VALUABLE

   For a while, It was a struggle at work to feel like my hard work was being recognized. Time and time again I would have days where I felt like everyone around me was getting added on responsibility while I was one of the very few left to do all the basic tasks and essentially have others tell me what I should be working on. While we all started at the same level, I slowly began attending to these very same people. Yes I know, why was I complaining when I pretty much had the easy way out? Less responsibility means less work in an office where I wasn't even passionate about the work anyway right? Well, for some reason, I almost took offense that my boss didn't trust that I had the capabilities. Being placed below my fellow coworkers who took pride in getting through the day doing as little work as possible doesn't exactly do good for your ego. These were the people who made an effort to come in at 5:00 AM before others show up in the office so that they could take their 3 hour nap before the rest of the office began to arrive around 8:00AM. Let's just say my department and the people who make up my department are a lot like middle schoolers. You know the days where it wasn't cool to be smart and do your work and get good grades? So you can imagine not only being almost ridiculed for doing my work but also feeling as if  I'm not getting any recognition for it.

I know everyone's thinking this is supposed to be an uplifting and positive blog right? Well, you're right! Enough of the negative thoughts! That was the past and I'm happy to say I decided to take a different approach at work. In the past, I came into work day after day, looking to please others. I was waiting for praise from my boss and feeing accepted by my teammates. We spend our whole lives trying to please others. We look to our parents and want to make them proud of us. We invest a lot of time and money into working out at the gym and buying clothes and products to make ourselves presentable to the outside world. I decided that rather than working to impress other people, I was going to work for myself. I was going to do my work effectively and efficiently because that would make me happy. To know that I'm a valuable asset to the company and that I'm doing the best that I can is good enough. Sure, my job is quite boring and repetitive but at least I can say I'm proud of my daily work. At the end of the day, I can say I made my contribution to the company.

Today, especially, one small incident made me smile. Today, especially, I felt like I made my mini contribution to my department. A few weeks ago, my boss sent us an email saying that she wanted to implement an internal slogan for our department to the rest of the company. She wanted to create a tagline that summed up what our specific department represents and asked for our suggestions. I decided to give my input and a few days later we were sent all of the suggestions from other people and were told to vote on our favorite. We never heard the results and this was slipped under the rug amidst all the workload during the busiest season at the office. Well this morning, walking into the office like any other day, we all sat down to name tags above our desks and the company logo followed by, yes, the tagline that I suggested: "Creating the perfect image."Taken lightly and mainly an act to try and induce excitement and a little flair to our mundane work day, this was really nothing to be worked up over. This was simply an internal slogan which may never even catch on with the rest of the company. No one would even know that I was the one who thought up this tagline except for the few people around me who I mentioned it to when I first sat down at my desk and saw the new name tags. However, for those few seconds, I was genuinely happy. We're all valuable in some way or another whether we see it or not. As little as this was, I made my small contribution to the department. In a symbolic sense, even when I'm let go or decide to leave this company, I left my mark on this company and a small part of me will still be left behind. I can always look up and remind myself with a smile that I am truly valuable.