There Will Always Be Dirty Dishes

We love to dream about the perfect job where we would love what we do every day, where our coworkers are super collaborative and easy to work with, and where we do work that is highly valued and rewarded. And then we get hired and we realize that some tasks, processes, and people are really boring, annoying, or frustrating.

Imagine if your dream job is having a café. You crave making people smile after you brew that perfect double-tall-latte. You can picture your customers sitting in your cozy place, nibbling on the pear tart and laughing with their friends. Yes, that’s your purpose! And then you start working in a café and you realize there is an enormous amount of dishes all the time. And someone has to take care of them.

Here is my advice:

• Accept the reality that there will always be dirty dishes. In your case it may be those boring reports, meetings, spreadsheets, data analysis, filing systems to be organized… 
• If you are new, they will most likely ask you to do “the dishes”. Don’t resist. Your willingness to do what needs to be done will build trust, reliability, and camaraderie with your new colleagues. Doing something simple will also give you a chance to observe what’s going on, to shadow the experienced, to learn the bigger picture, and to understand the whole rhythm of their business.
• Raise your hand to do more. Offer help with bigger and bigger tasks. Ask questions so that you can do more than just “the dishes”. Your fear may want you to keep hiding behind “the dishes”, so take a deep breath and put yourself out there, challenge yourself. Once you show them you can do more, they won’t waste your talent on “the dishes”.

There will always be dirty dishes, but remember why you wanted the job in the first place (to make people smile?) and make that your main focus no matter what task you are working on.