The “I Just Work Here” Mentality

I’ve heard it. I might’ve even said it. I’ve definitely felt it. The “I Just Work Here” mentality creeps up once in a while. I think when overwhelmed, disappointed in a decision made for the gander, or when feeling less-qualified in the line and level of work, we tend to resort to comforting ourselves and justify our lack of action by saying, “This is just a job. I just work here.” My argument is that this mindset, although valid, leads to not only brushing off our responsibilities, but also to a lack of application. This stagnant mindset results in an avoidance of necessary growth. How do we break the “I Just Work Here” mindset, and how do we become responsible for our own growth or lack thereof?

I think it comes down to, first, faith in personal ability. As a new member of my workforce, having graduated college and embarked on my career a mere 10 months ago, I find myself feeling far less confident than I might allow the world to see. Sometimes, I let stress get in the way of educational industry conversation with colleagues, and even how I view myself in the position I earned at my company. It’s intimidating to be around industry professionals who have lived and breathed injection molding, tool building, plastic creation & design for ten times as long as I have. But hey, guess what! Every single person in the industry has been in exactly this seat at some point in their career. If we wait to inject our opinions or have valuable and challenging conversations until we’re comfortable and experienced, all conversation will be the same, opportunities will be missed, and we will go unheard. Valuable insight comes from all angles, and we only learn and grow from putting ourselves out there. I have to remind myself of this on a daily basis. If you struggle with this kind of thing, as I do, recite this daily affirmation: My words are valid, and my insight is valuable.

After faith in personal ability as a contributing factor in eliminating the “I Just Work Here” mentality, next comes company culture. We are all individually and collectively responsible for creating a company culture where our team members feel heard and validated. In order to eliminate the negative mentality, one must feel challenged and valuable at their workplace. At Wepco, continuous improvement is a value and promise, therefore even when company culture might feel negative due to a trial such as COVID, and the mindset begins to creep in, we know we can trust our leadership team and co-workers to pump up the positive company culture volume a bit, and get us all back on track. We must remember that positive company culture begins with ourselves.

If you do the numbers and break it down, the time you spend at your job, assuming you work somewhere around a 9-5, 40 hours a week, takes up far more than half of your life. At a place you spend over half of your life, don’t you want to be happy? Feel fulfilled? Be genuinely proud? Challenge yourself. Take risks. Don’t settle for complacency. Have the conversation. Trust your ability. Break the “I Just Work Here” mentality, because you don’t “just work there”. By switching the script, co-workers and colleagues become family, and 9-5 becomes time well spent.