Taking pride in your work


I think alot depends on whether you feel your job makes a difference to people.

On my tools, I had huge pride in what I did. In the forces, I had to do a good job, or someone might die.

Subsequent jobs in selling, whilst profitable, offered no job satisfaction other than closing the deal and earning good money.

Hard to take pride or satisfaction when all you are doing is creating more wealth, with no discernable effect on peoples lives, other than create them more wealth.
 
I think alot depends on whether you feel your job makes a difference to people.

On my tools, I had huge pride in what I did. In the forces, I had to do a good job, or someone might die.

Subsequent jobs in selling, whilst profitable, offered no job satisfaction other than closing the deal and earning good money.

Hard to take pride or satisfaction when all you are doing is creating more wealth, with no discernable effect on peoples lives, other than create them more wealth.
Taking pride in your work supports many other disciplines, and ultimately makes your life better.
 
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Some of the welders I’ve worked with have absolutely no pride in their work at all, it’s not generational either because some of them are time served and been doing it 30+ years. They see it is the weld inspectors job to find the faults. There’s a difference between sentencing against a standard and general workmanship, I’d be embarrassed to offer some of the welds I’ve seen up for inspection. Then it always seems to end up being the inspectors fault that the programme is slipping because he’s finding non conforming work.
 
Not always lads fault i guess, example:

Sons mate is doing s plumbing course. I was telling him a bloke i use was nominated for install of the year. The lad said ah were just taught how to put it in as quickly as possible.
Out of those 2 options which do you think a shitty housebuilder would employ?
 
Remember the Cloughie/revie interview, Clough says "I want to do it like you but I want to do it better "
As someone has mentioned how people couldn't give a fuck about their standard of work I will never understand.
 
Indeed it does.
But I sell stuff to companies that they probably don't need, and will hardly ever use, but a buyer thinks it's good for him/her to show initiative, earn Brownie points, and the company I sell for get richer. I earn, so not really moaning, but job satisfaction and pride in what I do is pretty much zero compared to previous work.

Not a sob story, cos I chose to do it, but shows how pride in the job, doesn't always go hand in hand with success at the job.
 
Indeed it does.
But I sell stuff to companies that they probably don't need, and will hardly ever use, but a buyer thinks it's good for him/her to show initiative, earn Brownie points, and the company I sell for get richer. I earn, so not really moaning, but job satisfaction and pride in what I do is pretty much zero compared to previous work.

Not a sob story, cos I chose to do it, but shows how pride in the job, doesn't always go hand in hand with success at the job.
If you're ex military you won't be alone with this view. Protecting a nation, having to be part of a family that must not be broken, obeying strict rules, having respect for rank...I could go on. Too much life substance that a job in civvy street could not match.
 
Some of the welders I’ve worked with have absolutely no pride in their work at all, it’s not generational either because some of them are time served and been doing it 30+ years. They see it is the weld inspectors job to find the faults. There’s a difference between sentencing against a standard and general workmanship, I’d be embarrassed to offer some of the welds I’ve seen up for inspection. Then it always seems to end up being the inspectors fault that the programme is slipping because he’s finding non conforming work.
Welders nowadays are much better than they used to be 30 years ago in my experience. No more shipyard welders speeding the job up by sticking packets of rods or pesetas in and welding over them. There’s much more NDT going on and you’re going to get caught. Plus the quals we see nearly always pass first time. When I started some of the shite we got presented with was unbelievable, but now they get weeded out before they’re submitted for testing.
 
I always try and get a job done as well as possible, sometimes reworking things until I'm happy with them. I'm probably a long way from the best but always give it more than just good enough.
Been in a few new-build houses recently and it seems like not many folk have any sense of pride. I look at some jobs and just wonder how they can walk away from it thinking they've done a good job.

I wouldn’t ever buy a new build house - I don’t think it’s the lads fault it’s the pressure to throw them up so quickly and the materials. My mates who’ve built half of great park and wynyard say the houses will be ok for a bit but there’ll be problems in the future,
Not always lads fault i guess, example:

Sons mate is doing s plumbing course. I was telling him a bloke i use was nominated for install of the year. The lad said ah were just taught how to put it in as quickly as possible.
Out of those 2 options which do you think a shitty housebuilder would employ?

* Most large house builders
 
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I wouldn’t ever buy a new build house - I don’t think it’s the lads fault it’s the pressure to throw them up so quickly and the materials. My mates who’ve built half of great park and wynyard say the houses will be ok for a bit but there’ll be problems in the future,


* Most large house builders
Every house was new at some point.

I think that there’s always going to be good and bad builds over the years.

