A few days back, I spent some time in a fair-sized bureaucracy. A uniformed employee was complaining that she was kept much too busy because they were training her to take on additional responsibilities. One of her co-workers suggested she pay heed to the advice her own mother had given her years before, “It is better to act stupid because they won’t expect more from you and your life will be easier’. Other co-workers chimed in with agreement.

It appeared that I was the only one who held an opposing view, but truth be told, I did not take the occasion to voice my opinion. The bureaucracy was a hospital and the worker with the philosophical mother was a nurse who was soon going to be connecting me to an I.V.

So, coward I may be, yet practical, I did not pass along the suggestions that I will share with you.

Better advice, I believe, would be to rise up, learn more, much more, because education starts, when you get out of school. It ain’t supposed to be easy but it is supposed to be fun! Any of us can take one portion of the work we do and begin to make improvements. (I think Nurse Cratchit, as I refer to her, could have done with a refresher on inserting an I.V.) If you are exceptionally good at what you do, then start to study how you can be better at some of the responsibilities handled by your boss.

Granted, it is not all rainbows and puppies. You run the risk of being called a company man or woman and life isn’t always fair. Some of us work in organizations where if you do a better job, it is like wetting yourself in dark clothing, you get a warm feeling, but nobody notices.

There will be people who expect more of you, as they should.

The Graduates of our PACE Program are like that. With their designation as a CFCP (Certified Financial Collection Professional) people do (and should) expect more of them.

We would like to offer some help, with two options:

A Sample?

We think it is a great program and our graduates have told us the program is very worthwhile. Yet, it is an investment of money and time.  Perhaps it would be a good idea to sample first and make sure the PACE Program would be a good fit for you?

  • My last thoughts for nurse Cratchit?

It is always a good idea to listen to your mother. But, do you remember Forrest Gump’s mother, played by the actress Sally Field? ‘Life is like a box of chocolates,’ she said. ‘You never know what you’re going to get.’ Seems to me that we almost always get a chart or a description of what we can expect. So, bless her heart, but with respect and despite all the advertising, Mom is not always right.*

By the way, I will deny saying this to the lovely but career-challenged nurse. I may very well have to visit for another I.V. at some point in the future.