeo, Associate Librarian
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If you were stuck doing a temp job that you couldn’t leave, what tactics would you employ to get you through the stint? Would you suck it up and do your best or commit self-sabotage?
March 10th, 2012 at 9:37 pm
DO MY BEST!!! Alright, who am I kidding?
I would actually do my best, and when no one is looking, sneak a few small protests in. Say, for example, the boss is a huge miser, a horrible person, and a mean, insulting creep, and yet I can’t get away from the job, and this guy, no matter how terribly he is lacking in humanity, is the one handing me the money. I cannot walk away. The least I can do is to just give it my best shot, if only because I can say, with honesty and integrity, “that man was horrid..blablabla..I was SO nice and yet he..blablabla” to others when I’m done with the job. It shall always be “his fault” and not mine if I’ve given my best and he was just nasty. The most I could do…will be to give the coffee a little too lukewarm, I guess!
March 11th, 2012 at 12:56 am
It depends on my motive.
If I did the temp job just for the sake of earning extra cash, then I’ll grind my teeth and chant the mantra “endure, endure and endure”.
If I wanted to gained new experience or skills from the job and yet failed to achieve it, I’ll try to quit the job by dropping not-so-subtle hints like the job is dreary. Self-sabotaging might work and both parties will gain instant peace. My beleaguered ex-colleague and boss will be rid of the troublemaker while I can start my search for another job with relevant set of skills.
However, if there is insufficient time for me to look for alternative jobs, I’ll stick with the current job and put in some effort.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:10 pm
If it were impossible for me to leave the job in the first place, than no matter what tactics I resort to, it would not work. As a result, all the more I would try to do my best even though it will take me quite a bit of self-discipline to commit to it. Since I cannot run away from it, I might as well make the best out of it because trying to commit self-sabotage will only ruin my relationships with my colleagues, making others as well as myself even more miserable. Instead of being so pessimistic about my job, I would rather try to find the joy in it, maybe by becoming very good friends with my co-workers, and for all I know, I might even come to like the job eventually.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Of course, I will suck it up and do my best. This matter boils down to my principles, and not simply a matter of getting myself out of a situation which I happen to not like. To be even stuck in a temporary job in the first place, I certainly had to accept the job offer. Since I have already taken up the job offer, it is my responsibility to make sure that I carry out tasks to my best abilities. After all, I am being paid and I should not be unfair to the boss by trying to skive or have an unpleasant work attitude. Furthermore, by trying to self-sabotage, I am only putting myself down as a person. For example, if I were to purposely commit a mistake hoping that I would be fired because of it, I am just trying to send a signal to others that I am irresponsible and not trustworthy. I will not go to this extent where I do not live by my principles just to get myself out of this temporary job. To end on a light note, since this job is a temporary one, there is no need to self-sabotage as it will soon be over, isn’t it?
August 11th, 2012 at 12:37 am
“Learn to like what you’re doing”. This is the principle that I learnt all these years of studying. It is inevitable to encounter things that we do not enjoy doing, in fact, we hate to do them. However, we do not have a choice. I will definitely choose to do my best. It is only when you do your best in everything you do, no matter whether you enjoy doing it or not, you will begin to like it. Knowing that it is impossible to leave the temporary job, why should we bother to resort to tactics, like self-sabotaging, to make a futile attempt to get ourselves off the hook? Why not give your all to make the best out of it and prove that you are able to excel in things that you do not enjoy doing. On the other hand, self-sabotaging only proves to show that you are incapable of being disciplined and ultimately, you are the one that is feeling miserable. Therefore, we should always give our best to do things no matter whether we enjoy it or not.
August 11th, 2012 at 1:46 am
I would suck it up and do my best at it. Even though I might be forced to do a temporary job that I dislike, as long as I’m at my position, I have the responsibility to get things right. Since I am still receiving pay from the company, it would be unfair to the company if I laze around or skive during work hours. From time to time, I would probably complain and whine about how much I dislike this job but I would instill some self-discipline within me and not let my feelings decide my work attitude. Self-sabotage will not be an option for me because that would mean discrediting myself. Furthermore, it would create tense relationships between me and my colleagues, making my work experience even more miserable. Therefore, I would prefer to put in my all and do the best that I can do.
August 19th, 2012 at 10:59 am
Committing self-sabotage is definitely not what i would do, for three simple reasons. Firstly, self-sabotaging would only bring myself a bad reputation, amongst colleagues and possible future employers, assuming I one day manage to get out of the current job. Secondly, even though I might hate the job, I’m still gaining things out of it, such as money, work experience, and experience in dealing with nasty people. Thirdly, there must be some reason that I can’t leave the job, and trying to force it will only make things worse for the company, and myself.
I believe that it is far better to use other ways to get what we want, rather than adopting a destructive mindset which would only be harmful towards the company and myself.
August 20th, 2012 at 1:13 am
I would not put my utmost effort into it; firstly, because that would mean wasting my efforts and doing something that I am not fond of. I am somebody who will work for something that I feel motivated towards, while towards something I am not passionate about would not give a thought. I would not commit self-sabotage too, on the other hand, since it is a temporary job that I landed myself into after all and I should not be doing this to myself. This would be akin to being foolish because all this could even possibly backfire and land me in deeper trouble. I would just do the bare minimum to get by the period that I am obliged to stay in it, while trying my best to occupy myself with other things that interest me, though they may not be of direct relevance to the job. Besides this temporary job would be a learning curve for me and it will be etched in my mind, constantly reminding me to give anything double consideration before taking action, in particular finding a job in the future.
August 20th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
I would definitely suck it up, do my best and try to enjoy doing the job. No matter why I got the job in the first place, since the job is mine, it is my responsibility to stick with it for as long as needed. I think rather than trying to get out of it and hating on the job, it is better to change your mindset and learn to enjoy what you do. In life, we hardly always get what we want. So should we just complain and be grumpy about things not in our favour? Of course not. Some say that we will not enjoy something until we are good at it. I think this is true to a certain extent. When a job does not attract you instantly, you can still grow to love it by being good at it and feeling proud of yourself. So for this case, since I did not like the job at first, I will try to tolerate it and master what I do, so that eventually I will feel joy from satisfaction of being able to do it well.
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