Going Above and Beyond
The month of May took my wife and I away from home for about a week for a medical school graduation and visit with family. Normally, when we are away, one of our neighbors is kind enough to take in our mail. We receive quite a bit of mail, particularly from charitable solicitations and advertisements. And, while most of it is eventually disposed of, there does have the possibility that important pieces of mail can be mixed in.
During this time away, our neighbors who take in our mail, were going to be away about the same time. In the past, we had put a hold on our mail at the post office (a vacation stop), where the post office would hold our mail so we could pick it up there when we returned home. A few years back, while our local community kept a U.S. postal presence where one could do things such as send packages and buy postal stamps, we would need to go a couple of towns over to the full-service post office to pick up our mail upon our return. My wife had filled out all the necessary paperwork and was ready to return it to our local facility when she encountered our mail carrier delivering our mail.
Our current mail carrier has been servicing our building for the last 2 to 3 years. I had the privilege of first connecting with him when I would be leaving our condominium to mail letters, and he would be kind enough to take them from me and bring them to the post office, as opposed to having me drop them off in the mailbox. Roberde (the mail carrier’s name), always had a kind greeting and smile for me every time he saw me. I soon shared with my wife that after a period where we had received sub-standard service at our condominium from the postal service, that we would now be getting outstanding service. That has very much held true.
As my wife was looking to return the vacation hold paperwork to the post office, she happened to encounter Roberde on her way out our front door. She indicated to him that we would be away, and that for the next week, to please not put any letters in our box. Roberde immediately took charge of the situation. He asked for the vacation mail stop form. He indicated, he would put out mail aside for the days we indicated, and that when we returned, a box of the held mail would be at our front door. Sure enough, the day we were restarting mail service, an entire box of mail from the vacation period was at our front door. This made things as easy as they could be for my wife and myself.
We all have tasks that we perform as part of the work that we do. Some are what individuals will say are “part of the job description.” Others are what would say, are individuals “going above and beyond” to service the customers that they serve. What are those things in your line of work that you can be doing to help support the customers or co-workers that may not be “required” as part of the job description, but which in turn give others the feeling that you really desire to see they get the best of service?
Yes, your day-to-day work tasks may not always be pleasant. And, you can wonder does your organization really appreciate what I do as part of the job. However, ultimately you need to realize that not only are you likely pleasing your customers and co-workers when you put an extra effort in your job, but ultimately you are “pleasing yourself.” Ask yourself, are you willing to go “above and beyond” in the work that you do? If the answer is no, perhaps it is a message for you to find a new line of work, or customers to serve.
