My office likes to decorate for the holidays which includes dressing up a large deer head on the wall named “Buck.” I fully embrace holiday celebrations and in fact my husband says there has not been a holiday that I am not unwilling to celebrate. Last February as I walked through the lobby, I noticed several small glittery hearts that had come off the decorative Valentine’s garland. In March the hearts gained a few partners in crime, small, glittery shamrocks which had fallen from the St. Patrick’s garland. However, Valentines and St. Patrick’s had passed, and those small glitters on the floor bothered me. I had stared down those hearts and shamrocks thinking surely someone would pick them up. But no one did. They needed to be picked up but whose job was it?
A little background: Brigham Young University is known as one of the cleanest and best maintained campuses in the country. This is in large part due to the army of student workers the University believes in hiring. However, post-Covid, student workers have been in short supply, and there have been “adjustments.” Part of that involves the no longer daily custodial clean-up of offices and lobbies – they are now done only three times a week. Although I knew this, I was still waiting for someone else to do their job and pick up those hearts and shamrocks!
As I walked by once, twice, and then a third time, I realized I was the person my son described when he trained in corporate culture for Partners in Leadership. He asks a question, “If not you, who?” What is it about human nature that makes us so easily shift the responsibility to someone else? My son loves to humorously share the story of Adam and Eve. When Adam is asked why he ate the fruit, he says, “She (Eve) gave it to me.” Basically, “She did it; it’s not my fault!”
After realizing I was acting like “that” person, I knelt and picked up the offending glitters. I carried them into my office and tossed them in the trash. I then noticed three more offenders hanging out near the office dividers, so and I picked those up as well. I doubt any of my colleagues noticed the missing glitters. It is so much easier not to take responsibility, but again, if not you, who? I was chagrined and reflected on the many times I waited for someone else to “pick it up”, “wipe it off”, “empty it out”, or “clean it up” when I could accepted responsibility and simply cared for and about others through a very small act.
INVITATION TO ACT:
When you go into a public bathroom (you could even try this at home), after you wash your hands, simply wipe around the sink with your used towel so it looks tidy. Take responsibility for making it look nice for someone you will most likely never see. Simply care for and about others by simply drying around the sink.
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