Working hard or Hardly Working

Disclaimer - This post is not meant to make fun of English. If you are an English lover, read further at your own risk, you were forewarned. Do not take home anything other than a bit of fun from this and possibly a hidden message for the day. There is pun intended, wherever you notice it.

I was wondering this morning if there is an element of hard work involved in something, can it automatically be assumed that a hard working person would be able to do it? What if he ends up hardly working on it as it is not in his area of expertise which is where he worked so hard and got tagged as hard working? It can't surely be assumed that a hard-working person can work hard in any hard job.

Take for example, a hard working skilled labourer working hard in UK, can't end up leading a whole organization or for that matter even a specific department for an organization say for instance in UAE just on the basis of working hard as a labourer? Right? Or maybe he knows the English language in an appropriate accent and has the right colour of skin that is part of the job requirements. That could be a good enough reason to land up in that job. Maybe yes, maybe no.

What about a worker who hardly works in some job? Maybe that person isn't meant for it and hence can do a different and hard job better. Maybe he is in the wrong job currently.

What if the above 2 persons are competing for the same role? What should be the basis of selection? Past record would say, one is hard working but not suitable from the relevant experience basis. The other is a poor performer, hardly works, but is a perfect fit for this job from experience and knowledge basis. Who would you select?

The point is that there is no point. Okay there is a point, I could make one up on the go that a hard working person is hard working because he finds it worth his time and effort. There is sufficient motivation and incentive for him. A hardly working person can't be categorized as that as everybody can work hard as long as he can find the necessary motivation and the required incentive is established. So maybe, the reason this person is not a hard worker is that nobody tried to put that person in a place where he can work hard. He didn't find the right job. Maybe the hard-working person wouldnt be the same in a different job. It is important to have the right people in the right job if you want to see your organization or department do well. On a personal level, one should find the right job for oneself to be able to do well.

Are you in the right job? Do you find your current work, hard? Do you find hard work, hard? If your answer is yes, trust me it will not get better. It will become harder and harder until you reach a point when you are hardly working on it, spoiling your reputation and being tagged as hardly working. Switch before you reach that point. The world is always open for good people. Its more important to enjoy your work, that is the only way you will do well at it regardless of how hard it is.