Dimmer Beach: When people look back at Bandit Dimmer Beach, the recent posts may be referred to as Mark’s definition period (see here, here, and here). This week I want to start with not one, but two definitions.
Complacency: A feeling of being satisfied with how things are and not wanting to make them better.
Entitlement: The feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges).
Those are two heavy words for BDB. Most weeks I try and keep a lighthearted tone to the blog and when I do get serious, it is usually to inspire.
5 comments:
Don't get me wrong, not everything about the DC suburbs is terrible. In fact, many things are nice. But the sense of entitlement that pervades absolutely everything is nearly crippling, and wholly disgusting. Whether it's high schoolers and their summer internships, family vacations, adults and their jobs, or the idiot who just cut you off in rush hour traffic. And because I am not in charge of the DMV area, I can't remove these people. Instead, I know that I will likely never return to the region once I graduate college and my parents retire.
I have always been hyperconscious of trying to fight the culture of entitlement I have grown up in. In many ways, growing up in such a privileged region has been a gift, as I know how repulsive interacting with someone who constantly feels they are owed what they have not earned. And so - especially in a work environment - I try to earn everything, and temper my pride with gratitude.
I used to fight people in high school who held these characteristics in their extremes. I went to a large public school in north Texas where many thought that what they have or did now was enough for them. They didn't feel like they needed to learn anything more so they didn't study, they didn't feel like they needed to improve their bank account so they didn't get a job. they just wanted to graduate high school, marry their high school sweet heart and move to a small house either there in town or in Oklahoma. I was often singled out because I felt like I wanted more or could give more to the world. I think in our society we are taught that "you wont be that one in a million successful person" so we give up and accept what we have.
In contrast the sense of entitlement is sickening and can often push customers and clients away. I think that its ok to have both in the sense that you feel you are entitled to improve and not settle for something you think you could improve. But if either get out of control, like the article said, it could potentially destroy your career.
I think this is a huge problem in theater over all and CMU is no exception. The amount of times that some one on crew complains about how much better they are then having to do a job they are given is unacceptable. Of course there are amazing, complex jobs that in an ideal world you get every time you are on a crew call, but those are not the only things that need to get done. Fixtures need clamps, tags need to be sewed on costumes, the stage needs to be swept and so on. No one should ever feel like they are better than doing something that is going to get a production on its feet. If anything the people who volunteer to do those things in addition to or instead of what they want to be doing, are more of an asset to a production then anyone else.
The second part of the article about complacency really stuck with me. I think when I work with people that is one of the first things I pick up on when I am starting on a project. What is their standard of work, what is their acceptable degree of finish, how to do they treat their work. I don't think I've ever finished a project and not been like, "damn, I could have done this thing that would have made it way better." Sometimes just as you are wrapping something up, you realize exactly what you should have done! I think that is the definition of not being complacent.
But yeah, at a more global level, always pushing yourself to be better is definitely a key philosophical point in our program here, and something I hope every takes seriously and to heart. I mean, in school being complacent or not could be the different in a letter grade. If you are complacent in the workforce, it could be the difference between landing your next gig or not. Definitely seems more important to be at the top of your game when the stakes are raised even further.
I totally see where this article is going for, and this brings up something that I started thinking about over the last summer while I was at my internship. At the majority of jobs you sign a contract before beginning work that states everything that you are entitled to. However, this can become a sticky situation when certain things aren’t defined in that contract, but are considered to be entitled are not. For example when you are working summer stock you would think you would get a day off for yourself in between shows. Then you are called in to tape out on what you think ifs your personal day off, but you aren’t entitled to a day off because there is nothing about that in your contract. That just frustrates everyone, and then people half ass the job and are compliant with it because they are so exhausted from one show and just want a break. That is why these two words are very important to understand.
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