E.g. when Victorian terraced houses were being built there must have been variations in quality, even though we think that they were all built by craftsmen.
 
Talking to a friend about his employees, him saying they just go through the motions and seemed to have no pride in the tasks set them. Is this a general thing, do people not take pride in their work anymore?

I left school at 15, semi illiterate, so my choice of jobs was limited. Got a job as a packer at Liberty's, and although it was without promotion it wasn't without progression. I would have rather not worked, but back then you couldn't survive on unemployment benefit so I had to bite the bullet. The things I packed were expensive and pretty unique so that was a bonus, and for that reason I started to take care regarding presentation. Every fold anded up perfect, the stuff that had to be gift wrapped became highlights of the day, and I thought about the joy of the receiver when they saw how well there package was wrapped. After about a month, I stopped looking at the clock...I was a packer, but the best packer I could be.
I take pride in my work. But then I feel I'm paid a fair wage and, whilst hardly living the high life, I've got enough to be comfortable. Lots of companies pay people a wage they can barely live on. If you're getting paid the absolute bare minimum and are made to feel expendable it's understandable if people hardly put their heart into the job.
 
Every house was new at some point.

I think that there’s always going to be good and bad builds over the years.

E.g. when Victorian terraced houses were being built there must have been variations in quality, even though we think that they were all built by craftsmen.

In those days tradesman took pride in their work, if you didn't you were gone most of the time.
Materials were much better than today.
 
Am I proud of what I do at work? The answer is sometimes. Can’t be accused of not being willing to work either, been at the same place for almost a decade in a few different roles. I’ve worked in some capacity since I was 11 and I’m now 32.

It’s a means to an end though. I don’t think I get paid enough for what I do. Since the pandemic, in fact probably just before it, it’s been an incessant stream of crap. The department making bad decision after bad decision, small things we used to enjoy at work being slowly eradicated. Workload increasing at least 5 fold with no real change to how we’re compensated given the state of inflation at present. All the while the company I work for is announcing record profits.

It’s no wonder employees are just ‘going through the motions’ given I imagine a similar scenario is playing out all over.

And I think I’m one of the luckier ones to be honest.
 
In those days tradesman took pride in their work, if you didn't you were gone most of the time.
Materials were much better than today.
Tradesmen still take pride in their work. It is the oppresive greed of some employers that reduce the time allotted to complete the job properly, along with paying the minimum they can get away with that erodes the quality and loyalty.
My Dad did a 7 year apprenticeship as a joiner. Worked 45 years solid (few years out when he bought a pub).
He did loft conversions single handed all over the country. Built bespoke staircases for each. Took huge pride in what he did.
Final job was working for the council, doing shit jobs, for shit money, in shit conditions.
Pretty sure the pride in his work was tested for the last few years of his working life, bless him.
 
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I'm often amazed at the standard of stuff I see people produce. Grammar/spelling that stinks. Phrases/sections in documents where someone has pasted it in and retained the obviously different font from the source. Tables with completely different formatting one after another. Glaring repetition because they haven't proof read it. Etc.

People then happily send that shite out to an audience of goodness knows how many people.
 
I'm often amazed at the standard of stuff I see people produce. Grammar/spelling that stinks. Phrases/sections in documents where someone has pasted it in and retained the obviously different font from the source. Tables with completely different formatting one after another. Glaring repetition because they haven't proof read it. Etc.

People then happily send that shite out to an audience of goodness knows how many people.
When I finish a report, I probably spend another half hour on the details. Who’s going to notice if one photo out of 30 pages is 1 line lower than the rest? Well somebody might and I don’t want them to think they’re paying a couple of grand for anything less than a top drawer job.
 
I get that, but you should have expectations of the people you work for
Indeed. But working for a knacker shouldn't affect the quality of your work.
Every house was new at some point.

I think that there’s always going to be good and bad builds over the years.

E.g. when Victorian terraced houses were being built there must have been variations in quality, even though we think that they were all built by craftsmen.
The difference being they took their time building them. Unlike today where new buildings, not just houses are threw together, as cheap and as fast as possible.
 
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After nearly 50 years doing carpentry I still have pride in my work, no one ever notices how perfect the work is apart from me. No one ever praises what I've done they just wonder why I've taken 10% longer to do a job than the next joiner. We have one joiner works for the same people I do work for and he's one of the roughest carpenters I've ever seen yet the boss thinks the sun shines out of his arse because he's quick. Every job he does he takes a photo and puts it on the firms Whatsapp group and the boss will reply with brilliant job, well done etc. when in fact on close inspection the work is dog shit rough . Me and another joiner have refused to put his work right any more.
 

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