Good Bad Ugly

It was late evening 7.30 PM and I was checking my phone for a message from one of my team members. There was no message.  I’ve given him a task and I asked him to update me in the evening. I was little worried since he was doing this task for the first time.

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What happened in the evening?

The task that was given in the evening was to talk to two campus hires who did not clear their graduation.  It was a conditional offer that they should pass their graduation when the results get published.  Two of them did not clear and they’ve appeared again in the instant exam.  We wanted to ask them to take a temporary break and join back once they get the results.  I’ve given this job to one of the team members after a detailed briefing as to how he should approach it.

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It was 30 min past 7.00 pm and I did not get his message.  I was in a dilemma as to whether I should text him & disturb him or I should wait till tomorrow and then talk to him to find out if there was any problem. Then I decided to text him.  I get an immediate reply stating that there was no issue; those two boys were confident that they will clear the exam and they promised that they will come back and join. I felt little better but it did not last a second. There was another message that said he was very uncomfortable doing this job. I replied, don’t worry. We will discuss tomorrow morning.

It reminded me of my first interaction that I had with my first Boss on the first day of my first job.  My boss asked me to list down jobs that I most preferred (good) and least preferred to do (Bad and ugly).   You can check what I listed down to my Boss.   

Most preferred jobs. (Good)

Recruitment / Performance Management system/ HRMS/ Training and development / MIS/ Trade union management / Industrial Disputes.

Least preferred jobs (Bad and Ugly)

Canteen Management / workmen’s grievance handling/ Disciplinary action 

After listening to me, he told me that he was going to train me in the order exactly opposite to what I said. Ugly, Bad and Good. Believe me, he kept his words and walked the talk without any deviation. I got to do things in the order of his preference, not mine. With little reluctance, I accepted but I wanted to take up the challenge. Anyway, there was no other choice. 

When I left the organization, on my last day, I really thanked him for reversing the order in which I wanted to do things.  To be honest, if I were to have a time-machine now, I would go back and set the work priorities myself in the same order as it was done by him because of the valuable lessons that I learnt.  I’ve given below some of my insights on this.

1) No job is good or bad or ugly by itself. It’s how we look at them, it’s not that the job is bad. 

2) We are comfortable to do good job and uncomfortable to do bad and ugly jobs.  But we should not shy away from doing it.  Our experience is incomplete without doing the so-called bad and ugly jobs.

3) What we consider as bad & ugly job can be good tomorrow in terms of learning.  Our perspectives change over a period of time and we realize the true meaning of learning and where it really comes from.

4) Valuable lessons that I’ve learnt doing the so called bad & ugly jobs helped me build the much needed foundation for a long-term career.

So the next day, first thing in the morning, I met him and listened to him.  He was feeling guilty for what he had to do it and he had upset those two boys.  We had an open discussion which revolved around the following points.

1. Do you think we should have allowed those employees to continue even though they failed in their graduation? The answer was No.

2. Do you think what we’ve / you’ve done is wrong? The answer was No.

3) Do you think we were not objective and biased to them?  The answer was No.

4) Do you think we were over-reacting? The answer was No.

5) Is it that you are feeling guilty and you would have preferred someone else to do it? The answer was YES

6) Would you shy away from telling employees that you’ve done a good job or good things that will make them happy? The answer was No.

7) If there anything that you’ve learnt out of this task.  Yes. Being objective with emotional balance and doing the right things in the best interest of the organization.

He has understood what I was trying to tell him.  I told him that he was going to do similar kind of tasks in future and he needed to brace himself for that.

Let me conclude stating that no job is good or bad or ugly by itself. It’s how we look at them.   It’s the so-called bad and ugly jobs that give us valuables lessons in life and make our learning and experience complete.

Let us be prepared for the good, the Bad & the ugly.  Let us not shy away.

So are you ready?

diD yOU enJOY ReADinG ThIS ArTIcLE? 

                                  If yES, 

yOU maY sHAre it wiTH Your FriENds tOO