The author recently encountered a sixty seven year old minister who is currently working on his Master’s degree in theology. He has been a minister for over forty years, but he wished to complete his Master’s education in theology, since he values learning and it recently became available through his local church chapter. The concept of education being acquired later in life is taken with pretty mixed reviews by the general public. While all ages of educational development tend to be congratulated and admired by others, many individuals feel that education should be used as a stepping stone for a career and that, once you have learned everything in your field, it is no longer necessary to continue study. Clearly, this was not the view held by the practicing minister of forty years in his church. Even though his congregation considered him to be quite competent, he did it for his own reasons.
By the same token, completing even the most basic task at work is considered to be something which one “gets over with” and does not have to think about later on. However, individuals who value lifelong learning and personal development and education for their own sakes often are able to view even the most mundane job completions with an attitude of benefit and learning. If they make a mistake filing a report, they consider what distracted them, easier ways of making sure that they remember in the future, and perhaps a more simplistic filing system. Their counterparts may, instead, view it as a little mistake which may be cause for self degradation, but not something about which they can learn.
Another example would be an individual who regularly parks the crate lifter in the incorrect location. If they value education for the sake of learning itself, they are more likely to figure out why they keep making the same mistake over and over again, correcting their mistake in the long run on a permanent basis. On the other hand, if they believe that there is no real value in studying such mundane details, they may take their boss’s yelling to heart, consider themselves incompetent, and keep making the same mistake over and over again. They have, at this point, devalued themselves. To some extent, self education increases your personal worth in the eyes of others, but it also increases your personal worth in your own eyes.
Workplace drug testing allows individuals to take responsibility for their own actions and it allows you to monitor employees who may not wish to bring any value to your company. Call Mediscreen today for onsite drug and alcohol screening: (+61) 1300 79 70 40.
