Laziness

I guess my parents taught me properly. When someone asks something of me and I can, I will help them. If I offer to help, I follow through. If I'm already going that far, I'm going to see if there's anything else I can do to help. And more often than not, if I see something that needs to be done, I'll just do it.

That being said, apparently I'm in the minority, as are most of my friends. For the longest time, I was either very lucky or very picky as EVERYONE I surrounded myself with subscribed to the same theory about helping others. It seems like recently though, this isn't the case, and I'm finding myself not wanting to be friends with certain people because of it.

My feeling is that if you make a commitment, follow through on it, regardless of how busy you are, what things have come up, your mood, the weather - it doesn't matter what your excuse is, just do it. Not only that, but if you commit yourself to a larger project (regardless of offering to help with a small task), then you have committed yourself to whatever it is they need.

For example, say there's an organization at your employer. (Remember, this is hypothetical!) And that organization decides as a group to host an event that needs volunteers each day for a week. My opinion is that you should volunteer for EVERY time you have available. Better to have too many hands than too few. I shouldn't have to ask you to volunteer, I shouldn't have to tell you about your commitment to the organization and what that means, and I shouldn't have to beg you to help after you've already committed. Just do it. Don't rely on other's to cover for you. Don't tell me you've already done your share. Don't tell me that you weren't counting on having to help. Don't tell me you're too busy with your work (implying that it's more important), because your participation in this organization is part of your job and IT IS YOUR WORK!

Not following through, not committing, not honoring your commitments, and even further, not going above and beyond what you have committed is PURE LAZINESS. There is no other way to put it.

Rant over, for now. I suspect I will have the same complaints in the coming days.