Are you paid for what you are
worth or are you paid for your work? Do not be fooled, we are all employees whether
you are an entrepreneur, consultant or members of staff. Are you paid for your
papers or are you paid for your position. Are you paid for your capability or
are you paid for your competence. Depending on which side of the employment divide
you stand the both perspectives can be easily justified. However, these
perspectives are invariably tied to an attitude of gratitude, service and the
interpretation of opportunity.
There is a story my daughter told
me of a phenomenon she has observed which she finds quite disturbing. She has
been working as a volunteer on a project and has come to realize that not
everyone works for the same reason. There are those who come to work to get
paid, others participate in covert and overt theft. Still others engage front row
theater seats to be able to tell the story of how the work is not being done. She
was, however, able to pick out one person who seemed to understand the purpose
of work.
That one person had begun work as
a lowly ranked member of staff. But she immediately recognized the path to her
own dreams was being offered to her by her employer who provided work,
resources, benefits and multiple opportunities for personal development. Recognizing
that by working hard for her employers she could gain lifetime skills that may
never come her way again, she put her heart into her work, offered to do more than
she was paid to do and took every opportunity to train herself to drive a
vehicle, operate computers and relate well with children. She knows that when
she one day walks away from that institution she will have done her duty,
advanced the organization and her career, but more important transformed herself
by the opportunity. Are you paid for your worth or your work? The difference is
in the heart.
Allan Bukusi is the author of the following ebooks