Even "Trivial" Jobs Can Be Important
At one time there was a job called gas station attendant. The person in this job was responsible for pumping the gas for the customers and if needed, or requested, for checking their oil or washing their windows and for collecting the money. Most of these tasks are now done by the customer, with the exception of occasionally collecting the money from those customers who do not have a credit or a debit card.
It was not a high level job and it was not a high paying job, which could lead one to not take it extremely seriously.
A person that I know, once held this position. He was explaining how he could have multiple cars, sometimes 5 or 6, going at once.
- If a car was getting a fill up, then the pump would automatically shut off when the tank was full, so he could attend to another customer without fear of an overflow or going past the requested amount.
- If a car was getting $2.00, which at the time was about 8 gallons, and if another car was in the same gas lane, then he could work the 2 cars together and keep an eye on them.
- To do additional cars, he had to keep in memory how much each car was getting and he also had to hustle.
The person is no longer in that job, but moved on to eventually work with computers and systems analysis.
If you think of some concepts which go with computing and systems analysis, such as the logic of "if this, then that" situations, multiprocessing and multitasking, working memory, speed, several "windows" open at once, then you can start to see a link between seemingly unrelated jobs. The thinking that this individual gave to the job as a gas station attendant was similar to the thinking that a computer person would use.
But it goes beyond the similarities in the jobs. Imagine how some of the customers might be impressed. Imagine for those customers who had jobs available how they may want this individual to work for them. Imagine the positive mind set that this individual had, which could flow over into other things such as schooling. Imagine the gratitude of customers who did not have to wait in long gas lines.
Do you have trivial tasks in your job? It's all a matter of how you approach the job.
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