Growing Pains – Growing in Humility

It doesn’t really matter who you are, what position you have, or where you work. It’s inevitable. Somewhere along the line someone, probably your supervisor, is going to ask you to do something (or even a series of somethings) that you feel is well below your education and/or experience.

I feel like the tendency to get assignments off-par with our job descriptions is even more prevalent in our field because so few people seem to understand what technical communication actually is (and some of them are technical communicators themselves…gotta love the irony). And there are so many subfields that it muddies the water even further. Before you realize it, you’re treated like a glorified secretary. Sure, boss, I’ll transcribe those meeting notes for you. Let me just poke myself in the eyes first.

I can’t even begin to describe how many times in my short career I’ve sat at my desk working through some mundane assignment that would have been better suited to the administrative assistant in that department down the hall. I’d sit there doing my stupid, petty, little task and just stew over it. My face probably turned beet red, and I’d be so angry that I’m pretty sure I looked sort of like the Coyote after the four millionth time he fell for the Road Runner’s anvil/cliff charade. Really? Again?

I don’t think I signed up for this.

I have a master’s degree and you want me to do what?

This is not in my job description.

I can use my talents better somewhere else.

Why don’t they appreciate me? What’s wrong with this place?

But the thing is, I’ve learned a lesson over the past couple of years…humility makes all the difference in the world between an employee and a great employee. A humble employee recognizes that sometimes it’s not about her and her preferences, that sometimes things just need to get done and everyone needs to pitch in no matter how minute or trivial the task might be. Besides, if you can’t push your ego to the side, you’ll miss so many opportunities to learn and grow as a person and a professional.

I had one position where I was asked to transcribe tons of meeting notes. It had all the excitement of watching paint dry. I fought it at first. I hated it. I didn’t even really pay much attention. It’s stupid. Why bother? But once I got over myself, I was able to focus on the project and I learned a lot of really valuable information about the company I worked for and our industry. Later on, that information was priceless when I started writing documents and procedures for the office.

Another time, I was asked to edit something. Just because I have an English degree doesn’t mean I think sitting around with a red pen is fun. This sucks. But guess what? It turns out that I absolutely love editing, and I’m now pretty much the office editor. It’s a great role for me and an important role for my company. It’s a position that my company really needed, and in an economy like this, adding value at work is really important.

These are only two examples of the nearly two dozen that first came to mind when I thought about this blog post, but only one thing resonates with me when I think back on those situations…I’m really not as great as I want to think I am. I’m smart and talented and very good at what I do. But I’m also young and inexperienced in my company’s industry. I’ve got a lot to learn and I can’t pick up the information through internet research or osmosis. I’ll need time to learn. BUT, I can make up some ground by taking my ego and putting it in a drawer during working hours. Whether I like every assignment I get or not, I can at least learn something from it to make myself a better writer, communicator, employee, or colleague. And when all else fails, at least I’ll get some great material for that novel I’m going to write one day.